No, Really, I Am an American

So for the past month, every Wednesday has been an all staff meeting after school for various types of training. We’ve had sessions on behaviour management for the last two, one on multiple intelligences, and…actually, I can’t really remember the first one ‘cuz it was my first day of school and I was still jet-lagged.

Today’s was a bit different in that they split us off into different groups, the ones who were on the leadership team, the newly qualified teachers like myself and Shelby, and the ones who weren’t quite in either of the groups who were sent off to a tech training session. Before we split up, though, Mr McCullagh went through the different support systems that he set up. I gotta say, one of my favorite things about this school is the amount of support given to the faculty. What Mr McCullagh did, based on last week’s teaching and learning audit, was put together teams of three people who would be able to try and feed off each other. Essentially, it’s a way to promote cross learning zone (department) interaction and collaboration.

For example, in my group, I am with a veteran teacher who is a no-nonsense type of fellow when dealing with behaviour and “naughty” students and a Maths teacher. Now, here’s the part that’s a damn dirty lie; because of my “creative” lesson that Mr McCullagh and Mrs Rivaldi observed last week, he thinks I’ll be able to help my colleagues with some ideas on how to make their class more interesting. I kinda panicked about that ‘cuz seriously, that lesson was a fluke! I mean, sure, it was a really great lesson that I enjoyed teaching…but I maintain that the only reason it worked was because I have a drama background and I’m able to adapt this kind of stuff easily. People keep giving me more credit than I think I deserve, and I’m not talking incurable crazy! I swear, if Chris O came in and observed one of my lessons, she’d like totally revoke my teaching cert.

So yeah, we were split up into the three different groups, but Shelby and I didn’t have anywhere to go. Apparently, the academy doesn’t have all our information, but you would think they would figure we’re overseas trained teachers…it’s quite obvious when you hear us talk! We ended up tagging along with all the other newly qualified teachers (NQT).

Mr McCullagh encouraged both of us to pick a qualification program to get into, especially if we plan on staying at the academy.

We got to talking with some other NQT’s. The dance teacher said we ought to do the same program as our faculty buddy (the person we go to when we have admin questions) because Selina is Australian qualified and the program she’s in would probably best suit our needs as well.

The more we all started talking about it though, the more I realized I still have no idea what I want to do. Chane asked me if I was thinking of sticking around and I didn’t know what to tell her. At this particular moment in time, I want to. But that could change at any moment yeah?

I know what you’re thinking. Just join a program and if I end up coming home, then what’s the harm. Well, I can tell you right now it will bother me. It sounds borderline jack assy, but I don’t want to waste my time and stress out about whether or not I’ve gathered all the evidence — qualification in England seems FAR more complicated than it does in America. Seriously, I’m already freaked out about stuffs as it is, I don’t want to unnecessarily add onto it.

Anyway, it appears I have some more stuff to think about.

I ought to start looking into creative Maths ideas…