Episode 1 - A New Fraction: Starting Life as ECTs

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Fraction of a Teacher, podcast where two early career teachers chat about what we're learning and what we've still got to learn in the wild world of teaching. I'm Francis. - And I'm Jen. We're back, but this time it's a little different. We were PTC trainees and now we're early career teachers stepping into our first full year in the classroom. We share the reality of life as new teachers, the winds, the wobbles and everything in between. So let's dive in. - Hi, Jen. Really great to see you again. How are you? - Hey buddy, welcome back. Yeah, really, really good. Excited to be back. Kind of missed it. Can I believe schools round the corner? - It's funny, isn't it? I mean, the getting used to these long holidays but the reality that you still end up doing things in the background and then suddenly the long summer's gonna be over. And we're gonna be back in school. Less than two weeks time. We're gonna be there with pupils. - It's gonna be great. I'm actually really excited. I was in school for a couple of days this week with the New Year 7th, doing a summer school. And it was awesome. It was really cool. Really nice to see them. They're all super excited, really keen. So no, I'm looking forward to it. Much so I can join my summer. - Okay, as typical me and you, don't stray in without doing a starter. So I guess some things never change. So as a quick starter, I'm gonna throw this at you. Can you give me a word or a color to describe your summer and how it's been? - I think when I look back at it, outdoor, it's been amazing. I've been swimming, running, cycling, sailing, just outside. It's been awesome to spend so much time. Yeah, just in fresh air with my family and kids. What about you? Because you've been out quite a bit too. What's your word or color? - Or I'm gonna say my word is fast. And not because people think that I'll see time goes by. It has gone many fast, but fast as in it was quite full on. Lot of paddling. I've ticked a few things off my 40 before 40 list, like flying 100 miles an hour down a zip wire over a quarry in North Wales. So I'm gonna go for fast. - I mean, that quarry zip wire is definitely fast. But that looked horrible. - I was quite nervous going on it, but I really glad I did it. And I've obviously, I guess in France, is the video of the onboard camera. Look a little bit like a bird. (laughing) - Like, you're terrifying. And how are the birds? - Fun. - How are the birds? - We adopted the birds, and now we have nine birds. We're growing the flock. - Think I asked questions, you could bring off that. Like we're just panthered. If they carry on, if you carry on gaining birds at this rate, have you got any eggs? Is that, are you gonna have any baby birds? - I'm in the space. Oh, maybe you update on the birds in a bit as well. So yeah, but we've got some stuff planned for that. So yeah, watch the space. - Awesome. That sounds great. And how have you kind of managed to do you think about teaching kind of a bit every day? Did you try and sort of take some time you just completely switched off from teaching? How have you sort of done about that? - Yeah, as soon as we finished our PGCE, I took a few days to really relax, and enjoy it. And then I decided while it was fresh to go through all of my notes and try and put them in some sort of order, download all of our tasks, and you know, kind of my reflections and try and make sense of that. Because when we lose access, but two, I just really wanted to kind of get that while it was fresh. And then I was doing a little bit here and there, but I'd say, come middle of August, I've really ramped it kind of back up in terms of really thinking about my first few lessons. I've got my timetable, but we'll talk about timetables in a bit. And yeah, so I feel like I'm kind of getting back up to speed. And now I'm doing more prep. So I guess I guess to kind of somehow summarize that, I went from concluding the PGCE, a little bit of break over summer, with like bits here and there, reading a few books, listening to a few podcasts, and enjoyed my summer as well. And then now kind of preparing for ACT life. Yeah, so I feel like good three chunks. What about you? Where are you in the room? I'm not far away. I'm then endorse it. My kids turn a music course, which is awesome. So with them for that. Yeah, I suppose, as soon as you, I had a real break. I think the first three or so weeks, I just stopped looking at anything to do teaching. I was just listening to podcasts and books a little bit when running, but other than that, I really tried to have a break from it. And then I spent the last couple of weeks up in, yeah, beginning to do what you did. Yeah, I went through all of my notes, all the piles of worksheets and random things that picked up over the year. And just sort of organised that into a format to be quick references in this next year. So that's been good. And then visits to school this week, pick it my laptop. Like those kind of things. I see I'm really feeling like I'm kind of ramping up. And I think, you know, now at the stage of planning those initial lessons, really trying to think about the intros to my classes. How am I going to go about