Facebook by @ITeachRE

Name: Andy Lewis
Twitter:  @ITeachRE
Sector:  Secondary
Subject: RE
Position: Head of Year and 2ic RE
5 Bits of Advice About: Facebook

1. Check your security settings and be very careful to understand exactly what the public can see. Recheck regularly.
2. Decide if you want to be ‘friends’ with colleagues. As you enter the profession, do you want people looking up *those* uni photos or seeing what you do on a Saturday night?
3. Be careful if you ‘Like’ your school page. Does that make you easy to find for students and parents? Is your profile picture suitable and security high enough?
4. Read your school social media policy. Should you be ‘friends’ with students? No. Ex-students? It may depend.
5. If you join various teaching groups and network via Facebook, it may be worth setting up a second, professional account. It also helps with work-life balance.

Staff Footy by @ITeachRE

Name: Andy Lewis
Twitter: @ITeachRe
Sector:  Secondary
Subject: RE
Position: Head of Year and Second in RE
5 Bits of Advice About:  Staff Footy

1. If it doesn’t exist, help set it up; it’s a great way to end the week! Definitely not just for men either; some of the best staff I’ve played against have been women.
2. Sport is a great leveller; deputies go head to head against the caretaker. The following week there is endless post game analysis across all staff.
3. Unleash the week’s frustrations in the game. Goals with nets are best so you can release all your pressure with *that* shot on goal… and then over-celebrate!
4. Watch your tackles. It is hard for colleagues to explain to the kids that they are on crutches after you launched a two footed slider on them.
5. Victory DOES matter; teachers are competitive by nature. However it’s always good to buy the losers a pint down the pub afterwards.

The Pub by @ITeachRE

Name: Andy Lewis
Twitter name: iteachre
Sector: Secondary
Subject taught (if applicable): RE
Position: HoY 11 & 2nd i/c RE
What is your advice about? The Pub

1: If colleagues go to the pub at the end of the week, try to pop along. It’s a nice way to unwind and get to know colleagues outside of school plus build up extra support.

2: Avoid talking about the students, especially by name. It could be a parent, or an aunt, or indeed anyone, sat on the next table.

3: Don’t complain about, or slag off, colleagues. You have no idea what friendships or alliances exist outside of schools.

4: Do not buy the first round of Jaegerbombs; especially pre-5pm. Control your drinking; your new colleagues won’t forget a drunken liability.

5: Don’t be as stingy as many teachers are. Buy a round, let people get you one back next time.

Beards by @ITeachRE

Name: Andy Lewis
Twitter name: iteachre
Sector: Secondary
Subject taught (if applicable): RE
Position: HoY 11 & 2nd in RE
What is your advice about? Beards

1: Clean shaven looks good AND beards look good. Unshaven or long stubble looks like you were out on the beer the night before.

2: Set aside a beard growing period. You want to return with something well-established, not something laughable. Summer holidays are a great time for this project.

3: 6th formers usually don’t have full beards. It’s still easy enough to tell them off for being unshaven.

4: Check your beard like you check your flies. Food in your beard won’t get forgotten easily, Mr Twit.

5: Growing a beard, losing a beard, changing a beard… 5mins of your first lesson with each class WILL be lost. Plan for it.

The Photocopier by @iteachre

Name: Andy Lewis
Twitter: @iteachre
Sector:  Secondary
Subject: RE
Position: HoY 11 / 2nd in RE
5 Bits of Advice About: The Photocopier

1. If you are lucky enough to be given a code, don’t abuse it. Middle leaders are generally very budget conscious and photocopying adds up over the year.
2. Find out what you can get reprographics staff to do. This does involve advanced planning of lessons, but no one wants to be behind you with your 20min job.
3. Pick timing carefully. There is always a rush 10mins before lessons begin. If your job is going to take more than 30seconds, you are going to annoy colleagues.
4. Find a quiet time to do complex tasks, or jobs that involve cutting and pasting, especially if you are not familiar with the machine. Let staff with simple jobs jump in.
5. If you break it, fix it. Or report it. NEVER just leave it.