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PGCE - Current Students Thread

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Ofstedding on the PGCE is less about your teaching abilities and more about how you're being supported by the university - do you have a good relationship with your mentor, are there weekly meetings established, do you feel like you're being sufficiently supported etc.

It's a judgement of the university as opposed to a judgement by you :smile:

Had my final uni observation on thursday and I was so so stressed about it. I had a really risky lesson with a really temperamental class with 6 statemented boys in there (ASD, Aspergers, Behaviour)... But it was one of the best lessons I'd taught and really made me realise why I went into teaching.

There's a boy in the class who is very, very intelligent but he has aspergers and finds group work difficult and never really looks like he's enjoying himself - but he worked brilliantly with the group I put him in and he was laughing and smiling the whole way through the lesson...

Nothing beats that feeling.
Original post by Samus2
Ofstedding on the PGCE is less about your teaching abilities and more about how you're being supported by the university - do you have a good relationship with your mentor, are there weekly meetings established, do you feel like you're being sufficiently supported etc.

It's a judgement of the university as opposed to a judgement by you :smile:

Had my final uni observation on thursday and I was so so stressed about it. I had a really risky lesson with a really temperamental class with 6 statemented boys in there (ASD, Aspergers, Behaviour)... But it was one of the best lessons I'd taught and really made me realise why I went into teaching.

There's a boy in the class who is very, very intelligent but he has aspergers and finds group work difficult and never really looks like he's enjoying himself - but he worked brilliantly with the group I put him in and he was laughing and smiling the whole way through the lesson...

Nothing beats that feeling.


Yes, it's important to stress this from time to time in this thread, I think.
Original post by Samus2
Ofstedding on the PGCE is less about your teaching abilities and more about how you're being supported by the university - do you have a good relationship with your mentor, are there weekly meetings established, do you feel like you're being sufficiently supported etc.

It's a judgement of the university as opposed to a judgement by you :smile:

Had my final uni observation on thursday and I was so so stressed about it. I had a really risky lesson with a really temperamental class with 6 statemented boys in there (ASD, Aspergers, Behaviour)... But it was one of the best lessons I'd taught and really made me realise why I went into teaching.

There's a boy in the class who is very, very intelligent but he has aspergers and finds group work difficult and never really looks like he's enjoying himself - but he worked brilliantly with the group I put him in and he was laughing and smiling the whole way through the lesson...

Nothing beats that feeling.


Absolutely nothing does. I've had a couple this week. I had a pupil complaining about the group he was in but he loved it in the end and his group completed the challenge first.

The second best was with a pupil who really struggles with literacy and so everyone marks him down as low intelligence. He acts out because he's easily bored and I've had to have him removed from class twice for bad behaviour. I had a quiet word about if he works with me then I'll work with him and he worked brilliantly in my last lesson and picked up programming so well that I almost started crying with joy.

And then he came to me at lunch asking to start building one of our robots :')
Original post by Samus2
Ofstedding on the PGCE is less about your teaching abilities and more about how you're being supported by the university - do you have a good relationship with your mentor, are there weekly meetings established, do you feel like you're being sufficiently supported etc.

It's a judgement of the university as opposed to a judgement by you :smile:

Had my final uni observation on thursday and I was so so stressed about it. I had a really risky lesson with a really temperamental class with 6 statemented boys in there (ASD, Aspergers, Behaviour)... But it was one of the best lessons I'd taught and really made me realise why I went into teaching.

There's a boy in the class who is very, very intelligent but he has aspergers and finds group work difficult and never really looks like he's enjoying himself - but he worked brilliantly with the group I put him in and he was laughing and smiling the whole way through the lesson...

Nothing beats that feeling.



Original post by Carnationlilyrose
Yes, it's important to stress this from time to time in this thread, I think.

