It is 100% true that the weeks fly by as a teacher. Here is sit, after a relaxing Sunday, finalising my action plan for tomorrow and feeling in awe at how normal it feels. Not only do I feel settled (as settled as a brand new teacher can be!) in my new role but I already feel like part of the furniture at the Academy. This is wholly down to the wonderful welcome I have received from both staff and students and the support given is beyond incredible. I want to begin by saying how truly grateful I am for this.
While there are so many things I could write about for my first week: the dashing between classrooms with a bright red box, the fear of ensuring all my Year 7s were together after having their thumbs scanned (this was during my very first lesson too – the fear was real!), the feeling of standing in front of my Year 11 form and checking their equipment and uniform knowing all too well there isn’t a huge difference between our ages, I want to focus on one thing a member of my form said.
During the first day, I went around each member of my form and asked them what they wanted to do after school. After all, this is an incredibly tough year and I think it is an established part of my role to get each member of my form to where they want to be. At the end of asking the last group of girls, one turned around and asked me what I was ‘going to do after.’ This question had been so regular being a student and so it was a strange feeling to stand back and say, “this is what I’m doing.” I’m not sure if it was the shock of my answer or the look on my face, but this was met with laughter which, again, reinforced how happy I was, and am, to be a team member at this Academy.
I know what lies ahead is going to be stressful, challenging and testing on my overpoweringly cheerful character, but if this week has taught me anything, it is how incredibly rewarding my next few years at the Academy (the sweets we got on training days were a contributing factor but perhaps not THE biggest factor to this conclusion). I have met so many of you already (and thank you for putting up with my appalling name pronunciation with polite reminders and a smile) and I simply cannot wait to meet many more! So, this is one teacher, finally signing off on a Sunday.
