Fraser Darcy

At schools teachers do the teaching and students do the learning. So you think. That’s a narrow minded view. In a well functioning society the baker buys the flour, makes the bread, sells it and pays for a holiday to Europe with the money. They don’t just bake the bread. There’s give and take essentially. The same in schools. I may have held the role as ‘teacher’ this past year at Port Augusta Secondary School (PASS) but I did some learning of my own too and seeing as my contract finished last week, there’s no better time to reflect on what I learnt being Mr.Darcy.

1. I’m working 9-5. 8-3 and it’s cool.

Being a long time casual worker, stepping into the world of full-time work was always going to be exciting (stable pay, stable hours) but would I be able to adapt my previously less restrained lifestyle into a more constrained offering? Yes. It was fine. Like anything, it took a few weeks to get used to running my long runs after school but after that it was fine. It was a little annoying at times having to consider working the day before or after a busy running weekend but those are the challenging days I look back on semi-fondly. The boring Thursdays where it was easy runs either side of work all merge into one though. What was I even worried about in the first place anyway, I went through school myself for 13 years so have had a longer time period on ‘school schedule’ than anything else.

2. Domestication is not a frustration.

Again, switching from outdoor ed life to indoor ed life was a point of difference this year. I enjoyed the times I was working inside and it was rainy and windy. I enjoyed the amount of time I was able to buy groceries for the week and not have to worry about getting through them all before heading off on a trip. I enjoyed the consistency and rhythm I was able to build in my ‘home life’ by always having a comfortable sleeping environment too. Hence, being more domesticated this year was a positive. Mostly.

There were also times I stared out the window on a nice day at work wishing I could’ve gone for a good stroll. I wouldn’t have minded pushing a run or a little mini adventure past my bedtime on a school night once in a while but never did because I was too scared I’d sleep in the next day. I fell into a plateau of doing the same thing a couple of times, thinking ‘I’ve got life made, I’ll never get sick of this routine‘. But I did. If I am ever back in 9-5 mode I am better equipped to handle these plateaus. And, I really shouldn’t be adding in new points to the end of paragraphs but shoot me English teachers, the moment you think you’ve got figured out is the moment you get lazy.

3. Group think is real.

The most dangerous part of working at PASS is falling into the trap of group think. That can happen at any organisation and PASS is no different. The trouble is the group think at PASS isn’t one of a high performance environment. Teachers complain about students, students complain about everything and everyone accepts mediocrity in some capacity. I can’t change this as a one man band without much effort. But I can recognise it, challenge it in my own head and not fall into the trap.

I avoided getting too involved in some school events and activities for fear of being sucked in and losing time available to go running. This point links nicely into…

4. Disappear to Quorn vibe.

Each day when I left work to return home it was great. The thirty minute drive through the Pichi Richi pass allowed me to switch off and switch back into Quorn mode. I thought I might get sick of the drive each day but I actually loved it. The morning commute was always good post a successful morning run and coffee and the after-work drive, albeit difficult when I had to stop and nap sometimes, allowed me to disappear from whatever was troubling me at work. I always thought teachers did a lot of marking and prep work at home. I did a little bit but for the most of it, I didn’t and left work at work and home at home.

4. Paperwork and bureaucracy sucks the soul out of life.

Working as a fully-fledged public servant was an interesting situation. There was paperwork for everything and plenty of emails from the Department for Education’s headquarters that were absolutely useless! I know there needs to be all these checks and balances and ‘everyone has to be on the same page’ but geez it really stifles the creativity and free spirit in someone. Often I would think, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to do (insert cool thing here)‘ and then lose interest as I thought if I did that, I’d probably have to check with such and such and do this or that.

5. Minimal teaching time, positive parental influence and therefore setting up for success

There’s actually not that much time in a day at school to have an impact on a student’s life. On Monday’s and Friday’s I had each of my four classes for one lesson each that was 40 minutes in duration. If I had twenty students in a class that’s 2 minutes per student to ask them how they’re going, what they are finding difficult etc. That’s hardly any time. Over the days and weeks of a school year you build up relationships with some students who inevitably attract more of your time because they make use of it. Which leaves other students with very little of your time. I’ve constructed the argument here that maybe, the home is where the most educational impact can be made then. One or two parents, one or two children, way more time, way better ratios. Hence, a student is at a tremendous disadvantage if their parent or guardian has a poor attitude to school. ‘Maths, I was shit at maths at school, I can’t help with that’. Great, that’s exactly the type of attitude your son/daughter will have then even though most maths is basic problem solving (A SKILL EVERY F****** ADULT SHOULD HAVE, but probably doesn’t). So, like group think and the war against bureaucracy, without having an involvement with their home life and parental influence, it’s very difficult to change the pathway a poor student will follow. Instead, my energy was often directed (and enjoyably so) at students who were already interested in at least doing the work and in some rare cases, getting better.