studying it? There's routines and things. I think that's really where my sort of mindset and I think it's all feeling suddenly quite kind of in-minute. But it was really great to have a break. Like a complete break, I didn't think that. Definitely, definitely. We've had a little bit more of an extended one this year 'cause obviously we finished around the 4th of July. So we've had a little bit more time. But also quick shout out to all the teachers. I really hope the results stay well for you yesterday. Great work. Thank you for all the hard work you guys did. And I really hope you and your students were really happy with their results. Just thinking about our fellow teachers out there. Absolutely. And that's going to be a really big day for us. Because we don't have that feeling, but we feel that feeling is going to be next year when we're there with some more students. Kind of fun and really quick. Talking about the teachers, do you want to have a conference to do? I did. I actually, yeah. Oh, great. Great memory. I went to the NASU WT conference that was put on by our union for new teachers going to ECT1. I was lucky I have to go through a London one, so it wasn't very far for me. But it was amazing. It was so great to hear about what my union is doing for teachers, all the kind of different groups that we can get involved in if we want to. And then we talked a lot about social media for professionals. And then we had a really great session with Nick Morgan, of Canickla Morgan, about some behavior management techniques. And you may not be surprised. I was involved in a role play. And I think I made her a little bit speechless. I didn't mean to. But she told me to give it some. And I was acting like a teenager with my fellow. I can imagine. Did she regret choosing you? I think she might have done. But yeah, I want to see what we can try and get her on because she's amazing, a really good session. And she gave us a lot of little tips to kind of think about behavior management and starting with those high expectations and starting strong to continue strong. So really, really good stuff. I'll probably be bringing a lot of that stuff on and talking it through. We won't talk about just yet. I could spend an hour talking about that. But yeah, did that. And then a vocal coach came in and talked to us about the importance of looking after our voice as we talk a lot of teachers. So that was a lot of fun. So I got some little exercises to do to kind of make sure my voice is always warm and to protect it, to make sure I'm looking after myself next year as well. So yeah, really good confidence. Free for ECT1s. I cannot recommend it enough. They will be doing an ECT2 one next year. I think I've seen. So shout out to the union for helping us out as ECT1s. And definitely got me in the mindset of going back into school. Awesome. So looking ahead then, what sort of, I suppose, what are the key things you're kind of thinking about in terms of getting into school and starting teaching in a couple of weeks time? Oh, good question. Yeah, so much schedule. Can we take a minute to talk about schedules? How is yours looking? Yeah, good. And actually, it's been, I was really lucky. I got my time table back in July. So I've had some time to kind of think about it, get a feel for, you know, how my weeks are going to look who I'm teaching. Now I'm really happy. It's a great balance. Yeah, I've been able to really begin to think, you know, I've got a top set in one year, bottom set and definitely, and so on. So it's been really good to just start to think, how am I going to go about teaching them? Yeah. And how about yours? Yeah, really good. I got a really good range of years. Some of my classes are split, which is great because I get to really engage with some, like, more expert colleagues as well. So I can kind of learn from them. So feeling really positive about it. We were lucky enough to have an induction day for ECTs that I was able to attend. And that was really helpful because it gave us a view of what does our year looks like, where do we meeting, what are my requirements, what teaching standards are we going to be looking at across my terms? So I've really been getting myself a custom to my school. And what is going to be required of me? That's kind of what I've been doing, but that encompasses quite a lot. So I've been reading to kind of prepare myself at this stage. I don't know anybody who isn't going to be feeling nervous or isn't going to be feeling like, wow, I'm on my own, but I just think I'm trying to not let that overwhelm me. And just going, what's my first few days? Luckily we have two in-set days as we walk in. So that's a great thing to do with sit-my-colleagues, get to know my colleagues a little bit more, get to know what my next things is, and then off we go, what about you? Yeah, awesome. No, quite similar to really. I could have reading through policies at the school as well, making sure I kind of understand how the school operates and how I get things done. Yeah, and I was talking to someone who's an ECT two a couple days ago, and she was saying to me, just her tip was learn the names quickly and make sure you really clearly understand the behaviour management policy and how to apply it. And she's actually