In at the deep end: teacher training during a pandemic

Zoe Levy, ECT from Sheffield shares her experience of training during the Coronavirus pandemic. For more information about ACT’s new network for Early Career Teachers, please do contact us.

I began to train to teach in September 2019. It is unfortunate that most of my ITT year was spent in front of a computer rather than in a classroom. My ITT cohort and I spent just shy of two ‘normal’ terms in training schools before the first lockdown. During this time my, and many other, training providers did their best to continue our training theoretically and virtually so that we could end the school year as qualified teachers. So, after spending nearly as much time away from the classroom as I ever spent in it, I started my job as an NQT (now called ECT) in September 2020. Teaching now involved tape on the floor showing me where I could stand to stay socially distanced and no movement around the classroom. It also involved the setting as much work for students self-isolating as there were in my classroom. This new normal didn’t fit the training I’d been given, and despite being called ‘qualified’ as a teacher it has been difficult to view myself as such; more like a driver who has never passed their practical test and yet is given a licence.

This is not to say that my training was in any way lacking (training us for online teaching prior to this would have been decidedly odd) or that I actually was underqualified for my job. Simply that missing out on training and being away from students had led me to be more unsure of my capabilities and of my workplace.

I can’t speak for all new teachers, but I grieve the time I have missed. The freedom to learn and review mistakes and new methods found in initial teacher training is a gift. Having the time to hone skills and track your progress with a mentor is valuable time lost. It has been easy, therefore, to feel underqualified and like an imposter among other teachers. How am I supposed to be a great teacher when I still have so much to learn? What about the students I am teaching now; will their education be worse because of my ability to teach?

Fortunately, Jesus has met me in these worries and feelings of inadequacy because while I am concerned about the lost time and how good I am, his plan is already in motion and on track.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

God invites us to himself and his plan. Through submitting to his will the path, while maybe still troublesome, will be straight. Looking at my professional development and students’ education through this lens takes the immediate pressure off. I am simply too unpowerful to ruin scientific education for all my students, especially when God is with me in my work and fuelling my desire to be better. Will I continue to better my practice? Absolutely, and I will continue to work hard to do so knowing that God goes with me.

Knowing Jesus has been a huge comfort in adapting from trainee to teacher. The feelings of being an imposter among my profession are not limited to myself, the other newly qualified teachers in my school felt similarly. Many of my friends and I employed a ‘fake it until you make it’ attitude to cope. We dressed smartly and mirrored our colleagues hoping this would make us feel as though we belonged and were ‘proper’ teachers. The issue we ran into doing this was the lack of individuality and joy within our teaching. With all the stress of missed time it was easy to let our joy in the profession wane; this being amplified by fear of not being good enough. I experienced a pivotal point with this during the January 2021 lockdown. Cold weather, social isolation and teaching online classes to what felt like 32 brick walls five times a day took its toll. I was left wondering if this was for me and had to return to why I become a teacher at all. ​

I love teaching, mainly, because I love my subject. I acknowledge that not all find beauty in molecules and experiments, but I find deep joy in delving into the awesomeness of science because it points to an ingenious creator God, the ultimate scientist and engineer of everything. Johannes Kepler said that science was “thinking God’s thoughts after Him”. In the process of ‘fake it until you make it’ to feel adequate and a sense of belonging within teaching I had forgotten the reason why I loved it.

Once more I remembered that the love of teaching comes too from God. My favourite Psalm is 139.

In verse 13 it says:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.”

God intentionally knitted me into the person I am, my love of science and teaching included. Thinking I could be a better teacher by doing an impression of one instead of embracing the teacher I am and bettering that was folly. Focusing less on my identity as a good teacher and stressing over that freed me from the worry.

This is not to say all my worries and insecurities about teaching disappeared, I wish it had. But I can find space within my concerns to centre myself around God rather than around myself. Re-finding the joy in teaching freed me in that lockdown. I used this joy to make classes engaging.

My year groups still remind me of the time I ruined my kitchen during an experiment. Many can still recall our efforts to make the biggest explosion from fizzy drinks and mentos (Diet coke worked best for any interested). This time also allowed me to bond with my department team more, which has led to great friendships and seamless sharing of good practice, along with a never-ending stream of science fun facts and jokes.

I do not want to only focus on lost training for the last few years of new teachers, but to also draw attention to what has been gained. Through frustration of leaning to teach virtually I am continually empathetic to students who are isolating and learning from home. Doing so as a 23-year-old ITT with a degree was hard enough. Thanks to lockdown I avoided eye contact with Y7 during our reproduction topic as an NQT; for this I will always be a little bit thankful. I have learned new ways of communicating with students when they are not in the room and how to set more meaningful cover work. I also bonded in adversity with my team and fellow trainees.

While training as a teacher has felt like starting from behind in these past few years, I can be thankful. Despite feelings of being an imposter and inadequacy God continues to fill me with love for teaching, confidence that I am the teacher he intended me to be and knowledge that he will see me through because of who his is. There is more to life than teaching and my identity is not found in being the best at my profession (although that would be nice) but in the person of Jesus.