How am I going to get to the end of term?!?

[CharlotteCollins]

I'm considering seeing if the doctor will sign me off with stress. I've no real reason to want to get to the end of term. I leave the school then and have a job which I'm much more suited to for September. The kids at my current school have been a nightmare all year - I don't think they're particularly bad kids but I just don't have the discipline skills to deal with them. I have been trying to fake it till I make it and I've picked myself up and tried again every time they've made me want to give up, but I feel like I have no reserves left. I've been counting down to the end of the year since October!!!

I just think it'd be better for the kids to have a stand-in teacher who might have some idea how to control them than me. I can't control them and I'm teaching them nothing.

It's only three weeks.

But I'm BU, aren't I?

[FuzzyWizard]

I think you should hang in there. If it's making you unwell then you should be signed off but otherwise I think you should see it through to the end of the year. Sometimes even the most difficult kids can surprise you in the last few weeks.

[LavenderSugar]

Breathe.

Get yourself 3 pieces of paper for Week 4, Week 5 and Week 6. Write down Mon-Fri.

Fill in all of the trips and class assemblies and talks and Sports Days and Golden Times.

Think about how you can make everything more manageable for yourself. Nice controlled worksheets, like storyboards for English or endless number bonds for Maths where you can just hand them another. Plan a few mental maths tests for a few days, even the noisiest of classes generally know to keep stum when there is a test.

Think of some fun foundation stuff where noise and a bit of a chaos isn't the be all and end all. What are your topics? You could teach them to watercolour properly, you could do a traffic survey, you could make marshmallow and spaghetti structures in PHSE.

Fill in your weeks with what you are going to do that day, with the focus on being kind to yourself.

It will look a lot more manageable written down. X

[Belager]

It's the final countdown. You can do this and you will feel so accomplished for finishing the year.

[PenelopePitstops]

Make sure you at least go in for the last day so you get paid in full over the summer.

[CharlotteCollins]

See, I don't even care about the money. I'm supposed to be preparing one group for a test in a couple of weeks. It's difficult enough if they think, but they'd rather muck around.

The others I can do fun, relaxed stuff with. I hate fun stuff. What I think is fun is not what they do!



I tried a game with the difficult group before Christmas. It always goes down well. Always had in the past. Until then. I had to stop halfway through and I had no back up plan.

Sorry. I am having a negative day!

Even easy worksheets need to be found or made myself. And I'm low on ideas at the moment.

Breathing is a good plan, though. I got out of school this afternoon before dissolving in tears in the car...

[Buggers]

How old are the kids?

[ChinchillaFur]

You can do it! We're on the home stretch now and you'll feel so much better if you stay til the end.

Get yourself on TES and in the space of 1/2 an hour you can find some great worksheets or even ready made pp quizzes. How about but an stick, matching up vocab type things?

[ChinchillaFur]

*cut and stick not "but an" grrr

[CharlotteCollins]

You are right that I will feel much better if I make it to the end. This week's not a bad week, actually, which should give me space to prepare and go back to the drawing board with the stuff that obviously didn't work today.

It was just a very bad day. And last week ended relatively well. I expect there'll be a few more peaks and troughs before the end!

[CharlotteCollins]

I feel better just talking to you lot who know what it's like.

[CharlotteCollins]

OK, I think you've talked me off the ledge for now. I'm starting to think lesson plans rather than escape plans...

[CharlotteCollins]

Or not. Trying to work out what to have for tea is now threatening to bring back the tears! Everything is too much!

[sonlypuppyfat]

A lot of people hate their jobs and have to soldier on, it's only three weeks just take one day at a time

[CharlotteCollins]

Yes, but it's three weeks on top of the however many I've already survived since it started getting on top of me back in the autumn.

I don't hate it as such. I dread it.

[notagiraffe]

Lavender's ideas are good. How about videos, films, TED talks? They all love that. Can you get some parents in to do presentations on what they do at work? Is there any budget left for someone to come in and give a workshop on dance or drama or art or creative writing or science - anything to allow you to have a more passive role.
What age are they?

[GretchenBeckett]

Which age group do you teach? It's easier to give practical advice if we know which ks

[CharlotteCollins]

They're 13-15 and the speakers don't work so no possibility of watching stuff. I can find stuff for them to do, if I can find the time to do it. It's more finding the energy while I'm in class to remember who had had what warning, notice who threw what and be consistent in dealing with people talking when I am. All of which I failed at today.

[GeorgeTheThird]

Do you have speakers you could bring in from home?

[leccybill]

Get an ICT suite/set of laptops/I pads booked and let them research something, anything.
Wordsearches, colouring, make a board game (using template) and play it.
Go off-subject and be completely random.
Just get through it. 2 more Mondays...

[noblegiraffe]

What subject?

[notagiraffe]

Tell them if they can bring in speakers, they can watch films for the rest of term. So long as the films are educational, and you have a discussion about them afterwards, that's not the worst teaching you could offer, feeling as you do.

[CharlotteCollins]

It's maths. Sorry not to be clear. Brain not working today.

[CharlotteCollins]

Not that the subject matters too much. It's spending time in the classroom with a bunch of teenagers who have been negative about almost everything I've done with them all year. I'm worn out and I just want to sit in a quiet room by myself for about three weeks!

[CharlotteCollins]

It's making decisions about who to send out when, what level sanctions are right for what... This is what I've just not got the hang of at this school. Sometimes I'll send someone to the HoD and it'll seem like I'm being a nuisance, at other times she says I should've sent sooner.

I just want everyone to go away.

Am I repeating myself?!

[MaureenMLove]

Are you actually getting or have you asked for any support? Surely there's teachers with gained yr 11 &'13 time that might be able to support you, even if it's for only one lesson a week? And if your speakers don't work, why? Can you not speak to your IT department and ask them to get them fixed? Or better still, swop rooms with someone who's speakers do work, so you can take advantage of them?

I can't help thinking that if one of the teachers at my school was struggling this much, someone would have stepped in to support by now.