PGCE - Current Students Thread

Trust me, you don't have to have enthusiasm. I feel like everyone is faking it. I always felt like the odd one out. I never wanted to be a teacher; I did it because I had nothing else to do, to be honest. It is harder if you have constant insecurity about if it's the career for you, but I guess you just roll with it. Then again, if you ever don't want to carry on then don't feel you have to.

I've always been convinced that teaching was my 'calling', as I've been rather cr*p at my menial office jobs, never fitting in, always a bit too weird and kooky (I've worked in ridiculously dressy London offices and dull, grey, lifeless Midlands council offices) and I wanted something that allowed for personality, creativity and was a graduate level role. I know teaching can be those things (amongst others!) but I hate how my anxiety has reared its ugly head again, making me feel stupid.

Did you find any particular techniques worked for you? When was it the worst and were there any times it eased up, so to speak?

Sorry if I'm asking too many Qs btw, just all my peers seem relatively chilled and I feel like an anxious freak amongst them so I never divulge the truth.

Reply 7441

S27

18

How many hours a week are you guys doing on placement? And how many will you do overall

Reply 7442

username892469

1

Original post by S27

How many hours a week are you guys doing on placement? And how many will you do overall

On my first placement, we teach 6-8 lessons (plus 2 x phonics in ks1) from week 1-3 then we're teaching 60% of the timetable for the second half.

I think on second placement we then work up from 60% to 80% (ie an NQT workload)

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 7443

Airfairy

21

Original post by S27

How many hours a week are you guys doing on placement? And how many will you do overall

First placement I worked up VERY slowly to 7 a week. Second placement I worked up to 13 hours a week. Quite fast.

Reply 7444

duckybird

4

Original post by S27

How many hours a week are you guys doing on placement? And how many will you do overall

Maybe it's because I'm in FE, but I don't have a specific timetable (as of yet anyway). I'm team teaching with my mentor. I'm supposed to do 30 hours 'observations plus extras' and 120 lead teaching hours. I only have one placement.

Reply 7445

Samus2

17

Original post by S27

How many hours a week are you guys doing on placement? And how many will you do overall

Placement 1 i did 8 hours a week,
Placement 2 I did 14
Now in my NQT I'm on 18-19 depending on if it's week 1 or week 2

Reply 7446

S27

18

Thanks for all your replies.

Original post by duckybird

Maybe it's because I'm in FE, but I don't have a specific timetable (as of yet anyway). I'm team teaching with my mentor. I'm supposed to do 30 hours 'observations plus extras' and 120 lead teaching hours. I only have one placement.

I am in FE also. Do your team teachings count towards your 120 hours

Reply 7447

tory88

18

Original post by duckybird

I've always been convinced that teaching was my 'calling', as I've been rather cr*p at my menial office jobs, never fitting in, always a bit too weird and kooky (I've worked in ridiculously dressy London offices and dull, grey, lifeless Midlands council offices) and I wanted something that allowed for personality, creativity and was a graduate level role. I know teaching can be those things (amongst others!) but I hate how my anxiety has reared its ugly head again, making me feel stupid.

Did you find any particular techniques worked for you? When was it the worst and were there any times it eased up, so to speak?

Sorry if I'm asking too many Qs btw, just all my peers seem relatively chilled and I feel like an anxious freak amongst them so I never divulge the truth.

Whilst it may seem that people are calm and taking everything in their stride, most people on your course will be panicking inwardly. As you get more comfortable around each other this will become more apparent.

The PGCE is a crazy year, and everyone will feel overwhelmed and anxious regularly. I'm not going to pretend I know what it's like to suffer from anxiety, but I imagine it only makes things worse. The important thing to remember is that everyone is expecting you to make mistakes and is prepared to deal with them or help you to deal with them. One piece of advice is to seek NQTs out in your department. They'll remember what it was like and be able to give realistic tips to improve (the best pieces of advice I got throughout the PGCE all came from newer teachers).

Reply 7448

beanbrain

6

Original post by duckybird

I've always been convinced that teaching was my 'calling', as I've been rather cr*p at my menial office jobs, never fitting in, always a bit too weird and kooky (I've worked in ridiculously dressy London offices and dull, grey, lifeless Midlands council offices) and I wanted something that allowed for personality, creativity and was a graduate level role. I know teaching can be those things (amongst others!) but I hate how my anxiety has reared its ugly head again, making me feel stupid.

Did you find any particular techniques worked for you? When was it the worst and were there any times it eased up, so to speak?

Sorry if I'm asking too many Qs btw, just all my peers seem relatively chilled and I feel like an anxious freak amongst them so I never divulge the truth.

Teaching is something that I considered early in life, but got put off. Now I've come into it in a roundabout way, and realise that it really is something I fit into! In all honesty, had I not come at it from an alternative angle and a bit later in life than as a fresh graduate, I would have struggled majorly.

Whilst never having been diagnosed and medicated for it, I am now aware that I am a low level anxiety sufferer in day to day life. During the most difficult years of my life so far, my anxiety was much worse, leading to panic attacks and other side effects that prevented me doing so many things. Now I'm in the classroom, I feel it creeping back at times, especially during my lessons and when the teacher is observing me. I'm trying hard to ignore it, but occasionally it doesn't work.

