Taking (And Making) Stock

So I finally "get to Christmas".

The quotes are important here: apparently if you manage to "get to Christmas" the chances of failing or dropping out reduce to near-zero. Each year a considerable number of PGDE students run screaming for the Exit door either during their two-week school induction block (no actual teaching required) or during their six-week teaching placement block (loads of actual teaching required). They either realise that they simply can't do it, or make the decision that standing in front of 20-30 teenagers simply isn't something that they enjoy.

"Getting to Christmas" is predicated on passing both your crit and being marked as Satisfactory in your Report From School. Having achieved the former last week, on Friday I achieved the latter. I'm proud of this - having only managed to teach for half of the placement due to my duff back.

Six weeks ago I wrote that by this date I would know whether or not I was capable of doing this, and whether or not I enjoy it. The facts would seem to verify that I am indeed capable of the first. However the answer to the second is more complex.

I really (like, really) enjoy being in front of a class and the kids seem to at least tolerate me. There's no doubt that you get an enormous buzz from seeing children learn as a result of what you are doing.

However - and I think this is a factor of student life rather than teaching life - it's hard not being properly part of a team. I miss my old work chums and I miss the social aspect of shared goals. Realistically, it's going to be at least a year or two until I experience that again.

Still. Teaching ? Love it. And I can do it.

And, er, the three weeks I now have to put my feet up, reel off a 3,500 word essay and drink too much beer would seem to be at least some compensation for the professional isolation. With Christmas dinner on my to-do list for this year, I'll also be spending the next week prepping for fifteen extended-family mouths, starting with a pot of soup the size of Meadowbank pool.

Now that I've taken stock, time to make some too.

Yaldi

Apparently, when the kids of today get something good happening or get a good piece of news, the accepted reflex response is "yaldi".

Today I passed my crit (see blogs passim). Yaldi.

Eighteen smiley twelve years olds beavering away frantically with frictionless ramps, light gates, digital timers and four-wheeled bogeys, trying to gather some results to see how the final speed of said bogey varies with its starting height.

In twenty minutes flat. In front of my tutor.

Try planning that, multi-million pound IT delivery dudes !

Anyways I even managed to get a "merit" in one of the four categories ("Professional Teaching Abilities") which apparently is a reasonable achievement for a first crit. My class were wee gems and the sweat I expended until late last night developing a spreadsheet that allowed them to enter their raw data and automatatically produce the nice curve graph for this experiment (feel free to prove it on the Comments page) paid off handsomely. A tableau of nine minigraphs all with the same curve displayed proudly on the Promethean board for all to see. Mission accomplished.

Half an hour of debrief - along with the review of the official report form - and a cuppa with said tutor, and it was on to my next lesson. No time to bask. No time go for a celebratory beer. No time for an extended lunch.

Next up, amongst other things, I have series and parallel circuits to cover with younger pupils, amplitude modulation to cover with some standard graders, and the potentially deep embarrassment of starting AC circuit theory with my Higher class. I am rapidly finding out that teaching your own area of academic "expertise" is actually the hardest thing to do.

However I now have an official document that says I am capable of doing this.

Yaldi.