PGCE - Current Students Thread

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OMG I love those trolley things! I have one too! :biggrin:

For the timing thing, I'd say pick a time it normally takes you and knock off maybe five-ten mins, if you're working focused and under pressure then that should save you that extra time! Especially when you're at the beginning of your training year it's really tempting to spend hours on one lesson, when it probably would have been more productive to only use 30-40 mins. Obviously for important observation lessons it's ok to use a bit more time...
I just know I was using SO much more time than was really necessary to plan and then I had to create all my resources and everything...a one hour lesson could be like 4-5 hours of work. I wish I'd thought of the stopwatch thing earlier tbh, it's genius :p:

Don't need it now though, I'm super speedy hehe.

Fair enough, maybe I'll try it! I have spent a lot of time today planning just 3 lessons, but they are the first 3 of a new unit for my Year 9s who are causing me a bit of trouble so I've gone slightly away from the SoW tasks to make mine more fun :biggrin:

I have now fully planned next week :smile:

oh except for Geography Geek club....errrr I mean "World Explorers" :wink:

I should get out of the PGCE thread now oops.

Reply 421

Piggsil

Original post by dobbs

I have now fully planned next week :smile:

oh except for Geography Geek club....errrr I mean "World Explorers" :wink:

I should get out of the PGCE thread now oops.

Wow, your SoW has suggested activities? Detailed!! I always had to make mine up out of my own head! It's definitely worth planning something different for difficult groups though. I had one particularly memorable lesson with my most difficult group (also bottom set y9s) involving toilet paper and dancing... :biggrin:

Reply 422

oxymoronic

Original post by Rainy

How do people decide on unions? Whoever sent the most convincing/attractive rep? Or the one that gives the best freebies? I must admit that I've been too lazy to research the differences between them, let alone decide which best suits my needs and politics - but I am proudly sporting a NASUWT wall calendar and a few NUT pens. Ho hum.

Also, I think I need to find a better way of planning lessons; i.e. giving myself a set time (amount and time of day) per lesson and sticking to it.

(Thanks muchly to whichever mod stickied the thread!)

In my PGCE year I just joined all of them because they were free other than NASWUT because I didn't like the fact they distinguished between "school masters" and "women teachers" in their name which felt oddly archaic and there was something I didn't like about it. During the year I've decided against being in the NUT as they annoy me too much with emails, post and phone calls. No free stuff can convince me to join something that contacts me so often, but other people might enjoy that! At the moment I'm weighing up between ATL or Voice as my membership is still free there until the end of 2011. I think I'll probably end up going for Voice as I don't think striking is the best course of action and Voice are against that, so it works for me.

I'm such a cool sticking thread person - I hope you like orange :biggrin:

Decided that maybe the current PGCEers should have their thread stuck too seeing as I'd gone to the effort of doing the applicants and the NQTers :biggrin:

Reply 423

noodles!

Ugh planning. I currently have the one lesson I have to do tomorrow planned in full & totally prepped. 6 hours, probably 4 1/2 - 5 of which were me staring into space/doing washing up etc. And I already had the ideas before I had to do the work.

I've got around 4 hours to kill in school tomorrow though so going to bash out as much planning as I can.

Also I've got my subject tutor coming to observe me on Friday, with the class I well and truly stuffed up with last Tuesday. Got one lesson to reclaim them and whip them into shape before then so should be interesting, she should probably bring tissues! To top it all off there will be a cover supervisor there and not the class teacher :/ (I know I could ask her to come to a different lesson but on the whole there is an equal chance of me stuffing up with any class haha)

Reply 424

balloon_parade

I'm starting placement a week on Monday, any top tips for a great first impression? So looking forward to it! I'm in foundation stage.

Reply 425

Piggsil

Original post by balloon_parade

I'm starting placement a week on Monday, any top tips for a great first impression? So looking forward to it! I'm in foundation stage.

Just be really friendly and open to what people are saying. Ask questions and be interested in what's going on?

Reply 426

Interrobang

Original post by balloon_parade

I'm starting placement a week on Monday, any top tips for a great first impression? So looking forward to it! I'm in foundation stage.

To add to what Becca said, smile, dress nicely (but doesn't have to be overly smart!) and ask the teacher if there's anything you can help with :smile:

Reply 427

noodles!

Original post by balloon_parade

I'm starting placement a week on Monday, any top tips for a great first impression? So looking forward to it! I'm in foundation stage.

I would say the best thing to do is just get involved right from the beginning while you're observing- it gives the right impression of you being keen, plus you can learn more about the kids than you can by just watching from the back. Also (arguably most importantly) it will save you from boredom- I don't know how much observation you will do but if it's anywhere near as much as I did when I first turned up you will be bored!

