Things I Wish Were On My PGCE But Weren't: Number 8 Little things that make me look prepared

I am actually really ashamed to tell you this, but when you think about it, it’s not me that should be ashamed, but those that were responsible for my Initial Teacher Training and subsequent induction into work.

I didn’t know that schools and colleges had their own lesson proformas until after my first NQT assessment, when I got spectacularly told off for using my own. Simply, no one had ever told me. During my PGCE, We designed and used our own. In my first post, I was never told about or given the official lesson plan proforma to use, so I just carried on using my own.

It seems really stupid, that such an important thing that is used so often and in everyday life in that school, never managed to make it’s way to me.  It’s such a little thing, that I could have just been given, just like that, or emailed as soon as I started. I wouldn’t have even needed to have been told to use it: I would have seen it, realised what it was, and used it. I’m not daft.

Someone cocked up, on something so little, that turned into such a big deal and made me look really unprofessional. I can think of other little things like that, that I was just never told, but then was bollocked for as if I knew all about them. Here’s a list:

• Ø  Don’t add students to your social networking accounts (this was a few years ago)
• Ø  Don’t wear casual clothes when you’re expected to lug music equipment about
• Ø  Don’t go to lessons to learn to drive the college’s minibus when you don’t have the right class on your driving license
• Ø  Don’t use all the practice rooms in the block for your lesson, just in case

There are probably more, when I really think about it. If I am going to be held accountable for something, then I want to be told what is expected of me. If I am not told what is expected of me, I don’t think I should be held accountable. Common sense really.

What happens is that teachers are held accountable for things they never knew were expected of them. Why in education are little things like this set all over the place to trap teachers?

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