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PGCE - Current Students Thread

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Original post by Airfairy
Even worse, he's marking A-Level not GCSE. My mentor said they are really desperate because her friend marked for OCR and then got an email saying she had been taken off the list because she had made mistakes, yet a week later she got an invitation to mark because they needed people so bad.

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I'm not going to comment on this after this, as it makes me so angry and I need to watch my blood pressure, but when I think of the hoops my colleagues and I jump through to try and ensure the kids are giving themselves the maximum chance to get the grade they need to get to university and see it actually being determined by people without all the training, experience and sheer bloody workload we have, it makes me want to cry. It's a measure of how little the government think of us. Which we knew already.
Original post by Carnationlilyrose
I'm not going to comment on this after this, as it makes me so angry and I need to watch my blood pressure, but when I think of the hoops my colleagues and I jump through to try and ensure the kids are giving themselves the maximum chance to get the grade they need to get to university and see it actually being determined by people without all the training, experience and sheer bloody workload we have, it makes me want to cry. It's a measure of how little the government think of us. Which we knew already.


Sorry for making you angry. Perhaps the moral of the story is not to opt for OCR for exams. I know AQA and Edexcel require a lot more experience.

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Original post by Airfairy
Sorry for making you angry. Perhaps the moral of the story is not to opt for OCR for exams. I know AQA and Edexcel require a lot more experience.

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It's not your fault - it's OCR! We don't in fact, do any OCR exams as far as I know at the moment in other subjects, though we have in the past. The thing is that exams are chosen on the basis of the suitability of the syllabus for the students you have, not on the credentials of the examiners. Perhaps that will change.
Original post by Carnationlilyrose
It's not your fault - it's OCR! We don't in fact, do any OCR exams as far as I know at the moment in other subjects, though we have in the past. The thing is that exams are chosen on the basis of the suitability of the syllabus for the students you have, not on the credentials of the examiners. Perhaps that will change.


Yes I can understand that. Have you marked exams in the past? I read that since I'm a first time marker I will get a lower allocation, but 370 scripts in two weeks sounds stressful on top of the PGCE.
Original post by Airfairy
Yes I can understand that. Have you marked exams in the past? I read that since I'm a first time marker I will get a lower allocation, but 370 scripts in two weeks sounds stressful on top of the PGCE.

Yes, I have. Did English lang GCSE under the syllabus before the one which is now coming to an end, so quite some time ago. I think you will find it a lot of work. However, you will have finished your PGCE by the time the scripts roll in, won't you?
Original post by Carnationlilyrose
Yes, I have. Did English lang GCSE under the syllabus before the one which is now coming to an end, so quite some time ago. I think you will find it a lot of work. However, you will have finished your PGCE by the time the scripts roll in, won't you?


No, sadly I wouldn't have. I applied under the assumption that it would fall after my PGCE, but it will be around the end of May/start of June when I'd be marking. My PGCE finishes the end of June. I'll have to have a think. I applied to mark three different topics and I'm still waiting for hear about two of them, but I'd rather mark those as I feel better qualified to.
Original post by Airfairy
No, sadly I wouldn't have. I applied under the assumption that it would fall after my PGCE, but it will be around the end of May/start of June when I'd be marking. My PGCE finishes the end of June. I'll have to have a think. I applied to mark three different topics and I'm still waiting for hear about two of them, but I'd rather mark those as I feel better qualified to.

Well, good luck. The AQA has strict regulations about where scripts can be marked - i.e. not in a public place, on public transport and that kind of thing, so it confines you to your own home effectively while you are marking. As we have established earlier, OCR isn't quite so stringent, possibly.
Original post by Carnationlilyrose
Well, good luck. The AQA has strict regulations about where scripts can be marked - i.e. not in a public place, on public transport and that kind of thing, so it confines you to your own home effectively while you are marking. As we have established earlier, OCR isn't quite so stringent, possibly.


OCR is the same in that regard. That wouldn't necessarily bother me seeing as it is online anyway. I'll have to have a think about it. Thanks for your advice - as valued as always.
Original post by Airfairy
OCR is the same in that regard. That wouldn't necessarily bother me seeing as it is online anyway. I'll have to have a think about it. Thanks for your advice - as valued as always.

