An open letter to all future RQTs
Anonym
/ Categories: Teaching and Learning Blog
The RQT year, or as I like to call it “the year no one really seems to prepare you for”. Most of us end our NQT year on quite a high, much like we did our training years. There is lots of praise, pats on the backs and optimism swooning over the impact you are making on your students. It doesn’t take long for the harsh reality of a full time table, little/if any support and the sudden realization that a 44 hour teaching timetable leaves little room for any sort of “life” outside the classroom. But without doting on the negatives, I’d like to address some of the key learning opportunities I had in my RQT year.
1.Style
This year gave me a great opportunity to develop my own teaching style. I was always trying to fit a “box” that my mentor and observers wanted my lessons to fit into. There was little room left for my own personal growth and lesson creativity. I look back on this year and accept that a lot of it was spent in trial and error. I learned that low stakes quizzing is the only way I can ensure my classes settle quickly and are on task. I learned that I love direct instruction and convincing young minds of the abstract ideas I am delivering them. I also learned that monitoring student’s independent practice is an area that I have not yet perfected. With the switch to teaching how I wanted, came the freedom to take risks and reap the rewards.
I have recently been experimenting with dual coding – using my visualizer to structure diagrams and drawings that are supported with verbal explanation. The goal is to share the process of my thinking, share the connections that my brain makes with students and be able to illustrate a bigger picture. With each lesson that I dual code my explanation becomes more in-depth, I learn to build wider connections from different areas of science and even different subjects. It facilitates students learning by activating theirs and my own brain.
2. Time
Something we seem to never have enough of and with the increase in the number of classes and just general no-opt out tasks that need to be completed it takes a while to (if ever) properly manage your time. One thing that I wish I was told earlier in my career is to take the time to develop plans and resources that will help you, in the type of teaching that you do. Continuing with the idea of “style” I wish I had spent more of my lesson planning mapping out my explanation.
Thinking back to the teachers I had in high school I remember their stories that guided my learning and the analogies that they could come up with on the spot that would give me that light bulb moment. I realized quickly that I, as a new teacher I didn’t have the years of experience necessary to develop that repertoire in my explanation – or maybe just didn’t see the importance of developing it in the flood of PowerPoint presentations. We focus so much on having evidence of planning and well-structured PowerPoints to deliver, but we focus little on the words that will be said to facilitate the understanding of that learning. Moving forward I have made a shift from spending my “time” on pretty resources but instead building a stock pile of metaphors and stories which will allow students to connect to the real world and simplify foreign concepts. Through this as well I can focus on the literacy I use to ensure that translates into student’s exam answers.
3. Relationships
Possibly the best part of the RQT status is the fact that you are no longer the “newbie”. Students have seen you, heard of you or possibly know and have developed relationships with you already. In preparing seating plans and class strategies for September you now have the upper hand on students. But the importance of relationships go far beyond classroom management, I must emphasise the importance of three words, “trust, care and competence”. Andy Tharby, author of “How to explain absolutely anything to anyone” addresses these three words with a great deal of importance.
“Trust”, a fundamental element of any teacher-student relationship. Trust in the classroom goes beyond the student believing the teachers motives. Trust can actually be the turning point for a student to open their minds to what the teacher is trying to sell.
The word “Care” takes on many forms in teaching. Caring about a pupils wellbeing is compulsory, but caring about a pupils education is harder to advertise for in the same way that safeguarding is. For me finding simple ways to show students that I care about them learning photosynthesis is mostly transpired by showing them that I care about it myself. The passion that I deliver (and sometimes pretend) is usually enough to get pupils to buy in. It is an attitude that I set up for myself and my classroom more than just the words that I use to explain it.
“Competence”, if a student has accredited their teacher as being an expert in their field they are going to be open to buying the product the teacher is selling. Now competence as an RQT may be tricky. I will be the first to admit that my subject knowledge for chemistry and physics is far weaker than my specialty in biology. The transparency that I offer my students when explaining topics I am less confidence in is a skill I have learned to embrace. For example, when teaching electricity I always have a cheat sheet reminding me off the resistance equation. But rather than hiding my cheat sheet away I have learned that sharing my cheat sheet with my class and allowing them to create their own, embeds more of a practice of learning rather than a simple memorization. By demonstrating that not knowing is ok and teaching them the process of learning to get to knowing your competence as a teacher is never questioned.
Beyond all of that, I’d like to make one final point and that is the importance of self-care. The motivation and drive to become the best teacher you can be often outshines the need for us to slow down and let the stress lessen. It becomes very difficult to say “no” to extra revision sessions and long meetings and in turn you neglect your inner intuition that sings for you to take an evening off. A quote that helped me put much of this year into perspective reads, “You are useless to the masses, if you are helpless to yourself”.