Introduction: The recruitment season for schools is on. Both the recruiters and the seekers are on their feet. One side wants a fair job opportunity to grow as a teacher and the other side wants a fine resource. Fire is equal on both the side. A hot love affair every summer. This blog points out some issues and matters of facts which are usually un noticed and un identified. Missing out some such issues creates fear and ambiguity in a teacher’s mind. There are certainly some solutions to them. This blog addresses them. Not only the problems but also the probable best solutions.
Every year, schools have the following new members:
1. Absolute Freshers.
2. Switching over teachers from other schools.
Problems with Freshers:
1. They find everything, absolutely new. A wonderland fantasy as it’s a new job. Its natural and it should happen to. If you are not fascinated, you will not be curious about.
2. They are un ware of the organizational structure, hierarchy and also the flow chart of the school’s protocols.
3. They feel reluctant to speak about things and issues they have in mind and hence they find it difficult to seek counsel from peers and seniors.
Being a fresher has its own advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
1. They are usually young and fresh, most of the time, they are recent college pass outs and have a fair amount of a student in them.
2. They become a center of attraction in young learner’s fraternity because they seemingly match their frequencies a bit faster.
3. They have a fairly better chance of getting closer to the students.
Disadvantages:
1. If they fail to impress the students through their neo-tactics on the very first day, they find themselves at a cross.
2. They are usually under pressure due to the following factors:
a. Whether or not they are delivering the lectures as required and instructed.
b. Whether they have the required level of subject knowledge.
c. Whether they are coping up with the syllabi.
d. Lack of Inter-personal communication with colleagues.
e. Hesitations and fear of the staff room (please read my other blog on staff room)
f. Insecurity of losing the job.
Recommendations for Freshers & Switchers:
a. Prepare a magnificent and mesmerizing ice-breaking session. Try to make it a never before one.
b. Just keep in mind that the session has to be based on the subject matter you are dealing with and not a Google/YouTube cut paste.
c. Be cautious, students love to have fun but the school wants results.
d. Be very sincere in planning the ice breaking session.
e. Plan your classes for just two weeks and try including the following:
1. A surprise test. A short one perhaps with some MCQs and a couple of short subjective.
2. Two activities (one per week). Each of which should be subject related and topic related. Always remember your students have more sources of information than you. So, create activities yourself.
3. Prepare a fortnight report. Present it to the principal and your reporting authority. Remember, your work should be known to at least two of your seniors. So mail them the report with legitimate cc.
4. Meet parents only when they want to and that too with permission from the decisive authorities.
5. Be punctual. Punctuality has nothing to do with timing. You know what I mean then.
6. Start correcting notebooks at tandem. Just 5-6 notebooks per day. Don’t collect the notebooks of entire class and take them home for correction. Please take good care of your home, don’t get them infected by your stereotyped habit of teachers.
This will prevent you from just correcting for the sake of correction but you will be able to actually correct the mistakes as you will have ample time for each notebook. Also, judiciously checked notebooks will save you from some parents who are teachers and especially your colleagues whose ward is your student.
Recommendations for Schools:
1. Schools should pave the path for the new teachers to settle down. Like, putting a brick in an old wall needs artistry along with skills.
2. Usually an old fashioned induction is done in schools for every new team member where they are all gathered with the old staff members and are simply asked to , tell us something about yourself type of stuff. And the updated version has a long power point presentation about the school history and other things. And finally the entire convention ends up being a samosa(India’s national snack) treat.
3. Schools should take due care while taking the first staff meeting including the new ones. The agenda should be to make the new ones feel good and the older ones to make everyone settle down. I have experienced that the new ones are usually seen as creatures of Jurassic park.
4. Such inductions and meetings should focus on keeping the staff intact to their organization and not make them rethink their acceptance of the offer letter.
5. Its always the senior leadership of the school to be held responsible for keeping the new ones , not only on their feet but also on a higher level of motivation, if not self awareness.
