Induction Week

I am starting a 5 week prac in Year 6 on Tuesday.  It is the first day of term for the new school year.  After the long summer break, there has been an induction and personal development week for all staff.  The primary headmaster was kind enough to invite me along to attend any and all sessions I was interested in.

Some of the sessions included:

• Assessment for Learning
• Assessing Pupil Progress
• Personalising Learning
• ICT training - including Moodle (an online learning envt) and Serco (register and reporting system)

I felt lucky to be a part of all this, as it gave me a 'real' view to how teachers really do so much above and beyond the classroom, and are looking for ways to enhance the learning experience for all the students.  

I also enjoyed becoming part of the school community, and listening to the Headmaster talk, by gearing up the teachers for a successful and opportunity filled year.  Hearing what some of the staff were up to over the holidays and the new ideas they would like to implement was inspiring. 

Getting our Year 6 classroom ready with wall displays, and new name labels, and books was refreshing. Discussing with the other Year 6 teachers the plan for the year, made it all quite concrete for me, the actual level of work to do.  Because there were 2 new teachers, meant that nothing was glossed over and every requirement was spelled out clearly.

Compared to working in business, my very high level view, is that it is really nice to be able to wipe the slate clean at the beginning of each school year, and start afresh.  Issues in business can hang in there, occasionally one or two may be wiped at the start of a new tax year, or after a legislative change.  But the opportunity for a true fresh start really only comes with a new job, so a fresh batch of kids and a new school year means you can work on doing things better than last year, change approaches and targets accordingly and work on becoming a better teacher.