HPSS part 1: The induction

This will be my first proper post, which I am finally attempting under the auspices of the '28 day challenge'. What follows is 28 minute's worth of unedited writing. Take it at face value I suppose.

This is not the reason I decided I would begin blogging. It was, however, my intention to document my experience as a beginning teacher at HPSS, thereby tracking my growth and giving me something nice to look back on when I need some encouragement further down the line. Of course, the prospect of using these posts as evidence for my PTC's is no hurt either.

Still don't know how to tag things properly, but one thing at a time.

To begin, I think, a quick retrospective on the first few days at my new school. It has now been just a week since I started, but so much has happened in that time that I am worried that already important things have slipped from my memory. Damn. Oh well.

Walking through the doors of my new school last Tuesday, I ran straight into the thick of a conversation already in progress. Ensnared in the midst of a social interaction in which my nearly entirely uncaffinated self was ill-equipped to participate (I believe I managed to maintain an outward façade of attention), I was relieved when there was discovered coffee in the staff room. An ignoble beginning, and maybe not the best attitude, but there it is.

The next few days were a barrage of information. All important things, of course - restorative practise, being a learning coach, how modules work, assessment, big projects, blended learning. As is always the case when presented with a great deal of information in a short time, the experience was exhausting. I feel like I kept on top of the information, and time will tell if I have truly absorbed it all, but so far there have been no calamities. It's a shame my desk is made of glass, but it's a good thing I am not superstitious. The experience did mean that my brain shut down rather suddenly every night once I arrived home, but the sleep was all the more blissful for the effort.

I really do believe in what we are doing at HPSS. Everything which was mentioned during the induction makes sense. Why the school does what it does makes sense. I think there is a perception, certainly amongst those to whom I have failed to sufficiently explain the system, that what we do is far to experimental. A nice idea, but it will inevitably fail. You and I know that such an assertion is untrue; to me, it feels right. It feels reasonable. It feels inevitable.

I think that's where the buzz that I get from the school comes from. That feeling of excitement that transmutes the everyday. Obviously it is still early days, but already I feel like I am getting to plan exactly the sorts of things that I want to do. Now, it's not about me. But just for the first few days, I am happy to self-indulge: I am part of the future, and I love it.

28 minutes are up. Next time, my experiences with my hub. Hopefully if I have a plan for next time it will force me to continue with this.