This week I drove up to Whyalla and did Temporary Relief Teaching (TRT) the whole week at Edward John Eyre High School (EJEHS). I was excited to get out there — I’ve always enjoyed spending time in the country, and I thought it would be the perfect way to dip my toe into country teaching to get an idea if it was for me. One of the things I immediately discovered is that relief teaching is very different to having a class you teach for an extended period of time. This seems obvious, and yet because I hadn’t experienced it first hand until this point it was a striking difference to my previous experience on teaching practicums. Alot of tools usually at your disposal as a classroom teacher are unavailable as a TRT — having on ongoing relationships with the students to rely on, but also the ability to negotiate tasks and differentiate is very limited when the work is specified apriori by the teacher who set the relief: how many liberties would they be comfortable with you taking? I noticed one of the concerns floating in the back of my mind was to do with how the regular classroom teacher I was relieving would feel about actions I take now, when they return to the class.

On the other hand, I also found that not having the preparation associated with ordinary classroom teaching meant I could focus almost entirely on behavior management and this actually allowed me quite alot of time and attention to reflect on my practice, while it was occurring — something that I’ve found to be incredibly productive, as I’ve discussed with David Butler on a number of occasions that “out of body experience” of teaching but also thinking about your teaching simultaneously.