disorganised procrastinator training to teach

[SophyStantonLacy]

I’m planning on applying for a School Direct training post in the autumn, as a secondary English teacher. I have thought about it for years, & feel confident that it’s the right path to take (for now anyway!). But I do worry, as I would describe myself as fairly disorganised (although I do manage 3 kids, activities, lately home schooling but previously I did work part time - but often things feel quite last minute) & I am definitely an awful procrastinator. It’s got worse over the years of being primarily a SAHM mum because eh what needs doing today really - I’m shrivelling away here. Anyone else manage teaching when you’re battling against your own lack of get up & go...?

Why do you want to teach? There are some procrastinators in teaching but they often have other qualities ( and usually testicles but that's another thread....). Get up and go is essential!! How odd that you would think it isn't. I also find your for now a bit ominous in its non commitalness.

You will find that if you procrastinate as an English teacher, you will be buried alive by the huge pile of unattended marking by the end of your first month, or possibly fortnight.
If your teaching is disorganised, you will probably be eaten alive by feral teens before you have a chance to fail them.
If you give as few fucks as your post implies, you may die of the poisonous looks your overburdened colleagues give you.
Good Luck!

I enjoy spending time with young people, until I had my third I used to teach on a project in schools with anything from 4-18 year olds, & being in secondary schools was my favourite part of it. And I enjoy my subject.

‘For now’ - I dunno, I suppose I feel like retirement is a long way off & who knows where or what will be happening then?!

I’m a massive procrastinator in that I need deadlines to actually achieve anything.

Fortunately in teaching every day is a deadline as the lesson will need teaching and the kids will need their books back. So the work gets done.

Maybe don't say that second paragraph in any interviews....

In the nicest possible way, have you ever been assessed for adhd (regardless, adhd skills will help) ?

Often undiagnosed in women...

Not you noble ! OP !

piggy I’ve already got a job so I’m ok!

OP when you say applying for schools direct in the autumn, do you mean applying in the autumn or starting in the autumn (bit late!)?

I am a lawyer and I am also inherently disorganised and a procrastinator. I have to battle my natural tendencies with meticulous use of calendar and task lists with reminders etc. I find that I most lack “get up and go” when my workload is low, I prefer being busy and having to meet deadlines, that’s when I get stuff done. So whilst being a SAHM obv doesn’t mean your workload is light (!), it’s a different kind of pressure when you’re in your workplace. Essentially we need a fire lit under us OP, I know loads of people like me and all seem to be fairly happy and fairly successful, fingers crossed you’ll get your organisational systems up and running and crack it.

I think you've got to go in with a timetable and clear expectations of what the course is like.
School direct typically involves the trainee acting as a teacher, not as an extra body covering someone else's classes. Each part of the job has a knock on elsewhere.

E.g Whole school Y10 data is due in a fortnight, so you need to have your assessments done and marked before then, so you need to plan which lesson to do the assessment and then work out how you'll cover the content in time.

You need to be prepared for handing in your planning 24-48 hours in advance as a trainee. You need to be aware that you meeting your deadlines and doing things has a knock on effect on other people being able to do their job properly and meet their own deadlines.

I'll be honest, the attitude you show on here suggests that you're likely to find the training year and NQT quite overwhelming. I think you need to speak to more staff about the day to day elements of the job. I'd be happy if you wanted to PM me.

Hmm, I think I got my tone wrong as I didn't expect for it to be suggested that I may have ADHD (I don't think I do?! My dad is a psychiatrist so you would hope he would have picked it up in my childhood if I did...)

What my post really should have expressed was that I recognise that my natural tendencies are towards procrastination and disorganisation. I've overcome these many times to go through school, university & employment successfully, although I recognise that I struggle the most when I am "self starting", so for example when writing my MA dissertation. Every day being a deadline sounds brilliant to me @noblegiraffe!

Particularly now though, I feel that in the 5 years since I left full-time work and have been primarily at home, with the last 2 years being exclusively at home overseas home educating the kids, my drive/organisation has diminished further - for me a lot of being a SAHM is so low-key and bitty that it is easy to just drift along. Since moving from where we were 2 years ago I also don't have any voluntary roles (used to be governor, PTA etc), which I think helped me have to organise time to get things done etc and just feel a bit of "oomph" to life.

I hope the above doesn't indicate that I am totally temperamentally unsuited to teaching, but that I recognise these traits could cause issues - that was why I was posting.

@noblegiraffe, no I am applying in the autumn - we only moved back to the UK a few months ago & I think I would be setting myself up to fail leaping into it - still in temporary housing etc, settling kids etc.

@iwrotethissongfor that's just it, I need a fire lit under me! The fire fighting of SAHM life is a different kettle of fish...

@LolaSmiles, thanks, I am spending one day a week volunteering in school as of next term which I think will be really helpful.

