Teaching is a vocation but it doesn't have to be your life
I am now 6 weeks into my first job and into my NQT year and I can safely say I am loving it; it is everything I hoped for from my PGCE year with loads more responsibility and loads more freedom at the same time.
I am now free to take my classes how I wish and I may take risks as and when I want. There is both less and more pressure: I am no longer observed every lesson and so the fear of making mistakes has lessened; if I make a mistake now (and I definitely still make them) no one jumps on my back immediately, I sort it out and if I'm stuck I have people I can turn to. Yet there is also more pressure: my teaching hours have increased massively, and although my classes are tiny compared to state sector, marking takes up a lot of my time. In addition to this, if I mess up, at the end of the year it is my fault if a kid fails as a result; no one else will take the wrath for me.
Most of this will not be a surprise for those in their NQT year, or past it, and is written all over the internet for those looking at teaching or on their PGCE course, however what I write next may surprise you: I am still me. I still have a social life, I see my friends regularly and whilst it takes some effort to manage my social life, my relationship and my work, it happens, somehow. Now I don't get it all right and I often lean the balance too far one way or the other but I have found it is doable. I get to enjoy my hobbies, and see my friends and for the most part continue with all the groups I was a part of before teaching. The only thing that has been pushed the wayside is the number of TV programmes that I used to regularly watch, and I'm not fussed by that.
Teaching is a vocation not a job but it doesn't have to be your life; you CAN teach and still be a human being, even if you do have weeks where you don't feel like it.
There will inevitably be weeks where you are stressed beyond belief, where friends have to make way for work, but with a bit of foresight and planning, I have found that you can both be a teacher, and have a life.
I am now free to take my classes how I wish and I may take risks as and when I want. There is both less and more pressure: I am no longer observed every lesson and so the fear of making mistakes has lessened; if I make a mistake now (and I definitely still make them) no one jumps on my back immediately, I sort it out and if I'm stuck I have people I can turn to. Yet there is also more pressure: my teaching hours have increased massively, and although my classes are tiny compared to state sector, marking takes up a lot of my time. In addition to this, if I mess up, at the end of the year it is my fault if a kid fails as a result; no one else will take the wrath for me.
Most of this will not be a surprise for those in their NQT year, or past it, and is written all over the internet for those looking at teaching or on their PGCE course, however what I write next may surprise you: I am still me. I still have a social life, I see my friends regularly and whilst it takes some effort to manage my social life, my relationship and my work, it happens, somehow. Now I don't get it all right and I often lean the balance too far one way or the other but I have found it is doable. I get to enjoy my hobbies, and see my friends and for the most part continue with all the groups I was a part of before teaching. The only thing that has been pushed the wayside is the number of TV programmes that I used to regularly watch, and I'm not fussed by that.
Teaching is a vocation not a job but it doesn't have to be your life; you CAN teach and still be a human being, even if you do have weeks where you don't feel like it.
There will inevitably be weeks where you are stressed beyond belief, where friends have to make way for work, but with a bit of foresight and planning, I have found that you can both be a teacher, and have a life.
Well done for achieving such a good balance! Hope you manage to sustain it.
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