I’m feeling distinctly frayed around the edges lately. Not so overwhelmed as I felt the first two or three weeks of term, but frazzled nonetheless.
I like being organised. It’s the only way I know how to function really – I’ve never been a seat-of-the-pants kind of person, which can sometimes be a bit of a disadvantage in teaching when something goes off track or in a direction you hadn’t anticipated. It doesn’t happen very often, and I’m pleased to say that when it has, I’ve coped with it. I suppose what’s bugging me is that there are things “out there” which prevent me from being as organised as I’d wish.
Narrowing it down still further, the problem is PSHE. I’ve come across very few schools where the kids have PSHE lessons with someone who’s qualified and or experienced in teaching it. And by that I mean teachers who teach it as an actual subject, not by form tutors like myself who find themselves dumped in at the deep end trying to plan an interesting lesson that will engage the kids with whatever it is they’re supposed to be thinking about that week.
It’s not that I can’t teach the subject. Anyone who knows me will know that I can usually offer an opinion on pretty much anything – so that’s not the problem. The problem is that I’ve got some plans here written by someone else (who co-ordinates PSHE across the school) – which are telling me to use some of the information I’ve been given in a certain way and then that I need to give examples of where (in the world) that information doesn’t apply. Which would be fine – except that I haven’t been given any of those examples. Which means that I either have to go trawling the internet to find them or ignore that part of the lesson plan.
See why it bugs me? I don’t have time to plan for this – not with everything else I have on my plate, and it’s not as though, like some form tutors, perhaps, I’ve done this scheme of work before.
Honestly, if PSHE is to be taken seriously by the kids – and in my experience so far, with year 8s and older, it isn’t – surely it should be taught by someone who a) knows what they’re doing and b) who has an interest in it, because quite frankly, I don’t. Not that the topics chosen aren’t interesting and relevant – often they are; I just don’t have time to spend on it. Often, the first time I look at the lesson plan for that week is on Friday morning when I get into school (my PSHE lesson is first thing Friday) – usually because I’ve had so much else going on that I’ve not been able to get to it before that. And that being the case, I need a lesson plan AND resources so that I can just give the lesson and not have to worry about it.
I know I’m not the only one in this position – it’s just bugging me to the extent that I have to vent.
Entries (RSS)
October 7th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I agree, I agree. Every single thing you say is what thousands of us around the country feel. I wrote about it once in the TES. If you’re interested, you might find it in the archives of the Comment page. But I told the story about me trying to draw female sexual organs on the whiteboard for the benefit of my 15 year old class of boys …. Most interesting experience. Actually, the head of PHSE spotted the article, and, well, put it this way, he wasn’t offering me chocolates or wine…
October 7th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I have a feeling I read that! Or something like it. And it’s not that I object to the sex-ed or talking about drink and drugs and equality and rights and whatever – it’s that I don’t feel well enough prepared in terms of what I’m given for the lessons. I’ve been around long enough to be able to talk about all that stuff – but these days, when every lesson we give is expected to be “fun” and full of bells and whistles, it’s not enough to just talk to a class for 50 mins, is it? And the sort of kids I teach are generally pretty backward about coming forward, so getting discussions going is going to be like pulling teeth.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
If the lessons are supposed to be “fun”, wouldn’t it be more interesting to get the 15 year old boys to draw the female sex organs and then get the class to give them marks out of 10 for accuracy/lunacy!
I really don’t know what is covered in PHSE, but IMO, if the school don’t give it any importance, by not supporting the staff who are delivering it, why on earth would the kids think it’s important?