almost everything else can come later. Those are the ones to really make sure you're for surprising early on. So I thought that was a good tip. So yeah, I think making sure that behaviour management as listening to a podcast a couple of days ago, Krippona one talking about behaviour management and really having a book, his guest had written with some scripted routines to respond to poor behaviour. And I was just thinking a bit about that, about how do I, what language do I use, how do I phrase, if a quick behaviour challenges and the classroom, how am I going to go about dealing with those? It's just sort of thinking about that ahead of time so that I've got a pre-bound kind of responses and how I can do a split things and manage that as a build relationship with people so early on, because I think that's going to happen straight off. But no, really, you're looking for it. If I'm honest, I think the point I'm really looking forward to is being at the end of the second week. So the point where actually I've met all my classes, I've delivered a few lessons, I've got a feel for what level of people are at and kind of got into the topics. Hopefully I'm making some good progress then on names, I'll get to know my two-degree and knowing the subsystems of the school. So I think the bit I'm looking forward to is being two weeks in and feeling like I've got an initial picture and no doubt there'll be bits only to have kind of a just at that point based on what I've learned. So that's really I think the bit I'm focused on now is how do I get to the end of the first two weeks and then take a bit of a pause and then look ahead. That's a really good kind of almost like mini goal to get through as well. So go right, okay, let me just kind of see the lay of the land. Do you, is there something you're kind of going in with that you'd like to know a little bit more about from your mentor and your expert colleagues? And if I can give you an example, I'm really keen about how I'm going to start. So I've been really trying to gather information about how to start a year because obviously when we were doing a PGCE we weren't there. We were at university learning a lot of our theory. So actually the idea of how do I set up my expectations, you know, thinking teaching center one, how do I set high expectations, how do I get from the get go, what does setting up my classes with my students there, my first lesson, was that actually look like, is what I'm wanting to go in and almost gather to feel more confident. So is there something like that for you that you feel like you want to go in and be like, I just want more information about this? Yeah, I think that's a really good point and that's something I've been definitely quite focused on and that kind of introductory pitched the class in terms of what expectations are and I think about it. I think where I am with that, I've got a reasonable feel, I think for the schools' routines and so on. But what I've done really is sort of dropped it up my notes as to what my expectations are and I've felt like how I want to deliver that to my classes and to the risk of that in those first few lessons and practice some of those routines. And I think really what I'm intently with that is then just run that past my mentor or that at department. So this is my attention. I think I'm aligned with the school and the department's routines, anything I've missed or any advice because I think, yeah, that will hopefully be useful to do on those in set days so that come the first teaching day. You know, I've got it confident and I'm confident that it's kind of works with the broader school and department. Yeah, love that. I think that's a really good approach because I feel like this is the thing in this moment, I feel a little bit like apprehensive about it because I don't know my new school. It wasn't a school that I did one of my placements in. So I'm kind of going in, I'm going back to that block, I'm kind of on that perch again, kind of going on the new kid. But I know there's two more ECTs in my school who are math teachers as well. I'm really excited to get this relationship established, get to know my fellow teachers a lot more and I think sharing classes with them would be a great way to do it because it already gives us a platform if something we talk about is do you know these students that you have to master in terms of those crucial seating plans, they're going to be my fountain of knowledge about where to put people. I want to be a sponge and to take everything from everybody just to help. Yeah, and it really links back, I think, the kind of fraction of a teacher part, you know, in terms of you've got to go in with confidence that you've got a year's training, you've got experience in two different schools, you've qualified as a teacher, you've got a PhD, but yet we're also at the point where we haven't in this first bit of time before we are going to be running those classes around, there's not going to be a qualified, another quite teaching area. So I like going to take on the balance between the confidence, but also then the confidence to ask and still keep learning. How sort of as a fraction and how kind of ready do you sort of feel for those first few lessons in the coming year? I mean, how