I do love that feeling, and it sometimes even gives me goosebumps. Unfortunately I think I only have lessons like that maybe 10-20% of the time, and that is simply not enough for me.
Original post by Airfairy
I do love that feeling, and it sometimes even gives me goosebumps. Unfortunately I think I only have lessons like that maybe 10-20% of the time, and that is simply not enough for me.


That really isn't a bad strike rate in your PGCE and it really would get better as you went along, but I have to say that one often knows when it's time to quit and it can be pointless to struggle if your heart's not in it.
Original post by Airfairy
I do love that feeling, and it sometimes even gives me goosebumps. Unfortunately I think I only have lessons like that maybe 10-20% of the time, and that is simply not enough for me.


Heh, from what I have been told by a lot of teachers is that it will only be that 20%, but that 20% will be so worthwhile. But it isn't for everyone, and teaching strikes me as the sort of job that you just can't struggle through if your heart really isn't in it.
Original post by Carnationlilyrose
That really isn't a bad strike rate in your PGCE and it really would get better as you went along, but I have to say that one often knows when it's time to quit and it can be pointless to struggle if your heart's not in it.



Original post by Samus2
Heh, from what I have been told by a lot of teachers is that it will only be that 20%, but that 20% will be so worthwhile. But it isn't for everyone, and teaching strikes me as the sort of job that you just can't struggle through if your heart really isn't in it.


Yeah I know. My mentor said something like that. She lives and breathes teaching but absolutely loves it. I am envious of that.
Original post by Airfairy
Yeah I know. My mentor said something like that. She lives and breathes teaching but absolutely loves it. I am envious of that.


It's not like that for everyone, and I have to say I think it would be a bit unhealthy if it were. There needs to be a few people who get out into the real world from time to time to get perspective.
I thought I'd be blissfully happy this weekend (only 5 days left on placement). Truth is - feeling pretty miserable. I haven't had a single day off despite various (admittedly minor) illnesses. I'm just of the 'power on through' mentality, which usually works for me (we all know that adrenaline rush can get you through a lesson even if you're faint/feeling sick). Now I've got another bug - nasty sore throat and generally feeling weak. I know. I know. It's part of the job, cry me a river etc. I need to toughen up...I will. I always do. I just feel so damn TIRED at this point. I've been staring at a pile of un-marked books all morning trying not to cry. I just feel so pathetic being like this with the end so close in sight!

How the hell am I going to get my final 'big' observation planned feeling like this?
Original post by greenbeans123
I thought I'd be blissfully happy this weekend (only 5 days left on placement). Truth is - feeling pretty miserable. I haven't had a single day off despite various (admittedly minor) illnesses. I'm just of the 'power on through' mentality, which usually works for me (we all know that adrenaline rush can get you through a lesson even if you're faint/feeling sick). Now I've got another bug - nasty sore throat and generally feeling weak. I know. I know. It's part of the job, cry me a river etc. I need to toughen up...I will. I always do. I just feel so damn TIRED at this point. I've been staring at a pile of un-marked books all morning trying not to cry. I just feel so pathetic being like this with the end so close in sight!

How the hell am I going to get my final 'big' observation planned feeling like this?


You know it is only one more week though, keep that thought! Plan the observation first so you have time to tweak it later, have a break, mark the books, have a break, organise resources eye and tweak observation....then you are just about ready.

Next year will be hard but hopefully involve less detailed planning...and no uni work!


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Original post by greenbeans123
I thought I'd be blissfully happy this weekend (only 5 days left on placement). Truth is - feeling pretty miserable. I haven't had a single day off despite various (admittedly minor) illnesses. I'm just of the 'power on through' mentality, which usually works for me (we all know that adrenaline rush can get you through a lesson even if you're faint/feeling sick). Now I've got another bug - nasty sore throat and generally feeling weak. I know. I know. It's part of the job, cry me a river etc. I need to toughen up...I will. I always do. I just feel so damn TIRED at this point. I've been staring at a pile of un-marked books all morning trying not to cry. I just feel so pathetic being like this with the end so close in sight!

