Where to start?

Unoriginal as ever, I only got the idea of setting up a blog when some enthusiastic techy-type people did a lecture at Uni last Friday, and showed us the blog of a Probationer teacher who did our course last year.

I am a student on the PGDE(S) course at Strathclyde University, and am hoping to become an English teacher. We are going on our first proper placement on Monday, for six weeks, and I am as scared as I have ever been in my life. Maybe I could start by cutting and pasting my musings relating to my Induction placement - only a month ago, although it seems like forever. Here goes...


The Sunday morning before Induction started saw me running around frantically saying “Why did I say I would do a distant placement? Why? Why?!” It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but as I checked and rechecked everything, realising just how much I needed to take, it struck me that I would far far rather be swanning along to Shawlands Academy or similar on the Tuesday. Any school in Glasgow, in fact, even a terrible one, seemed like a better idea. As I scanned my CDs, mindful of the 23-year-old I would be giving a lift to and yelling “What do young people like? Robbie Williams? Snow Patrol?”, I realised I was beginning to lose it and took a deep breath, comforting myself with the thought that the town I was going to is lovely, our accommodation looked wonderful and the children would be delightful.

All of which turned out to be true!

It was a pain not being able to access the internet / my own books / different clothes when I got home at night, but I can't help feeling that I would have felt very lost and alone, even in my own house, without being able to talk to someone (two people, in fact) in the same position about my experiences each day. Nevertheless, a 44 mile round trip every day wasn't really what I had anticipated; on the contrary, I had been expecting to be placed in a wee flat in the High Street, from which I could stroll to and from school each day, possibly even going back at lunchtime. Hmmm.

That first morning was strange, because I had expected to be nervous, and I was oddly calm. Not until I put on my lipstick did I feel even a twinge of nervousness, and even then I was more worried about the drive than about any horrors which may await me in school. Driving up the hill to the High School and seeing hordes of black and white clad children, the reality finally hit me: I was going to be walking in and pretending to be a teacher.

Now, I know that schools are full of children, and I know that children are quite boisterous, but that didn't prepare me for how I felt when I first went into the school for the first time and was immediately surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of small people, all dressed in black and white (as was I, inadvisedly). It was terrifying! I didn't think I'd get hurt, or anything, but I had forgotten what it was like to be in the middle of a huge, jostling, noisy crowd. I signed in and went to the Rector's office and it finally felt real: the Rector had me on his list, I had arrived on the correct day, and I was not there under false pretences.

I wondered before I got there, and while I was there, how the teachers feel about students. Do they remember being in the same position themselves, and embrace the opportunity of helping a soon-to-be colleague? Do they look on them as being an extra pair of hands in the classroom? Or do they think they are a complete pain in the neck and wonder what they did to deserve being saddled with them? Whatever the truth, the teachers made me feel welcome and spoke to me as an equal. For my part, I tried not to say anything contentious and endeavoured to be friendly, helpful and willing to learn. And bearing in mind that I need to keep on their right side, I bought cookies on my last day, which they fell upon like vultures (if vultures ate cookies).

I soon settled into life at school, and would quite happily just have stayed there. I felt then – and continued to feel when I got back to Jordanhill – that I was learning far more by being in a school than I'll ever learn by attending lectures. The scheme that they run in England, whereby student teachers can become qualified solely by being trained in a school, now doesn't seem so silly. It's difficult to say how it's all going to go when all I have had is two weeks' induction, but I was relieved to find that I did actually enjoy being in school, and felt fairly comfortable and reasonably confident. Of course, I am already quaking in my boots about doing actual teaching – and about my crits in particular – but I'm certain that the only way to allay my fears will be to get in there and do it.

Onto the next stage!