September Update | A month into teacher training

Hello everyone! Happy October to you all 🤗 I do try to put my favourites up on this day, most months, however I’ve currently lost my camera charger and so photos are on hold. I was a bit behind with my blog anyway and thought I may as-well type up a chatty type of post because I know some of you really enjoy reading these ^_^

So September has been a whirlwind of newness for me. For the first time in 5 years I have had to regularly wake up at 6:30 am Monday-Friday which really was a massive shock to the system. University really kills routine, unless you’re on a intense placement heavy course OR you’re very disciplined with your time management (which is tough!). I’ve been at my school for a month now and I’ve taught four lessons in total with one being observed. The experience has been really exciting, although a little nerve-wracking of course! When you first start working in a school as a trainee you do spend a lot of time observing. I was nervous about my first lesson, but very lucky too because it was on the Quran (an R.E lesson), so I didn’t have to do a lot of prep as that’s a subject I’m quite familiar with. It actually turned into a bit of a Q&A which I loved, because the children felt comfortable to ask me questions they may have had on their mind but have felt a little unsure about asking before. Especially questions on my hijab haha!

The number of lessons and observations will slowly increase, which is fine with me and I actually find being observed really helpful. I am by hardest critic and once a lesson is over I’m quick to pick up on my mistakes straight away which really isn’t the best thing to do. We’ve been told to note down the positives first and then what we could do better after which is a challenge for me, but it does help. The chat after an observation is great and I know it’ll really help me to develop my teaching as the weeks go on.

At this point, aside from the really early starts and long long days, the most challenging part of doing this teacher training is remembering ALL the things that have to be done. Of course we have school responsibilities like lesson planning, being on break duty, taking the children to and from assembly and taking the register. Then we have a lot of objectives to be working towards and for each objective we must obtain evidence and explain how each piece of evidence will impact our training and teaching career. There are also assignments, small from training and one really big one which is towards the PGCE element. So there is a LOT to take in and we have had two training sessions just on time management and how to deal with stress effectively!

The training days – Thursday and Friday I really look forwards too, we have been lucky enough to have some brilliant external trainers, as well as a great base team too. This week we learnt about our personality types and how to steer away from being aggressive/passive/passive aggressive and instead be assertive when need be. I found it really interesting, perhaps because of my psychology background, but I hope I am able to use a lot of what we have been taught in my professional life as well as my personal life too. Two weeks ago we had a brilliant trainer in, who’s topic I really wasn’t sure about  (phonics, because I didn’t think working in KS2 would really involve needing a vast knowledge of the subject!). However she made us all realise that its VERY important, not just whilst the kids are at school, but for the rest of their life. It wasn’t just that message, but her vibrant passion for education and her heartwarming personal story, of how a few teachers in her life got her to where she was today – a very successful business woman. It made quite a few of us emotional when she actually thanked us for choosing this path, because teachers don’t get thanked enough for dedicating a HUGE amount of their life to the children in their class and wider school.

The rest of September consisted of Eid – which was strange for me because I didn’t have a day off for the first time in my life. I definitely could have asked for a day off, but as it was the first day of my second week I didn’t want to miss anything. We ended up going out for dinner to a restaurant, which was a whole different experience in itself, but anyway it was nice to spend some time with the family and of course to get dressed up a little. I have really been enjoying playing around with the certifeye glitters, keep a look out for my next favourites as I’ll be sharing more there, and I’m getting more confident with applying false lashes too. Teacher training has given me a new found love of the weekends too as I can stay at home all day and just catch up on lack of sleep and my never-ending to-do list – bliss! I also was lucky enough to end a fabulous Lush event, where they shares the halloween and chirstmas collection. I’ll have a dedicated post, including a little haul and I’m rather excited to share this with you because I’ve discovered an easy way to make little Gifs, so expect many hehe.

Have you had a great September? What was your highlight?