After three days of planning and teaching grades 9, 10 and
11, I am exhausted!
There’s a few reasons for this. One is that I have never
taught geography or chemistry GCSE before so I am learning the syllabus and how
it relates to assessment as well as coming up with learning objectives and
activities for each lesson. The schemes of work I have to go on are very
skeletal- they have no detail on each lesson, just a general overview of each
week.
The second is the new school. I am learning so much each day
about how things work and have not been able to get into a good routine yet.
The last reasons relate to all the teachers I have worked
with in Uganda and Nepal on Limited Resource Teacher Training courses over the
past two years. I already had a lot of respect for them but after these three
days, I am starting to respect them a whole lot more! The actual lessons
themselves are great. The excitement of being alone in a classroom with no
computer or powerpoint is a great adrenaline buzz. The hardest thing is the
planning. It takes so much longer to plan for limited resource teaching. I
can’t rely on a set slide with differentiated questions or word blanks. I can’t
really use those techniques in class at all considering the time it would take
to write them on the black board!
Falling back on someone else’s powerpoint or worksheets from
TES is not an option either. We do have printing facilities but it is very
long-winded. We also have an option to use a projector but these are tiny and
don’t reach to the front of the class, as well as the room itself being too
bright. Even though I am struggling to keep up at the moment, it is nowhere
near as challenging as my first year on Teach First!
I came home today and found that I have brought another
skill with me to Guyana- how to forget your keys and get locked out. I waited
around for a while playing Candy Crush and drinking Icee in the tropical sun,
then the mosquitos came out! Thankfully Ricardo (other housemate) turned up,
let me in and it was his turn to cook!
I can’t wait to get back into the classroom tomorrow.
Hopefully I keep saying this for a while!
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