Lessons Learned - Second Year Teaching Edition

               Yesterday was my last official day of working in Castleford. That brings tears to my eyes. I should be having a leaving party or something right now. I’m really sad! I spent a lot of yesterday crying and feeling really sorry for myself. It's the end of an (albeit short) era. 

I’ve taken a long time to reflect on this past year and collate some of the things I’ve learned. I’ve been doing these posts for a while. On last year's post, I gave some stellar advice (in my humble opinion), and I stand by all of it. This year, things have been a roller coaster. I’ve learned a lot.  

1.      You never know what help is out there unless you ask.

Rosie is the one that told me this initially. I have learned this on two occasions. There was a time this year where marking was piling up. We had difficult exams to mark, books to mark, and I was staying at school until 8:00pm. Even with that, I wasn’t going to meet my deadlines. When I told Rosie, she threatened to tell my boss if I didn’t tell him. So I did. He took my booster off me for one night, and that’s all I needed to catch up. One extra hour of time was all it took. I should have mentioned something sooner. You just don't know what else is out there.  

2.      The jump from NQT to RQT is hard. Lean on each other.

Everyone says being an NQT is hard, but I struggled way more this year than I did last year. You have way more work to do, plus Year 11s, plus less time to do it all. My schedule was two full days and on the third day, my free was the last period. Like I said in the first point, there were nights where I stayed late just to stay afloat. I’m grateful that I had two other RQTs to support me. We all struggled through the same timing issues. We cried together, we hugged each other, and we whined together. Lean on those people. They will save you.

3.      Life is unexpected. Find a structure that will help you roll with the punches.

So Coronavirus was unexpected. When that happened and we had to work from home, I didn’t know what to do. Kids weren’t really sending me work, and I was weighed down with worry about whether I could come home or not. If I had had a few coping mechanisms ingrained in my daily routine that made me feel normal, then maybe I could have avoided a lot of the emotional outbursts I had. I did create goals for myself at that time, but I’ve realized that I’m a person that needs a bit more structure in their life.

4.      Don’t let your job become your whole purpose.

My drama teacher friend and I had a whole discussion about this when we drove in to work together during lockdown (because we were still doing childcare in the UK). For a while, we were both lost. I put so much into my job that I felt like I didn’t know who I was for a while. I’ve only been a teacher for two years, so how did I lose so many other aspects of my being? I’ve now had a chance to reconnect with all of the activities I genuinely enjoy doing, and I’ve adopted new activities as well. Now that I'm not working, I'm having a bit of a wobble, but I'm working on figuring out who I am outside of teaching. 

5.      Don’t wait for a special occasion to do something you want.

I love Lush so much. I buy a lot of their products because they work. As a result, I had a lot of those Lush pots that you can exchange for a free face mask. When I moved, I had to give them away to a friend. I should have got the face masks when I had the chance. It’s a small lesson, but with big impact. Live in the moment. Get that free face mask!

6.      If someone chooses to leave your life, you’re probably better off without them.

This is something I’ve dealt with in the past. I’m struggling with this right now. As you get older, you lose friends. You lose friends for no reason. They stop texting. They stop liking your pictures on social media. They no longer congratulate you on your successes. And if they made that choice, that’s on them. It’s not worth your time or tears to try and figure out what went wrong or if the relationship is worth salvaging. Chances are, you’ve grown out of that friendship anyway.

7.      Be grateful to be sad to be leaving your job.   

The one thing that finally made me okay about leaving was this thought. I woke up one day and realized that I’m lucky to be so devastated about leaving work. A lot of people leave because they’ve been treated poorly or they’re unhappy for some reason. For me to be in tears over leaving is a positive thing. It means that I’m leaving on good terms.

Wow, what a year. In the same year that we went into lockdown and couldn’t be in the same building as students, we also got Outstanding from Ofsted. I’m so happy that I get to look back on this time as an amazing two years of my life. I’ve learned so much, and I’ve made so many memories. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

What have you been learning lately?

-Daniella