How the hell am I going to get my final 'big' observation planned feeling like this?


This is completely normal. It will pass.
Thanks guys. Will try your suggestions. Glad to hear it is normal. (Slightly worried that apparently NQT is worse but trying not to think of that)

I hoped I'd feel confident or sure of myself by now...instead I feel like I'm close to the summit of Everest, dragging myself up with bloody fingertips, so close yet possibly about to fall 8000m ! :frown:

(Ok, getting a bit melodramatic there!):redface:
Last 5 days to come. Had my final obs from my pro mentor on thursday which didnt go as badly as i expected. It was my dodgy y7 group who can sometimes be amazing and sometimes be freakin awful. I had prayed for the first but then they were let in the classroom and half of them decided they couldnt remember where they had sat for the last month and a half, i knew right then it would be a later....
Original post by greenbeans123
Thanks guys. Will try your suggestions. Glad to hear it is normal. (Slightly worried that apparently NQT is worse but trying not to think of that)

I hoped I'd feel confident or sure of myself by now...instead I feel like I'm close to the summit of Everest, dragging myself up with bloody fingertips, so close yet possibly about to fall 8000m ! :frown:

(Ok, getting a bit melodramatic there!):redface:


Original post by Ratchit99
Last 5 days to come. Had my final obs from my pro mentor on thursday which didnt go as badly as i expected. It was my dodgy y7 group who can sometimes be amazing and sometimes be freakin awful. I had prayed for the first but then they were let in the classroom and half of them decided they couldnt remember where they had sat for the last month and a half, i knew right then it would be a later....


Teaching is not a job where you learn all the tricks and then suddenly, overnight, you are a master of the craft. Kids are people (although they sometimes seem like gremlins) and nobody can learn overnight how to deal with every single person in the world. Sometimes you will get it right and other times you will get it wrong. I'm about to retire and I still get it wrong sometimes. The trick is to avoid the real disasters and to know which things can just be chalked up to human nature emerging at the wrong time. It's also important to know that unless you're doing something actually illegal, the things that go wrong are rarely earth-shatteringly important and tomorrow is another day. Kids are remarkably forgiving and will put hiccups behind them as long as (and I think this is really important) they know that you fundamentally like them and aren't out to get them. Nobody works their best for a complete bastard who hates their guts in the adult workplace, and kids are no different.

What is also important is not to let teaching dominate your life, which it can very easily do if you let it. There are some teachers in every school whose sense of self worth comes from being more martyred, more hard working, more self-sacrificing and frankly more sanctimonious than thou, and if you want to be one of these, then that is a choice you can make, but it isn't necessary to spend every breathing minute devoted to the care of the kids, and it isn't healthy. More to the point, the kids don't appreciate it any more than they do a decent human being who has their feet on the ground and a sense of priorities. In fact I think they appreciate the martyrs a lot less. So make up your mind when you start out exactly who you want to be, but don't think you have to devote your entire life to the cause of The Little Children, because you don't and, in my view, it's not healthy to do so.

*Gets off pontificating soapbox*
Original post by Carnationlilyrose


What is also important is not to let teaching dominate your life... So make up your mind when you start out exactly who you want to be, but don't think you have to devote your entire life to the cause of The Little Children, because you don't and, in my view, it's not healthy to do so.

*Gets off pontificating soapbox*


That's refreshing to hear! A lot of the other trainees on my course (who are about a decade younger than me) say things like 'I always knew I wanted to be a teacher', 'It's my calling' etc. I sit there quietly, feeling a bit of a fraud, since I NEVER wanted to teach when I was younger. Education is something I stumbled into...I do enjoy it, but I don't feel some kind of mystical 'calling'....and I do want a life!
Original post by greenbeans123
That's refreshing to hear! A lot of the other trainees on my course (who are about a decade younger than me) say things like 'I always knew I wanted to be a teacher', 'It's my calling' etc. I sit there quietly, feeling a bit of a fraud, since I NEVER wanted to teach when I was younger. Education is something I stumbled into...I do enjoy it, but I don't feel some kind of mystical 'calling'....and I do want a life!


