I'm not lying when I say that the final 2 weeks of Summer Institute have
been the best.

Last Friday the social committee organised a Teach First talent show,
featuring everything from stand-up comedy, to a Chinese rap, to one girl
who could easily have made it to an X-Factor final. We even had our own
judging panel, with CEO Brett Wigdortz himself amongst them. The evening
continued with Teach First DJs encouraging us to show off our own
dancing talents (or lack thereof). A bonfire the night after was a
perfectly chilled accompaniment, and yes, we did all start singing songs
around the fire.

Workshops were an exciting new feature. They were run by Associate
Tutors (AT's - Teach First ambassadors who join once school is finished)
and we chose 4 to attend from a range that included effective
questioning, using excel effectively or creating an authoritative
teacher presence.

The organisation workshop taught me the Three D's -
unless a task can be done in 2 minutes you should Defer it, Delegate it
or Drop it. On the other hand '1st Few Days in School' modelled all the
ways of creating a bad impression and how we judged the session based on
this bad impression our AT was giving as we came in. It was definitely a
what-not-to-do.

One event that also deserves a mention was the Inter-Cohort event where
the 2010 participants join us to get their PGCE portfolios signed off
and officially gain qualified teacher status (QTS). They joined our
subject studies for a day to share tips and stories from their first
year. It was so inspiring to hear the difficulties they'd faced or the
times they'd cried, but see them talking about their classes with such
pride, and the progress pupil X was making.

Each and everyone had found a way to win their classes over and was clearly having a great impact. With both cohorts together we also took part in the biggest brain-storming session ever, contributing to targets for Teach First to
achieve by it's 20th anniversary. Collaboration, one of the Teach First
values, is certainly a strength of the organisation. This attitude is
reflected in the fact that throughout Summer Institute Brett has dinner
with every cluster group and meets every single participant. A tradition
he's continued since the first cohort.

However, more than anything else, these last 2 weeks have been
incredibly thought-provoking, particularly in terms of what I've learnt
about myself. When a friend challenged us to describe the Summer
Institute in one word, that was what I chose (and yes, Microsoft Word
tells me hyphenated counts as one word). A good teacher we are told, is
one who constantly reflects on what went well and what they can improve.

These final weeks have emphasised identifying our own strengths and
weaknesses, and filtering all the advice to figure out what will work
for us. I'm aware that the natural authoritative presence created by a
6"4' rugby player is very different to that of my own 5"5' stance, so
his methods may not work so well for me. I know that my style of
questioning is not yet that effective, but that I use my voice well.
Also that it's so important to plan EVERYTHING, from how you're going to
hand out books, to what you'll do if a student is late or doesn't have a
pen. I still have lots to learn, but learning to reflect has been a
crucial skill and a good start.

The final event of Summer Institute was our ball. Black tie with a
masquerade theme, a well earned party to celebrate our 6 weeks. But
first we celebrated those 6 weeks with the Closing Ceremony, an emotive
collection of speeches, 'Dear Diary' thought pieces, musical ensembles
(of Teach First participants) and a slideshow of photos. My favourite
was the associate tutors singing us "Aspirations" (to the tune of
Fascination by Alphabeat) which is all about the Teach First 3A's that
every student needs to succeed: access, achievement and aspirations. It
was surreal to think that the 6 weeks were over and as Brett talked to
us about the 'valleys of death' and the 'hills of happiness' that we
were sure to face in our coming year, I felt proud to be part of Teach
First 2011.