Spent today teaching at
Boroughmuir High School in
Edinburgh . It's taken a long time for my name to find its way on to the Edinburgh supply list; this was the first time I've been approached to work there. It was good to get a chance to see how another school works, and I was made very welcome by the teachers there, especially Peter Shannon and Graeme Findlay in Maths. There was also a comprehansive introductory pack with all the essentials for visiting teachers – right down to a "permission to visit the toilet" pass.
One of the advantages of the alternative probation route (i.e. not following the Teacher Induction Scheme) is the possibility of working in a range of different schools as a supply teacher. The downside, of course, is that if you're just in for the day you can't gain in-depth experience in your subject area. You're also much less likely to have non-teaching periods available for any kind of planning – you're an extra pair of hands, and can expect to be fully employed… Today's timetable ended up including English and personal and social development, where I was in trouble trying to identify a range of recreational drugs from photographs. It turned out there was some uncertainty over whether the text book was right, so a visit from the police was planned to sort it out.
Found out from a poster about the Royal Navy's Maths and Engineering in Action web site,
www.rn-maths.co.uk. This looks like it should help in my efforts to make maths seem relevant. I plan to have a look and see what's there.