GTTR

Oh, by the way, still no progress!

Why I want to be a teacher

I think I might have a justifiable case for being considered completely and utterly bonkers! 

Teachers have to contend with soul sapping Ofsted inspections, violent, rude and disrespectful little thugs and their unemployed, aggressive parents, who all seem to know their 'rights' but not their responsibilities and a complete lack of gratitude from the outside world, who think that teachers complain too much and get too many holidays.

I've spent some time reading blogs from established teachers, all of whom describe life in a state school as a war, one which the teachers are steadily losing, as their mortal enemies, the pupils gain more and more power over them, helped by incompetent Senior Management Teams. Their blogs are riddled with stories of assault, incompetence and lies. Links to these blogs can be found on the sidebar to the right.  

Faced with this endless stream of negativity you would forgive me if I threw up my hands in desperation and withdrew my application, but I'm not going to. Not because I'm naïve or idealistic, not because I don't believe that all this stuff won't affect me, but because I know that somehow all this negativity is worth it. Frank Chalk, Old Andrew and Ranting Teacher are all teachers or former teachers, they care deeply about the profession, about their colleagues, the subjects they teach and their students. This tells me that there is essentially something positive and worthwhile about teaching and I'm looking forward to discovering this for myself. 

Arrival of the welcome letter

Today my letter arrived, along with a tracking number so I can follow the progress of my application. Cue compulsive checking about a million times a day to see if my status has changed.

I've applied for German with French, though my French is rustier than my old bike, so I've been swotting up with a teach yourself course. It's going really well, I've done a month's worth of lessons in about 3 days.  I predict it will get a lot harder once I'm no longer relearning though. 

No Turning Back Now!

Well, the button is pressed and the application paid for and in the (online) post. This is where the angst really begins.

Personality profile

A friend and fellow blogger recently blogged about her personality profile, and this inspired me to do the same. Imagine my surprise when I learned that my personality type (ENFJ) is perfectly suited to teaching, I was intrigued. 

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

For such a short test it was surprisingly accurate! If you want to try it out you can click on the link below.

http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFJ.html

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. 

Despite spending years insisting that I didn't want to be a teacher, and that linguists had many other alternative career options, I recently had an epiphany. I was sitting at my desk at work and suddenly realised that I needed more. I need a challenge, I need to make a difference, I need a job where every day is different .... You see where I'm going with this?

Anyway, the application is underway, the choices made and the reference requested. I'm hoping to use this blog as a way of tracking my progress from beginning to end, as well as a way of getting in touch with other people in a similar situation. 

I'll use this space to rant about the applications process, to fret about my interview and to review any useful books or teaching materials I come across along the way! I hope visitors to my blog will share their thoughts on teaching, classroom management, the applications process and anything else that comes to mind.