ABSTRACT
Although you may not realise its significance at the time, when you close the classroom door on your first school day, you are opening the door on your career as a teacher. You now have substantial responsibility for the education these children will receive in the coming year. Unlike college teaching practice or school placement, you are now being paid for the work you do. You can make more choices than you could make on school placement from the layout of the classroom, to the displays on the wall; from the classroom norms you’ll inculcate, to the routines and procedures you put in place. You are more independent and have been entrusted with educating this group of children. Although your work will continue to be inspected, the scrutiny your work receives will differ to the intense grading and analysis you received as a student teacher. It will come from different sources – the children, the parents, the principal, your colleagues, a mentor, perhaps an inspector, and the wider community.
