Tag Archives: Lynn Grove Academy

My life as a Teacher in the UK: Welcome to Mr. Dengler’s Class

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This was the look I had on the first day that I entered “MY” classroom, and it basically says it all.

It’s hard to tell if I’m surprised that this is all happening, if I’m giddy with excitement, or scared out of my wits unsure of what I’ve gotten myself into.

I guess thinking back, it was a bit of everything.  As some teens and young adults would say,I have started “adulting”.  This was a huge step for me.  Not only is this my first full-time career job, I also had to start learning to do things by myself (such as calling utility companies and setting up different accounts).

Teaching at Lynn Grove is so different from anything I’ve ever experienced.  I currently teach 9 different classes in total, which is more than double what I’ve ever taught at once.  I had to learn everything quickly and it took me a long time to catch up to all my work.  I had to learn the curriculum, find out where the students had left off at, as well as learning the school policies and operating procedures.  In my posts while I am teaching at Lynn Grove, I will be talking about British school life, classroom experiences and comparisons to previous teaching experiences in Canada.

Day 5 in the UK: Lynn Grove Academy visit and interview

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On Thursday I was excited to go visit Lynn Grove Academy.  They were my second choice from the interview event that Engage Education set up for us.  I was torn between which three schools I was going to put as the top of my choices.  I knew this was one of my top choices but I had to rank them carefully to make sure that I got matched if they chose me.  I ended up putting Lynn Grove Academy as my second choice as I felt like they were going to offer me exactly what I was looking for in a job (6 months with the option to extend, have the opportunity to do extra-curricular sports that I’m familiar with, as well as a school that will mentor me to develop strong skills and equip me as a starting teacher).  I had put a different school down as my first choice as I thought I had a stronger interview with that school, but I didn’t get a follow up interview/school visit.

Upon arrival to the town, I was picked up by my consultant and shown around the area.  I was felt completely at ease because it kind of felt like home already, we were right on the coast which is what I’m used to considering I’ve lived in Vancouver and Richmond, which are both right by the water.  The way the classes were run were very similar to that of Carlton Bolling (to see my post about that school click here), the main differences were the demographics of students (almost no immigrants), the students seemed better behaved (I wonder if it has to do with teaching style and classroom management), and their approach to differentiated learning was different (instead of confining each student to their expected level of work, they were given challenge questions to try and achieve higher than they were “capable” of).  All of the staff were very friendly and welcoming and I felt very comfortable while teaching my mini lesson.  At the end of the day, they must have felt comfortable with me as well, as I got the job offer around an hour after my visit was over.  This is definitely going to be a crucial part of my journey to becoming a seasoned teacher, the six months starting in January, are going to test my skills and build more character in me.  I am looking forwards to this opportunity and I am excited to see what life has in store for me.

 

Funny stories of that day:

  1. First reaction of the principal of the school when she saw me was, “Your taller than I expected.  You looked smaller when we did the Skype interview.”
  2. When given a tour of the history wing, the head of history showed me one class and said that if I decided to take the job I would be in this particular class.  As soon as she said that, I started imagining what sort of “Mr. Dengler flair” I could add to classroom (I didn’t even know if I would be offered the job yet!!  How dare me!!).