You're very welcome - don't think I have been quite as measured as I usually try to be, I'm afraid!
Original post by Striving92
Thanks for answering, and sorry to be a pain but could you give me an example of a question?


I'm afraid I've sent away my folder with a specific list of questions that could be asked at a theoretical interview (not a specific example of questions that were asked anywhere, just to note for mods!). Do you have an interview lined up? Because I will possibly be back where my folder is this weekend and could post a load there.

Alternatively, have a look here

https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6038000

Teaching and learning and ensuring progress are likely to be the bulk of the questions, then there will probably be one on behaviour, one or two on safeguarding and one on career development, on average. Though I'd imagine if anything there will be more with a NQT register one.

They could also ask about the kind of school you would like to work in, the things you are most passionate about, the age range etc though that should be covered mostly in your PS.

I would recommend going through and trying to think of examples you could use from your own practice when answering the questions, rather than necessarily planning out your actual answers. Then if there are any that are harder for you to recall an example for you've already got it ready.

xxx
I'm really pissed off. I've been off for the past two days because I've been ill, which annoyed me enough as it is because my attendance is awful yet I keep getting ill. Then I emailed my mentor asking what I'm teaching tomorrow morning and she gave me a vague response with no real answer. I emailed again and got no response. So I'm going in tomorrow and supposed to be teaching at 9am yet I have no idea what lesson I am supposed to be teaching.

I worry enough as it is without not being able to plan a lesson so now I feel sick about tomorrow's lesson. It's honestly tempting me to stayoff tomorrow as well even though I feel better :frown:

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Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right. We're training to teach, so expect to make loads of mistakes, heck even experienced teachers make mistakes. We just have to learn from them and move forward.



Saw this and thought of you! :awesome:

Start a film club

xxx
Original post by kpwxx
Saw this and thought of you! :awesome:

Start a film club

xxx

Aww, thanks. I will be signing up! PRSOM.
Placement 2 stress is well and under way...

I love, love, love my placement. But now my timetables up to where it should be, I have university tasks (damn learning journal), I have assessments to mark and I have my last essay due in.

I honestly don't understand how I'm going to deal with the NQT year!
I was fine before the half term break but am really struggling at the moment. I have so much to do I feel completely overwhelmed. I was nearly in tears today in front of a difficult class and just about dismissed them without letting it show. Another teacher saw me crying in the loo and now I'm really embarrassed. I feel like a massive baby.

My mentor and I haven't done the paper work properly and we are very behind.

I have a job for September but at the moment I'm not sure I will be ready.
Original post by bonniex123
I was fine before the half term break but am really struggling at the moment. I have so much to do I feel completely overwhelmed. I was nearly in tears today in front of a difficult class and just about dismissed them without letting it show. Another teacher saw me crying in the loo and now I'm really embarrassed. I feel like a massive baby.

My mentor and I haven't done the paper work properly and we are very behind.

I have a job for September but at the moment I'm not sure I will be ready.


I know the feeling. Anything in particular getting to you?

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Yeah I find all the different components hard to manage. Lesson planning/resources/uni essays/meeting the standards/proof of meeting the standards/evaluations/after school and departmental stuff.

I am behind on several of those things...

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It's just the current workload really - and feelings of not being up to scratch and worries about my progress and folders and things.

I also have this one very big class who I only see now and then, and the behaviour has gone downhill gradually, especially since I came back from my second placement. Today they were so bad I had to stop the activity. I feel ashamed I can't get them to behave for me! I think today I let them see they'd got to me which I know you're never supposed to do.
Original post by bonniex123
I was fine before the half term break but am really struggling at the moment. I have so much to do I feel completely overwhelmed. I was nearly in tears today in front of a difficult class and just about dismissed them without letting it show. Another teacher saw me crying in the loo and now I'm really embarrassed. I feel like a massive baby.

My mentor and I haven't done the paper work properly and we are very behind.

I have a job for September but at the moment I'm not sure I will be ready.

You're not a proper teacher until you've cried in the loo.

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