The Survival of Semester One.

When I entered this course in August Christmas seemed a lifetime away. I went in with the horror stories of previous h-dip students who never left their room for a year ringing in my ears, and honestly couldn't see how I would survive up to Christmas, let alone survive with my sanity intact. Yet, here I am. I just completed my first semester as a student teacher, and sanity is alive and mostly well. The semester went by in a blur of lectures, lesson plans, and school bells, but I thought, as I know a few wannabee teachers read this blog, that it would be beneficial for me and for you to look into the blur and try and pick out the things I have learned over these 4 months.

I could go into details about learning objectives and the importance of classroom differentiation, but I think anyone who reads this blog doesnt really want to hear about that. Honestly, I don't really want to write about it. So other than the nitty gritty that the universities pump into every student teacher's coffee-addled brain, what have I learned?

1. Teaching must be your life, but not your whole life.
It is easy to fall into the trap of everything being about teaching. You spend your day in college talking about teaching with people who teach about teaching surrounded by people paying thousands of euro to learn about teaching, and all you have in common is teaching. You then spend your days in school surrounded by teachers (most who do not want to talk about teaching and rather talk about their Friday glass of wine or the 5th year who randomly shouted 'testicles' in class) and students who are only there because they have to either teach or be taught.
Key to survival; Do something not teachy with non teachy people. This does not include your mother, who will ask 'how is teaching going?' and then you are off again. Find the time to do something social that's not drinking. Your sanity depends on it.

2. The internet is your saviour and guide.
It will get you through every god forsaken hour you spend racking your brain over 100 different ways to say the word 'understand'. Google everything! Don't be afraid of not being original. You can be original when you are qualified and have discovered the difference between an learning objective and an lesson aim (it's like explaining the Cloud. You can try).

3. There are tricks to the staff room;
Bring your own cup. Make sure you contribute to the kitty for the coffee. Take note of names of teachers and what they teach, as there will seem like hundreds of names to learn and nothing is more embarrassing than not knowing a teacher by Halloween. Try keep out of political conversations, and steer away from those who like to diss the principal. You need a reference from her at the end of the year. And get involved in something extra curricular with the students. Looks great on a cv and there is no better way of getting to know them.

4. Accept the fact that 90% of your course is horse s**t.
You will have lectures from people who have never taught kids but have a PHD in the theory of teaching kids and they will tell you to teach certain ways that, if implemented, would have 30 kids running riot on you. You will learn 90% of the useful stuff in school. Accept that you simply have to pass the exams/essays to get the qualification, and take college as a break from school rather than something to get stressed about, which leads me to my final point ...

5. You have a choice; be stressed or not be stressed.
Yes its important to pass, but its not important enough to warrant giving yourself stomach ulcers. Its easy to get caught up in panic, but as a teacher you need to know when to stop caring so much that it bothers you. This is something I never thought of before starting the course, and it resulted in moments of sheer panic as the education office likes to spring extra work on you with no logical reason as to why. Having a clear idea of the amount of f***s you give is very important, as you have to know when to cut off caring. If you dont know your cut off point, you will wind up sitting in the corner of a dark room muttering about schemes of work while surrounded by coffee cups, crusts of sandwiches, and critical essays on 'Bloom's Taxonomy of Education' and other mindboggling theories. There has to be a point where being Irish kicks in and you just say 'fuck it, sure, t'will be grand'.

This is what I have learned over the last 4 months. Never mind all that actual teaching stuff. Its not really that hard ..... :-/

Amy.