Reply 428

balloon_parade

Original post by noodles!

It does seem a lot, nearly 2 weeks worth. I intend on getting stuck in straight away, I'm quite proactive and like to keep busy so I'm sure I'll find something.

Thank you for the advice everyone!

Reply 429

dobbs

Original post by noodles!

Original post by balloon_parade

It does seem a lot, nearly 2 weeks worth. I intend on getting stuck in straight away, I'm quite proactive and like to keep busy so I'm sure I'll find something.

Thank you for the advice everyone!

I do agree with the above but at the same time don't be afraid to spend some lessons actually sitting back and really observing properly all of the things that go on - getting involved is great to get to know individual pupils or groups of pupils and how they work etc. but sometimes you need to take a step back and watch how the whole class is working and the little things that teachers do to keep lessons on track....you could easily miss this sort of thing if you are fully involved.

I'm not saying don't get involved, just be aware that 'simply observing' is not a complete waste of time :smile:

Reply 430

oxymoronic

Original post by dobbs

sometimes you need to take a step back and watch how the whole class is working and the little things that teachers do to keep lessons on track...

You're aware that the longest "lesson" in the foundation stage is all of 5 minutes long, yeah? :p:

At the moment given we're only just past half term there might not really be even that level of input on a whole class level beyond doing the register and keeping a routine with things like stories, its more small group activities with a focus on child led/initiated learning.

Totally agree with you though about observing generally, it just made me smile as you sound like such a structured secondary school teacher when the Foundation Stage is so opposite to that :biggrin:

Reply 431

Mr M

Study Forum Helper

Original post by oxymoronic

The reasons are historical. Both the NAS and the UWT were formed in the 1920s to promote the interests of one gender. They merged when the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made it illegal for unions to operate in this way.

Reply 432

noodles!

Original post by dobbs

Yep fair play, I did do my fair share of watching, but was also incredibly glad of being able to do something!

In other news, it's 5am and I'm panicking about my lessons today. I've got 3, and of the Tuesdays I've done so far one of the lessons has been a complete disaster, one not quite so awful, and one that's passable as alright. So the odds are stacked against me :/

At least my mentor's in today, she tends to cheer me up, even when I totally screw up :^_^:

Reply 433

*Sparkle*

Original post by noodles!

You will be fine, stop panicking :smile:

Three seems like a lot in one day though!!!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 434

noodles!

Original post by *Sparkle*

You will be fine, stop panicking :smile:

Three seems like a lot in one day though!!!

Thanks

It wasn't quite as awful as it could have been but still lots of "areas for improvement"!

My department doesn't teach on a Wednesday so there's not much choice in giving me a couple more lessons on one day. It's nice that I don't have to do anything official tomorrow but annoying that it squashes everything else into 4 days :/

Reply 435

jenren22

I have my first lesson tomorrow, with a Year 2 class. I've changed my ideas a few times and my CT seems to be happy with each and every plan I've done, despite me going off course slightly just so I feel more comfortable with what I'm doing. He advised me that at this point it's more about my presence as a teacher and how I manage transitions. I know exactly in my head how I would deal with it, but it's always a bit different in practice. I'm just hoping it's not a complete disaster, considering I'm using chalk pastels with them and they are extremely messy, but hopefully it will be engaging for them.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 436

nikki_louise

Now taught three lessons with 2/3 going pretty well.
Not looking forward to tomorrow- i have three lessons and an hour meeting with my mentor plus another three lessons on the thursday :frown:

Friday is looking better though at only LSA work need to start planning next week lessons... suddenly feel like I have a million and one things to do plus I havent even started a 4000 word literature review...

Reply 437

*Sparkle*

I came home today at 4.50 thinking "ooo do you know what? I've been at school two and a bit weeks now and I'm teaching and everything, this PGCE business isn't that hard" but now it's quarter to 12 and I'm still working. FML. Going to have to spend my whole weekend doing my masters work. Luckily I'm not on a full timetable of 8 lessons for another two weeks, 5 this week (2 down!), 7 next week and 8 til Christmas. Can't believe planning takes so long. Will have to utilise every free second in school.

Reply 438

balloon_parade

Original post by *Sparkle*

Keep going :smile:

Sounds like you're doing a great job. I'm thinking I will be the same towards the end of placement. I think it will be making the resources which will eat up all my time. Bring it on! :smile:

x

I passed my Numeracy TDA test today, it was SO much easier than the practice tests (of which I never passed any!) I couldn't believe it, I actually had time at the end of the mental arithmatic questions! I have literacy and ICT tomorrow, fingers crossed I will pass those too.