You do need to pay attention to what heffalump said. Maths has books which you kind of need to give back with regular, shorter bursts of marking, essential to get done so you can a improve/feedback the next lesson (hope that's fair noble?) English ahs extended writing. Whilst some schools set deadlines for completion and marking these can be a bit more lax and , of done I separate books, or on paper, some teachers can allow it to fester, and build , and build. And them, yes, rub students, parents and colleagues up the wrong way. Experienced male teachers get away with this on charm and learned patheticness. Not somuch bright eyed new recruits!

English is a great subject to teach but the marking! Oh Lord have mercy.

scuse typos! That should read if done in separate books

Thanks piggywaspushed, I've noted that...

I thought your reference to needing testicles wasn't actually literal! Is it a male trait in schools then?

It is in my experience! Good old fashioned entitlement and enabling! Bless their hearts.

Here was me thinking the learned patheticness in a certain type of male teacher in order to drift by was just one of my observations.
They often get promoted somewhere too and whilst keen on telling others how the students are so good for them, have a knack of never ending up with challenging groups.

Could you do a part time course to ease into it? I think you will be perfectly fine, it's sometimes just getting into the rhythm to start with! Have you talked to any universities? They were really helpful when I was looking for my pgce course.

Omg I also know males of that ilk. Female ‘deputy’ who ends up picking up the slack while they ‘big picture’.

I am starting Schools Direct teacher training in September and could have written you original post Sophy. I am hoping that having loads of deadlines will keep me going. I find I'm much more of a procrastinator when I'm doing something for myself (eg after 15 years of marriage haven't got round to sticking bag of wedding photos in an album) but I'm not so bad if other people are involved. My friends don't realise what a disorganised mess I am.

I found being a SAHM without any real deadlines very demotivating. I'm expecting teacher training to be really hard but I don't think lack of motivation will be a problem. Organisation maybe more so, guess I will found out soon!

People have always said that I am crazily organised with time. I suppose it’s my way of dealing with pressure. But good grief! The level of organisation needed for full time teaching is beyond the pale. Probably fine if you’ve got a personal PA for administration and calendar support. Or if you don’t require much sleep.

I am not naturally organised and wasn't really brought up to be self-organised as a child/teen, but I found that I developed very strong organisational skills in teaching. In fact, my last HT kindly described me as :'Too organised.'

However, what I would say is that forcing myself to be that person contributed to very high stress levels and ultimately to burnout. I left teaching after about ten years and am much better now in a role where I have a higher level of autonomy over what I do and when I do it.

I noticed that some of the most successful teachers I worked with seemed to have a knack of just focusing on the most crucial things and not worrying about the detail.

If you are also a perfectionist, you are utterly done for!

Hi OP,
We sound v similar personality types! I am also a real pro crastinator, awful at time management and organisation - but v academic, high-achieving. I trained to be a secondary English teacher 13ish years ago - and I found it such a battle. My subject knowledge was excellent, I got on really well with pupils and staff - but found the workload almost impossible. I am also a bit of a perfectionist (hence poor time management), not sure if you are too?
I genuinely feel that tue really excellent teachers are those who are, either naturally or through bloodymindedness, extremely organised and great at time management. I really do. My Cambridge English degree was neither here nor there when it came to marking 32 Y11 mock GCSEs!

So I don't want to discourage you because you may love the job, and it may be that you work better under pressure - but I would really recommend asking your mentor for lots of help with being organised, doing your standards portfolio week by week, writing a timetable for work/reading that you need to do at home, and keeping dates, marks, etc in your teacher planner.
My third and last child starts school Sept 2020 and I need to find a new career because I just would not be able to juggle!
Good luck x

Procrastinating mucky pup here!
It's an ongoing battle, but after 20 years teaching I've learnt little tricks :)
I now take pride in an organised classroom, as losing paperwork etc steals time, and I can't bear that!
I mark at home, as I can never finish a class set at work, and would rather get a whole class done in one go.
What I do struggle with are bigger "projects "- if it hasn't got a deadline then I will let it rumble along for ages. I hate that.
You will be fine!! You will learn tricks and what works for you.
Good luck.

As a really terrible procrastinator, teaching has actually helped my mental health and I think is a perfect fit for me.

Having a timetable and clear tasks like ‘mark this pile of books’ and ‘back this display board’ means I get things done and don’t sit in a paralysed panic of self-hatred (my procrastination really was/is extreme and upsetting). The timetable in a school is a god send, really - in my former office job i’d have days full of self-loathing sitting in front of my screen and not doing anything until after 5pm, then going home feeling like I hadn’t truly earned my salary. At the end of a teaching day, I feel tired, but like i’ve done what i’ve been paid for.

In terms of organization - use lists, tick things off. You need to be organized in order to do the job, and it happens naturally.

Tl;dr: I’m a massive procrastinator, and teaching helps me manage it.

I agree with many of the pps.
I’m a massive procrastinator and one thing I love about teaching is the reactive nature of it and the millions of little deadlines. I used to project manage in a previous life and found it really stressful because I had to organise in advance off my own steam.
I actually think teaching can be more stressful for organised types because schools are such chaotic places and you need to be able to roll with that.