Training Day

Okay, so the title may be misleading...it's not as interesting as the movie...actually, half-way through the day and it's still not interesting.

We have begun our training day with a morning welcome then breakfast. The staff was split up into 4 groups to go through 3 sessions (2 for me because I had already attended one of them at an NQT meeting - NQT = Newly Qualified Teacher...even though technically I'm not one). The rest of the time, as I've understood it, is meant for personal preparation time and lunch.

Anyway, the first session we went to dealt with "Behaviour De-escalation". The individual running the 30 minute lesson is the head of the PSO's - the people we are to call when behaviours of the class or individual students gets so out of hand that we need assistance or there is persistent defiance. [Did I mention the only way to call a PSO is 1) Use the phone in your room if you are lucky enough to have one...oh wait, I don't have one in any of the rooms I teach in; 2) Ask a student to leave the room and ask a teacher who has a phone in their room to call for a PSO...oh wait, I don't know which rooms have a phone; 3) Ask a student to go to the PSO office to ask for one...oh wait, they don't know where it is or they feel as though they will be called a teacher's pet for calling a PSO for the teacher. Did I also happen to mention that NO classrooms have a PA system, so even if all hell breaks loose, it's better for me to leave my classroom to get help?] Okay, so back to the session. Well, the individual spent the 30 minutes showing us clips of poor behaviour strategies and taking a minute or 2 to discuss why they are bad then told us to read through the boring looking, dated handouts for possible good strategies to use. When questions were brought up, by Big John and myself, he kind of fluffed them off and said we had a lot of material to go through.

I found it frustrating that the problem with the first scenario we were shown was that that the students were already in the classroom before the teacher got there - and that was pointed out by our instructor. However, according to the school policy, the students are told that the school is to be an open environment for all of them, and that they have the right to be in the classroom. So...what are we to do? And, Big John mentioned that the reason the students were probably in the room without a teacher is because they are probably coming from their last class, to which the facilitator responded, "well, I'm sure we are talking about full time teachers, not supply", to which John and I looked at each other. Ummm, hello? Don't they realize that, especially for maths, we don't have ONE room that we teach in. I could be teaching one class in one room and the next class with the same students in another room down the languages hallway or in the English room. And, as we don't have transition times placed into our timetable, one can be often be late for the other. Also, we have been reprimanded for NOT allowing students into the room while they are waiting...so what is the real message here???

Okay, so we head to session 2 which is talking about IT and what we need to use the attendance program for when now sending referrals for learning catch-ups. Firstly, there is a whole convoluted process to filling out the data forms (which we will end up having to do after school, since there is no time in lesson to do this); we have to e-mail it to our VPs, but then have to manually send it to the PSO's so that they can make the phone calls home...even if we don't know the PSO names. Then, there is no response to let us know that it has gone through (oh wait, the same thing has been happening with the paper forms). If the PSOs can't arrange for the catch-up time we've requested, they will let us know, but then we need to arrange the next one ourselves. Ummm...this system REALLY has a lot of flaws in it. What was also frustrating is that when Big John was trying to clarify the procedure so that we can be consistent, he was also fluffed off - as they were running out of time. I guess it never occurred to these people that 30 minute sessions on big topics is not an IDEAL situation.

I have to keep telling myself...just one more day. I will be in the land of four-leaf clovers soon...I hope!

Thanks for listening to my rant. I will try to be more entertaining/positive in my next one.

Oh WAIT...I forgot...We FINALLY got a washing machine that works put into our house yesterday while we were at work. I went home as soon as I could and washed my clothes - hoping to get them dry for Ireland (the other two had gone to a laundromat the day before...I was stuck with learning catch-ups). I have been trying to make a point to put on the furnace to dry my clothes but my room looks like my closet/dresser threw up all my clothes...LOL