NQT FOCUS NQT FOCUS
You may be
getting to
Making
grips with the
classroom, but
it is vital that your work/
life balance is healthy.
time for
Margaret Adams looks
at how to make time for
the rest of your life
ITH HALF a term of
yourself
W
teaching behind you, you
are beginning to realise
how easily the job of being
a teacher can take over
your whole life. You have
already experienced long
and exhausting days followed by evenings filled with
marking. You have lost weekends to lesson preparation
and similar tasks.
Now, as you move into your second half-term as a
teacher, it is time to remind yourself that you have a
life outside teaching that also needs your attention. It is
time to ensure that during this half-term you take steps
to make time for the rest of your life.
Don’t let school take over your home
You will probably need to do some of your school work
at home. However, it is all too easy to allow school to
take over your living space and the time you spend in
your home environment.
Avoid this by keeping everything to do with your
job in one part of your home. Even if you do some of
your marking sitting on your sofa, once you stop work,
put the marking away. Make sure it is out of sight
when you come to relax and that you cannot see those
unmarked assignments out of the corner of your eye
when you are watching television.
Set limits on the amount of time you spend in the
evenings and at the weekends on school work. When
the time you have set to stop working arrives, or when
it is Saturday afternoon and you have promised yourself
you will do something unconnected with school life,
put your school work away.
Keep away from the emails too. Make a point of
not sending out work-related emails late at night or at
the weekend. Keep separate email accounts for your
private life and work life, and do not look at the work
emails at times when you are not working.
All of this is important because if you do not create
boundaries and barriers between your school life and
your life outside work, you will be thinking about
school most of the time. You will be tempted to go
back to those school-based task when you really need
a break. As a result you will never have any time off
from work.
Give yourself permission to relax
Yes, there is a lot to do and there are always deadlines
to meet, but that does not mean you should just carry on
working all the time.
Teaching is a career in which there is always more
you could do. There are always things you could
improve on. There is always something that you know
attacked. Examining your beliefs around what human
Being assertive
rights people are entitled to is another useful way to
explore this subject.
For example, if you were running a special needs
class, at a human level you might say that every child
has a right to education no matter what their special
needs are.
Unfortunately, special needs children are not always
considered part of the mainstream so it can be difficult
CPD coach
s an NQT, you are in a unique And likewise, if you were to concentrate on the not to react and use emotive language when others treat
A
position in that you are new, full of needs of others before your own all the time, you might you as an after thought or add on, rather than part of
ideas, and still able to see clearly be perceived as weak, passive or a walkover. the community.
Dorothy
what the school should be doing When you stand in the middle zone between It is at times like this that we associate with the
to improve the learning experience your needs and other needs it gives you choice and people we are representing and can feel like a trouble-
Struthers
for children. flexibility because your judgement is not clouded by maker or even bleeding heart in trying to make our
The biggest problem however emotions. stand and be heard.
is that even if you have been there four years you People can sometimes be quite glib when describing Instead it might be useful to try to reframe your
writes regularly
probably still do not feel comfortable enough to fully what assertiveness is, and sometimes people associate thinking and ask yourself why others treat you as
express your personal opinions or to challenge the it with those who get their own way. This is not always an after thought. Is it a lack of understanding and
for SecEd’s CPD pages.
teachers who have been there for much longer. The key right. exposure?
to being assertive is learning how to understand. When you are assertive, you have clarity, are polite And if this were true, what could I do to encourage
but firm, are able to express your needs and make more collective ownership and responsibility rather
Here she puts her NQT
Balancing the needs
yourself heard without feeling brow-beaten, and you than feeling like you have to defend or fight for the
Assertiveness is about balance, balancing the needs of respect yourself as much as others. And the most rights of others.
hat on and offers advice
others with your own. important thing is that you have the ability to listen
Assertiveness is a bit like being a referee standing without judgement and you come from a place of
Dealing with anger
between two players representing “my needs” and the wanting to understand rather than win. Another difficult situation that can be difficult to handle
on that most difficult of
“needs of others”. It is the middle ground or neutral zone. is anger and personal criticism because it can throw
If you are always focused on your own needs and
Examine your beliefs
you into a state of confusion, and leave you not really
skills – being assertive
arguing from that standpoint, others might perceive you Sometimes we realise we are not being assertive when knowing what to do, especially if you are not used to
as selfish, rude or even aggressive. we react in situations where we feel under threat or ranting and raving yourself.
18 SecEd • November 26 2009
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