Compostable Kate

I'm pretty sure that I learned far more on my prac than the students I was teaching. Some of it will stand me in good stead for my next prac, and for when I am a fully-qualified teacher. Some of it was very disappointing and disallusioning. One of the first things I learned was that my supervising teacher no longer wanted to be a teacher, but was sticking with it for a few more years, while her youngest child finishes high school. Another teacher in our staff room was only staying with teaching to boost his superannuation before he retired. Yet another teacher didn't speak to me during my four weeks sitting at the desk next to him, and seemed to dislike all students and the teaching of them. There were frequent discussions in there about students being "not very bright" and "unteachable", including one entire year. No effort was put in to teaching these students, as it was deemed to be a waste of effort. However, imaginative teaching was hampered ...

In one of the orientation sessions last week, we all found out that there is a high probability that we will end up teaching subjects and students that we didn't intend. This is especially likely if you are a science teacher of any description, as you will probably end up teaching Maths, at some level or other. Many teachers end up completely leaving the area that they specialised in at uni. The idea of my becoming a Maths teacher is hysterically funny (my mathematical education came to a grinding halt once it reached quadratic equations. They sent my brain into emergency shutdown, and I never did get the hang of them. Still got O level Maths, though, so nya-nyah), but there's a good chance I could end up in Sociology, or History, or Art, Music, Drama etc., depending on the needs of the schools that are hiring new teachers (don't worry, Harry Potter is applicable in all teaching areas!). In addition, we are now learning the new National curriculum, which will be comin...