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HAVING BOTH BEEN TEACHING

 Having both been teaching for four years (and in the same school for three) we share similar experiences and have many common concerns about being a Social Science teacher and working productively in a Social Science Department.

 We both enjoy teaching and see it as a challenging and satisfying career. The conditions at the girls private school where we teach are very good. The students are self disciplined and motivated to learn. As a result we are able to focus on the teaching of our subjects Business Studies and Geography, rather than having to spend time on classroom management

 Competition or Co-operation?

One of the biggest concerns that we have had in our first four years of teaching, concerns the lack of a team approach within our department. While we were all capable, enthusiastic individuals with great ideas, keen to encourage out students in co-operative learning our department as a whole has not been working as a team. Although some members of the department were working together in some subjects it was not the approach being taken by the department as whole.

Resulting Effects

As a department:

• We were doubling and even tripling up on lesson planing and creation of resources and therefore doubling and tripling our workload.

 

• We weren't discussing and sharing our ideas as much as we could and learning from one another.

 

• Members of the department are often reluctant to share the problems they have experienced with students in the classroom, for fear it might make them look like 'bad teachers'. As a result we were not learning from one anthers experience and getting ideas about how to deal with situations effectively.

In my first year of teaching I taught two years seven History classes one which was my own and one which I shared with another teacher due to a clash in the timetable. The first thing I noticed was that there was significant difference in the way the History Department were organising and planning their year seven History lessons from the way the Social Science Department were planning their Geography and Business Studies lessons.

The Social Science Department was preparing their lessons individually, there was no discussion prior to planning a unit of work or even a lesson. On some occasions a worksheet may be shared after it had been written, but this wasn't something that happened very often and certainly wasn't something that everyone in the department did. At times I felt quite overwhelmed with the workload especially when I was preparing Business Studies lessons, a subject which I hadn't actually been trained to teach. I would have really liked it if there had been someone that I could have sat down with and planned a topic, pooling and discussing ideas and dividing up the workload.

Far more discussion and consultation was going on in the History Department. The head of department actually divided up the workload and gave each teacher either in pairs or as individuals the responsibility of planning and preparing resource materials for the others teaching year seven History. They gave each teacher an outline of the topics to cover as well as photocopies of resources to be used. This was absolutely wonderful for a first year teacher not only was my workload reduced but I was able to see what other teachers did and learn from them. I was given the responsibility of writing a section of the new program jointly with another teacher. By writing the program this way I was able to learn from her experience of having written programs in the past and we were able to bounce ideas of one another and share knowledge of resources.

 While this was my initial experience in the Social Science Department, things have improved. Other members have joined the department who have been more keen to work as a team. We have planned lessons together, discussed strategies and team taught. I am not saying its perfect to work as a team all the time, there are drawbacks often people feel constrained. I've heard members of the History department only recently express their frustration at having to keep up to the exact topic as everyone else teaching a particular year group and use the same activities and resources when they would like, for example, to be able to spend more time on a topic, they or the students were interested in. Of course, the reason the system exists is because of the importance placed on exams!

• How do you create a team approach within a department?

• Is it realistic to expect everyone in a department to agree to work together as a team?

• Is it reasonable for a teacher within a department to work independently and have minimal consultation with others?

• Is it the responsibility of the head of department to cerate a situation where people are working together?

• Competition or Co-operation? Individuals working by themselves or working together? How can a Social Science department achieve the best results?

I arrived at the school one week before the term started to prepare for my lessons. I had spent the last year teaching at a small independent school and was now embarking on a new career at a private girls school.

I felt like a first year out all over again. I had new subjects, new classes, new rules/regulations, new school culture. I was given a Year 12 Business Studies class and had to pick up from where the last teacher had left. I panicked. How could I teach Year 12 Business Studies when I wasn't even familiar with the Year 11 course. I was unfamiliar with the syllabus and content areas.

I sweated it out that week trying to prepare wizz bang lessons full of varied and interesting activities that would appeal to all learning styles and all abilities. It was a difficult, almost overwhelming task. It was taking me longer to prepare the lessons that it would to actually teach them. By the end of the week I was exhausted and ready for another round of holidays. My thoughts very much focused on how I would survive my first school week in this new school.

Week 1 - I survived! The things I learnt during this week: to eat my lunch really fast, to use the special transparencies for photocopiers not the normal melting variety, to be particularly polite to the staff secretary and the kitchen staff, to survive on less than six hours sleep four nights running.

Week 2 - Started getting into the swing of things but a little apprehensive about filling in the range of school forms etc. We have a cupboard full of forms that have to be filled in for all sorts of things. Forms for absentees, forms for excursions, forms for detention, forms to notify parents of students consistent lateness to school, forms to incur expenses, forms to fill in if you are absent!

Week 3 - Started to learn some of the names and actually place them with the right face. Learnt to be extremely nice to the canteen lady. Still spending late nights trying to prepare wizz bang lessons for all of my classes.

Week 4- Getting on top of my subjects. Not really familiar with all the content area but learning to take it one step at a time.

Week 5- Attempt to plan an excursion. Spent my whole free period on the phone trying to book the buses. Spent my next free period filling in all the necessary forms.

Week 6- Realise I hadn't been assessing my classes enough because I was getting too caught up in preparing lessons and getting through all the content in the program within the allotted time. Set topic tests and assignments for all my classes.

Week 7- Vow that I will never set so many tests in one week. Spent every weeknight this week marking.

Week 8- really looking forward to the holidays. Not spending every night preparing lessons. Realise that I am spending too much time trying to make every lesson a memorable one. Decide that its OK to have a lessons which are not going to require a lot of input from me.

An important lesson to learn particularly as I had a very full timetable with frequent 5-6 (50 minute) period days.

Week 9- Thank God its a shortened week and I work in a private school which means an extra week holiday. I definitely think I earned it!

The Many Resources Needed by a HSIE Teacher

The resources for my teaching. I can't use the same article two years running. Every day I have to find time to scour the Financial Review for any current and relevant articles.

 There are loads of journals that provide an important and necessary link to the real world and provide essential examples of Business Studies, Economics, Geography etc. in practice. Often when the pile of 'unscored' journals and newspapers on my desk is so high that develops a precarious lean. I launch into the "Why didn't I become a maths teacher?" spiel. I mean, 'How often do mathematics theorems change?"

The enormity of the HSIE curriculum area can be overwhelming at times. Social Science teachers are expected to be Geographers, Economists, Legal and Business experts, Historians, and be knowledgeable in the areas of General Studies, Aboriginal and Asian Studies, Society and Culture, etc. etc. etc. After just two years of teaching I could add experience in teaching the following classes on my Curriculum Vitae.

Year 7: Geography

History

Commerce

Year 8: Geography

History

Year 9: Geography

Commerce

History

Year 10: Geography

Commerce

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