PGCE - Current Students Thread

My assignment (5,000 words) is due in on on Monday, but I need to post it tomorrow morning by recorded delivery.

At the moment it's a mess - well above the word limit and references aren't done properly. So that's how I'm spending my Friday night.

Schools in my county started back this week, so I've been teaching all week and haven't been able to do any uni work.

Still, at least I'm over a third of the way through this placement now.

You can do it!! Almost there!

Is anyone secondary that has lower-attaining student groups? I'm finding myself falling back onto the same old techniques for directed reading every lesson- match the question to the answer, fill in the gaps, match the sentence halves kind of thing. They are the only way I can think of scaffolding while still promoting thinking skills/ literacy! I use a lot of visuals as well. But now I'm running out of ideas! And I can't do any group/ pair work with them because of social difficulties.

I teach almost exclusively bottom sets. Have you tried using writing frames to get them producing their own written work?

True/False sentences? Spot the mistakes? Videos, with tick lists of stuff they need to listen out/watch for?

Its tough - I cannot trust any of my groups to do group or pairwork, talking about off task - they never get 'on task'.


On another note - has anyone read the Bill Rogers Classroom Behaviour books? Are they any good? I'm really struggling with 4 of my classes - the behaviour seems to be getting worse.

I teach almost exclusively bottom sets. Have you tried using writing frames to get them producing their own written work?

True/False sentences? Spot the mistakes? Videos, with tick lists of stuff they need to listen out/watch for?

.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Why am I making the effort? Nobody appreciates it and my colleagues don't seem to get as worked up or stressed.


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What's up?


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I feel I put so much time and effort into the job and the rewards don't match it at times. I gave a class on Friday about language learning and when I asked how they use English outside the classroom, the whole class said they didn't. What is the point in trying to teach if they are not going to practice speaking. Not to mention the fact they pay for classes every month. I'm trying to look for interesting ways to help them practice outside of the class environment, like a reading group, but I need students to do their bit. My colleagues don't worry or stress about work the same way I do. Also, it doesn't help when I have to constantly fight bad thoughts.


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My first year clases just gets worse. It's mixed ability, which makes life difficult. I feel like giving up.

Behaviour is my biggest struggle this placement as well. My first school was much older pupils (14-18) and I didn't really have to do much about behaviour management - a sharp glance at the offending pupil was normally enough to shut them up - so I was mostly focusing on developing my lesson pace, range of activities, questioning, etc.

I'm now in a lower school, teaching pupils aged 11-14, and my behaviour management is rubbish. I spend so much of my lesson time waiting for them to be quiet, rather than actually teaching.

I was observed by Ofsted today (didn't really expect to be, as a student teacher) and they said the bit of lesson they observed was "requires improvement", primarily because of my behaviour management which they said disrupted the flow of the lesson.

I keep being told I'm doing well, but I feel like I can't do half of what I want to because of my behaviour management issues.

Some of my classes are getting better, because I'm plugging away with sanctions and they're starting to realise that if they keep talking when I'm talking they will come back at break. But in some classes there are so many rude and disruptive kids that I just can't tell who I'm supposed to be sanctioning - it's really difficult.

Hopefully we'll get there soon...

Behaviour is my biggest struggle this placement as well. My first school was much older pupils (14-18) and I didn't really have to do much about behaviour management - a sharp glance at the offending pupil was normally enough to shut them up - so I was mostly focusing on developing my lesson pace, range of activities, questioning, etc.

I'm now in a lower school, teaching pupils aged 11-14, and my behaviour management is rubbish. I spend so much of my lesson time waiting for them to be quiet, rather than actually teaching.

I was observed by Ofsted today (didn't really expect to be, as a student teacher) and they said the bit of lesson they observed was "requires improvement", primarily because of my behaviour management which they said disrupted the flow of the lesson.

I keep being told I'm doing well, but I feel like I can't do half of what I want to because of my behaviour management issues.

Some of my classes are getting better, because I'm plugging away with sanctions and they're starting to realise that if they keep talking when I'm talking they will come back at break. But in some classes there are so many rude and disruptive kids that I just can't tell who I'm supposed to be sanctioning - it's really difficult.

Hopefully we'll get there soon...

What were your teachers doing letting you be observed?! Getting out of it I presume? They should have been teaching their classes shouldn't they? Unless the logic is that ofsted see what's happening, no 'shows'... In that case I need to get me a PGCE student!