do we follow Jeremy? He just smashed that on the park. Well, can we just say what a great guest Jeremy was as well? That was great. If anybody hasn't heard the last episode of last season, I urge you to go back and listen to Jeremy, and ask to, it was such a delight to speak with him, really enjoyed that. Lovely way to finish our PC, yeah. But yeah, sorry, question of how much, how much fraction of a teacher do I feel in terms of ready for ECT? I would say I'm going to go for three, three fifths because I feel confident in my identity, feel, I've already interviewed, they've already seen me teach a lesson, but until I get in and start developing those latest with the students, I can see their names, but I don't know them. I'm going to want to do that. So I want to pitch at the right level. I want to be engaging and I want to bring my personality through my teaching as well, but I want to be someone that they can trust and go, she's going to lead us really well. I'll do the next year and to do that, I just think I need to get my environment and give myself some time. So I feel like three fifths for me is a really good place to sit because I'm taking some really good theoretical knowledge. I'm taking two really good placements where I've had some great feedback and I'm feeling prepared because I've done a lot to get myself there, but the other two parts I can't do until I'm actually in the classroom, I've met my students and I can start day one. Now I like that. That's pretty positive. And I think also that'll probably grow pretty quickly, like the way you're going about it, that'll very quickly grow. You know where you want to focus your efforts to get those additional two fifths. You're very kind. And I see that we're starting this on with a bill building me up there. You're still my favourite to leadership, Frances. Really appreciate it. Thank you. I hope you're okay. How about yourself? I was actually going to go for three quarters, but we're very similar sort of reasoning really. It's mostly the way there, but there's just, you can only plan for the stillers and nouns. And you know, there's a lot of other variables. There's a lot of the kids. A lot of other colleagues still to me until I say, I feel we're in real. Again, I think actually getting to that point sort of two weeks, confident that by then I feel very much settled in, no, no, the key people are, no problem with my classes. And so I feel like three quarters, but they're very much positive sort of. I love that. Love that. Okay, so good. I would say your whole teacher because you're amazing. I'm so nervous. I would be as good as you are to be fair. I often think, 'I'm so much more serious going to do it.' I mean, your imagination, the way you engage with people. I think that's going to be something that's going to be fun. It's like developing our styles a bit over the next year. Like I think that longer time in our own classroom, setting up our classes and things about ourselves. I feel like, yeah, we're probably going to more into our own styles over the future, which I'm really excited about. It'll be fun to feel settled and really feel about what we've done already. Definitely. I think it'll be very nice because I feel like across two placements, you see different people's styles all the time. I must have been working with 10, 11 different teachers across those two periods. So actually, I'm taking things from every single person. I'm going to use a word to turn that Nick Morgan gave me, which has been back and celebrate. So it's what I'm going to have been that I don't necessarily think is with my style. What I'm going to have back, I can be like, that's definitely going to go with my toolkit. And I'm going to celebrate that I really do really well. So shout out to Nick for that. Awesome. Been back, celebrate. Really like that because what I think is really easy at this stage is to feel overwhelmed because there's so many people on TikTok, Instagram, setting up for the next school year. And I would say that can almost feel quite overwhelming, but I would say our top tips for the sounds of it is read your school policies. So over what you've done, what you've achieved in your PGCE, because you got here because of you you were not because of what other people were and get yourself ready as much as you possibly can based on what you do well. So if that's reading loads of books, cool, if that's something to a podcast, great. If that's going to classroom and having every single wall of your classroom done, cool, but I would definitely say figure out what works for you and the rest will come. So you're going to celebrate what you're doing already. You're going to bag some really cool different tips for that people give you from social media and from your teachers next to you. And you're going to bin some things you go, I'm not too sure that's right for me at this moment. I'll come back to that later. Yeah, I'd like that. And I think the reality is there's only so many hours and a day, days and the week. And I doubt there's any teacher who feels they've done absolutely everything to kind of get rid of the year. There'll always be something else you could be doing. And I think that's the kind of conscious of in this next week and a half getting ready