ABSTRACT
Trainee teachers spend a lot of time on paperwork and sometimes question the wisdom of doing so. There are three main areas that absorb time and effort. The first, and most important, is in lesson planning (see Chapter 7). The second is in recording pupil progress (see Chapter 11). The third is in writing evaluative comments about your own performance and targets for improvement. The amount of detail and emphasis will depend upon the college’s demands and the expectations of the tutor involved. It is important to recognize that paperwork is a means to an end and of little value in itself. You may spend hours recording, writing, evaluating and so forth, but unless it helps you and the children you teach, it is wasted time. Trainee teachers will always have to spend more time writing than the average class teacher because of the need for them to engage with the many key issues and refine the associated skills that qualified teachers already possess.
