Am I too laid back?

[madnessitellyou]

Secondary trainee. Did something else for over 20 years and in my last "old career" job I was a senior manager, worked in excess of 60 hours a week and with very little scope for more than a couple of days at a time of annual leave. Indeed, I missed the first part of a family holiday as my boss wouldn't let me have the time. In short, I'm not averse to working under pressure or contemplating a big workload. I also know that as a trainee, I'm currently only scratching the surface of what it is to be a teacher.

Anyway, I'm currently teaching around 6 hours a week. My planning is taking aeons as I'm new to this but I'm being meticulous in my approach and am getting good feedback that I'm using to improve. I'm seeking support where needed. I'm reading everything the school sends out in relation to SEND, pastoral etc so I can ensure I'm trying to meet the pupils' needs.

I also have an assignment to do and have started a little bit of reading around that too.

However, some of my cohort are staying up until 2am making resources. Their mentor meeting records are mini reflective essays. I'm not! I'm doing what I need to do, and have no doubt I'm in some sort of honeymoon period, but should I really be doing this?!

If you're doing what you need to do, what is the question? You have professional experience your cohort does not, it probably makes this sort of reflection easier for you.

My question is am going to fail for not presenting expansive mentor meeting notes. Because that's what I'm feeling like at the moment!

I'm a mentor

I don't want to see pages and pages of notes

-just tell me how your week has been

You're not too laid back, they're probably headed for burn-out.

Their mentors should be telling them to rein it in.

I just feel I'm being lazy. This is the first year in a long time (apart from last year when I worked at a school) I've not had obscene pressure to deal with and I'm savouring it. I know that's coming!

I got told not to make too many resources last year as a trainee. If you're up til 2am, you probably can't give your best the next day. You sound like you have it right.

My mentor told me starting out : don't do anything that you can't sustain in the years ahead and only do what's useful for the children for their learning
I would say you are doing fine.

Sounds like you have the experience to prioritise and manage your time. Like you say, this is the good bit where you have space to learn, develop and grow. The buck doesn’t stop with you yet and you are enjoying that! As for the others, the drop out rate in teacher training is high - and it’s easy to see why!

The other person I was on placement with used to stay up til midnight making resources. I absolutely didn't. I was the one who got a job there at the end of it. I work long hours but some people in teaching really do need to learn to manage their time better and consider whether certain tasks are worth the man hours they take.

If you were going to fail, your mentor would have told you you’re going to fail. She hasn’t. So you’re not. Keep taking your approach. It sounds spot on

I’m teacher training this year in FE. I am gaining many mantras along the way but my main one at the moment is - if it’s taking too long I’m doing it wrong 😉 It’s very easy to get carried away with any part of the training but at what cost to other parts? Those up all night - are they going to be up to thinking straight when they are in lessons? I’m working at doing enough but not too much. And when you first start it’s so easy to do so much somewhere but at what cost?? My planning was taking forever at the cost of me not having any time to read around and theory work. I too have assignments coming up 😩😩😩 They need my attention as much as all the other stuff or I’m not going to pass whatever the quality of my snippings and laminatings!! I’m trying to ensure everything I do is worth the time. Does it have value? Is it worth my time? My students’?

As a mentor I'd say there is an interesting relationship between quality of trainee teaching and amount of very neatly presented, excessively lengthy paperwork. The trainees I've worked with who spend ages on paperwork have tended to be the ones who were weaker in the classroom and clung to making resources/paperwork because they're easy, superficial wins.

It's easy to make resources and type up extensive notes. It's difficult to reflect on your teaching, relfect on advice and put it into action in the classroom

You sound like a lovely trainee trainee mentor.