6.My ability to contribute when I’m tired is poor

Something to highlight for future Fraser. If you ever think it’ll be possible to excel in running or whatever you do outside of work AND work then you’ve got to work bloody hard. Or get more energy. I slept a fair bit at work (once a week for maybe twenty-thirty mins, better than sitting on my phone mind you) to try and recover for my afternoon runs. I did not have the energy to go the extra mile in my planning and preparation because I was saving that energy for my runs. I’m sorry if there’s any past students reading this, I could’ve worked harder at times but I didn’t and I’m sorry (at least I never took any sick days though!).

7. Uncontrollable stress is bad

Last but certainly not least. As someone who has lived alone for the best part of two and a half years, I am able to control most of my environment. At school, this is not possible. I had an office I shared with five other teachers who each have their own idiosyncrasies and routines. On top of this there are more teachers walking past my window in my office, or in my classroom and of course the hundreds of students each day that I directly interacted with or saw in the yard. These individual characters all bring different noises and energies to school and I can’t control any of it! Many a time I had a lesson planned all ready to go and then bam, a bunch of students would rock up in a bit of a mood or tizz, drag the rest of the class down or up with them and I’d have to wrestle them back into focus (which I can imagine is similar to wrestling a bear into a box… put that down and get in the box Humphrey!). I didn’t enjoy entering an environment where any number of strange things could occur: play fighting, screaming children, kids doing the wrong thing etc etc. Yes I could’ve been more adaptable to this and took it in my stride but I didn’t ever fully welcome it.

Now, in these seven items there has been a mixture of negativity and positivity. The negative things are the biggest ‘teachings’ I’ve taken but so as not to leave you thinking I had an overall negative experience here are a list of short highlights that I will look back on fondly. Staff v student football (unrecognised unofficial best on ground), show-and-tell on Monday’s after races and getting kudos from some of my students, marking student’s work where they had done well and applied themselves, office banter, having two seperate strike days to muck around at school, going bushwalking with students who I knew already for the first time in about five years, educating via YouTube and many more.

If I were to go back and become a teacher again I would do things differently of course. I would address some of these points above (maybe focus less on running, try and be more adaptable). More importantly I would try to be stronger on the fundamentals within school that I got lazy on once I developed a ‘what’s the point’ attitude to protect my energy levels. I’m talking fundamentals like addressing teachers by their names, bringing pencils and books to class consistently, using the toilet in break times. You know, basic stuff that you would think gets taught in primary school. I wold also add to this a bit more emphasis on three words that I think PASS students would be better to value their lives by. Respect, responsibility and resilience. Have respect for themselves first, then others around them, then the buildings and equipment. Secondly, take responsibility for their own learning and not just accept ‘oh I can’t do that until some SSO helps me‘. Finally, show some bloody resilience in life. Try something and don’t be too scared to fail. So what. And if you do fail, learn from it, try again and get on with it. Most of the struggling students are either too loosely strung to care (and they need to take responsibility in their lives rather than letting everyone help them around them) or they’re too highly strung and you say one thing or tell them they’re wrong and bam, they’ve hit the roof.

To begin to wrap things up from a teaching perspective, I was fortunate to receive a great farewell present from the staff at PASS. In reply I wrote a letter of thanks addressed to Susie, my friend, lab tech and unofficial principal, with an excerpt provided below.

‘The two cards, beers, drink bottle and gels you have organised are the best farewell presents I have ever received. I have had a lot of jobs and a few that lasted longer than 3.2 Terms of school but have never received such nice presents. Maybe it’s because I’m older and old people get nice things for free.

What I have learned though from my different forms of employment is that it’s not the job that really matters, it’s the people at the job site. In schools this comes in the form of students and staff. Some students make me want to smack them over the back of the head and then run away and never come back. Others are ok. I knew this before I started at PASS about students. 

What I didn’t know is the quality of interactions I would have at PASS with the staff. If it wasn’t for some of the students, the fact I have to get a teaching degree to continue teaching and the whole ‘actually having to do work’ thing I probably would have stayed at PASS next year. (If a position ever comes up for Chief Loiterer where I just walk around the corridors with a laptop bag, sit in the Maths and Science Office working on my blog and giving out random jokes as the Official School Comedian (OSC) let me know. I have experience in these matters)…’

So there you go, a few lessons I can take to my next full-time employment and a few I can count on if I ever give teaching a crack again. Never say never right?

A quick note to my recovery and training this week post Kosci50. My calves and left hamstring were tight until Wednesday but I was able to jog easily every day at least once until then. I did my first double day on Thursday, one day short of being a week away from the race. Didn’t feel too bad. HR was a bit high for most of the runs this week. Friday was another straightforward day, building some consistency with another double run day. Saturday I threw in some weights and a walk and actually felt too cooked for an easy run in the arvo so skipped that. This set me up well for a terrific Sunday long run of 2 hrs (28km) that felt great the whole way. Such a change in the long runs I was doing in early October building to Kosci50 which felt hard from the get go. Hopefully next week I add some intensity in to my weekly km’s. Ideally, I have a crack at a 5km next week to give me a benchmark, do some faster work to improve my speed, and then do a 5km again at the end of January to check on how I went. Then I’ll build into another big block of training from February-April. In the immediate future the blog might be quiet over Christmas/New Years while I take a break from work at the pool for a few weeks. Or I’ll need something to do and will churn out more than usual. We’ll see. Thanks for reading.