I've spent an entire career in that frame of mind. It's certainly possible. I went into teaching because it was the only thing you could get another grant for and I wasn't ready to give up being a student. (The past is another country. They did things rather differently there, financially...) I'm really rather unsentimental about the job. I particularly dislike it when people say, "I love children!" because it just screams a lack of perception. Kids are people, not a different species like cats, and some people are just unpleasant. Others are wonderful. Some are unteachable and have such terrible social circumstances that no teacher could have a hope in hell of overcoming them. It's not a reason to not try, but the expectations put on teachers, especially the young and idealistic new recruits, are utterly unreasonable and unrealistic, and an unnecessary burden of pressure at a time when learning the ropes of the job is hard enough.
Original post by Carnationlilyrose
Yes, it's important to stress this from time to time in this thread, I think.


Definitely. I've had the week from hell but one of my KS2 class came in this week with a page of facts related to our topic that she'd made me, and a handwritten note telling me that she loves my lessons and hopes I 'get to be a proper teacher'. It was the sweetest thing that she could have done and times like that make it feel worthwile.

And yesterday I was chatting to some of the kids who were asking me to come back and teach them in September :redface: They wanted me to share them with their current class teacher so she could 'have a rest', haha.


Original post by greenbeans123
I thought I'd be blissfully happy this weekend (only 5 days left on placement). Truth is - feeling pretty miserable. I haven't had a single day off despite various (admittedly minor) illnesses. I'm just of the 'power on through' mentality, which usually works for me (we all know that adrenaline rush can get you through a lesson even if you're faint/feeling sick). Now I've got another bug - nasty sore throat and generally feeling weak. I know. I know. It's part of the job, cry me a river etc. I need to toughen up...I will. I always do. I just feel so damn TIRED at this point. I've been staring at a pile of un-marked books all morning trying not to cry. I just feel so pathetic being like this with the end so close in sight!

How the hell am I going to get my final 'big' observation planned feeling like this?


I could have written this myself! I too am normally of the 'power through' mentality, but this week it all got on top of me and luckily my amazing mentor sent me home... she took my lessons and I had the afternoon off. After that I felt 100x better! Admittedly
I was still ill (it's caught up with me now... feel like crap) but that afternoon off made me feel much better in myself. :smile: Felt like I could actually deal with everything! Sometimes I think it is important to take some time out!
As a slight downer compared to my other post, I'm still on CfC :frown: I was put on it three weeks ago and it was due to be reviewed again this week but my mentor didn't have time to come and see me. I totally get that she's busy and don't blame her but I'm so frustrated! I've made (what I feel is) huge progress and I'm still stuck on CfC. :frown: It meant I received the worst possible grade in my recent report just because it was an automatic thing. Pretty demoralising.
I'm exhausted. I didn't realise how bad it was. I've just slept since 3 and I've woken up all funny and blurgh. So much to do this weekend and all I can do is snooze but I really think I need it.

Trying to create an all singing, all dancing lesson for Tuesday for my final uni tutor observation. My last one was an absolute disaster. Had a practice run with my itt coordinator last week and she absolutely loved the lesson. I wish I had more of my little games up my sleeve.

Original post by alabelle
As a slight downer compared to my other post, I'm still on CfC :frown: I was put on it three weeks ago and it was due to be reviewed again this week but my mentor didn't have time to come and see me. I totally get that she's busy and don't blame her but I'm so frustrated! I've made (what I feel is) huge progress and I'm still stuck on CfC. :frown: It meant I received the worst possible grade in my recent report just because it was an automatic thing. Pretty demoralising.


But at least you know it's because your mentor didn't have time and it's not because you didn't make progress. It'll all be alright in the end.

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I would hope that if they were so worried then they would have made time? I would take it as a positive.


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