for school is that I wouldn't be able to do everything that's on my kind of list just I'd love to do. But you know, prioritise, get important ones done and then learn quickly when I get there. And I have Jeremy's voice that back in my head going, you're so ready in Jeremy's voice and I'm going, I'm going up a long stack. If I don't believe in myself, if I like, if I have a moment going, can I, he thinks I'm ready and he's very experienced and my school thought I was ready because they hired me. I'm going to get a proper job. opportunities of working on having some more guests on the show and we're really keen to get the right balance between doing some deep dives between the two of us really to focus on some topics but also getting a range of guests on the show building on the wonderful guests we had last last years. Yeah, definitely looking forward to that. We've got a bit of a deep dive plan over here. I think this was probably your idea. Yeah, so I kind of had a little bit of a thought about taking this teaching standards one at a time and talking a little bit about what they mean, how we kind of how we plan to meet them, why is it important for us as teachers. Obviously as the ECTs we are being judged against the teaching standards now. So it felt reasonable to almost take a standard at a time and just talk and reflect on it. So our plan is to kind of do it every other episode is to take a teaching standard and explore how we're evidencing that. Absolutely, yeah, and I think as you said, it's like that. It's a link supposed to the CPD we need to do as teachers. I think it'll help us link back to some of the theory and some of what we kind of discussed on the PGCE and hopefully everybody is useful for us to listen to this and it's just kind of think through breaking down the enormity of that that kind of big subject that what is it to be a good teacher. Yeah, so now I'm really looking forward to that kind of structural reflection and in terms of the sort of format and sequencing where we've got a plan to continue rolling out one full episode every every two weeks. So that'll be releasing on a Tuesday morning and of course all the backer so to remain available previous episodes for an available online. Yeah, so that'll be I think first full episode on Tuesday 9th of September I think. Yes, and we're going straight in with a teaching standard. We're going to go in for a teaching standard part two. If we don't really talk a lot about part two, but it's so important and we do it every single day without even thinking about it. So a little snippet of what's coming. But yeah, this term, we're going to be talking a lot about kind of that workload, thinking about being the only group in the room as well, kind of being observed less great idea from Jeremy as well, which is lovely. Thank you so much Jeremy for that and possibly some very great guests on the way as well. So it's going to be a good term. I'm really looking forward to a little bit long because it's going to be our longest term. But hopefully we'll be here to keep everybody sane and pushing food and filling resilient until Christmas and then we're going to and then we'll talk about that. Absolutely awesome. Well, thanks and it's been great to talk to a few people who do it feedback from listeners over the summer. Actually, we have a lot of lessons over some, which is awesome to see and these currents are spreading the word and clearly a new generation of PGC students will be starting in you know, training, new training teachers will be starting in a couple of weeks time. So best luck to them and if you know any of them, if you've got placement people on placement in your school, maybe they may find some kind of benefit from listening to the podcast. There's only episodes, perhaps so please point them in that direction. Definitely. I mean, good luck to everyone starting the PGC as well. You're going to be amazing. You're going to love it. It's going to be hard work even your skit free like person, every tiny teacher going in. You're going to you're going to love it. So best of luck. I can't wait to see you in the classroom. Absolutely welcome. So well, thanks Jen. Look forward to catching up soon. We're going to be recording again soon and I'm really looking forward to finding out more about school and hearing your experiences there as the time start. Yeah, absolutely. Well, yeah, I see you enjoy wherever you're going to go next. I think it's Scotland, isn't it? Yeah, fishing in Scotland should be awesome. And then back to the real world. Yeah, it'll be good. Okay, see you soon, buddy. Thanks Jen. See you soon. Thank you for listening to this episode of fraction of the teacher. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we've enjoyed recording it. Please share a link with your fellow teachers and friends. Your episodes released every Tuesday morning at five o'clock. And if you do love it, I suggest you hit that subscribe button, leave us a review and follow us on social media at fraction of a teacher podcast for updates. So you never miss anything. We do love hearing from you with your questions, your thoughts and your ideas. So if you have any, please email us at fraction [email protected]. Until next time, keep smiling. We'll be nice to them.