Usually in those situations, I find myself freezing while I'm talking, and the only thing I can do is move the kids onto an activity that means I'm no longer doing teacher talk. It makes the lesson seem a bit jerky, and I know that I could do a much better job, but at the time it's the best I can do. I haven't told my teacher yet, because I'm using an external support network to try and help me (the people who opened my eyes to my anxiety and depression).

The one thing I do know is that it gets better - today I taught another whole lesson and it went really well. There was only one tiny moment where I felt myself freezing, but now I'm getting more used to the idea of being in front of a class, I handle it better. Today was my best lesson by a long way!

And you are definitely not alone when it comes to feeling nervous - even a few people on my course felt terrified before we entered our schools/started teaching, and they are placed in schools that they have been TAs in for at least a year!!!

Reply 7449

Samus2

17

Original post by duckybird

I've always been convinced that teaching was my 'calling', as I've been rather cr*p at my menial office jobs, never fitting in, always a bit too weird and kooky (I've worked in ridiculously dressy London offices and dull, grey, lifeless Midlands council offices) and I wanted something that allowed for personality, creativity and was a graduate level role. I know teaching can be those things (amongst others!) but I hate how my anxiety has reared its ugly head again, making me feel stupid.

Did you find any particular techniques worked for you? When was it the worst and were there any times it eased up, so to speak?

Sorry if I'm asking too many Qs btw, just all my peers seem relatively chilled and I feel like an anxious freak amongst them so I never divulge the truth.

Teaching's one big act! Whilst I don't suffer from diagnosed anxiety, I still get anxious before lessons- I had two PGCE students come in to observe my lesson today and they told me they were impressed with how confident I was - I wasn't, at all, but you eventually become better at faking the confidence.

Reply 7450

Airfairy

21

Original post by Samus2

Teaching's one big act! Whilst I don't suffer from diagnosed anxiety, I still get anxious before lessons- I had two PGCE students come in to observe my lesson today and they told me they were impressed with how confident I was - I wasn't, at all, but you eventually become better at faking the confidence.

Isn't it weird getting observed by pgce/prospective pgce students?!?! I find it so odd that someone would watch me to get experience for teaching :lol:

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Reply 7451

Samus2

17

Original post by Airfairy

Isn't it weird getting observed by pgce/prospective pgce students?!?! I find it so odd that someone would watch me to get experience for teaching :lol:

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It was strange but, at the same time, I would have loved to have seen someone who was only a year ahead of me this time last year!

They said it was really helpful - i think this time last year though, I'd have been impressed with anyone teaching a full lesson ha!

Reply 7452

S27

18

Really enjoying placement. I was really worried about behaviour etc but havnt seen any at all!

Reply 7453

redmel1621

12

Original post by S27

Really enjoying placement. I was really worried about behaviour etc but havnt seen any at all!

I'm glad you are enjoying your placement.

My school is lovely. I am in my second week now and they are pretty organised in terms of training us AT's and training their mentors. I am just getting class profiles together of the classes I will be taking and am TA'ing in those classes so I get to know the kids names etc... My uni requires 5 days at Primary, so I have that arranged already and will be spending 10 mornings in my kids' primary school, in one of the year 6 classes.

Next week I will be team teaching: doing starters and plenaries, then the odd full class. After half term the plan is that I will teach the full scheme of works to my two year groups... I will only ever be observing/TA'ing/team teaching my year 10s as none of the teachers are willing to give them up.

And as an aside my files (that I have previously been fretting about) are in perfect order and both my Mentor and University tutor are extremely pleased with them.

Good luck for the rest of the week everyone xx

Reply 7454

ParadoxSocks

22

Loving the positivity in here. Can't believe that a year ago we were in your place. Push through, it's brilliant on the other side. Promise!

Reply 7455

S27

18

Is there anyway i can alter my student finance? I have taken the 9,000 student loan out months ago but now i realise i may need some money for maintenence. Can you apply for the maintenence loan now or am i too late?

Reply 7456

beanbrain

6

Hey everyone, I really need some advice!

I'm primary SD, and the staff are about to start a peer coaching cycle for the rest of the term. We've all been paired up with another teacher, and we'll be meeting a few times over the rest of the term to coach each other through an issue that we want to improve in our teaching.

I'm really struggling with my goal for improvement. Obviously as someone who has been teaching for only 5/6 weeks, there are so many things that I need to improve on, but I don't really know if any of them are a useful goal - as far as I have been told, the things I need to improve come with practice, and I'm just not sure whether they're a coaching goal, as such... I'm so confused and stuck!

Reply 7457

shanzy_91

1

Original post by beanbrain

Hey everyone, I really need some advice!

I'm primary SD, and the staff are about to start a peer coaching cycle for the rest of the term. We've all been paired up with another teacher, and we'll be meeting a few times over the rest of the term to coach each other through an issue that we want to improve in our teaching.

I'm really struggling with my goal for improvement. Obviously as someone who has been teaching for only 5/6 weeks, there are so many things that I need to improve on, but I don't really know if any of them are a useful goal - as far as I have been told, the things I need to improve come with practice, and I'm just not sure whether they're a coaching goal, as such... I'm so confused and stuck!

My work school are also making me get involved in a peer coaching thing too. I've been paired with another trainee so that its fair that we coach each other, so see if you can do that too. Our focus is developing confidence in the classroom - vague I know. But we're going to come into each other's lessons and observe and see how confident we come across in what we are delivering etc. I think i'll be quite interesting as often I feel like a bag of nerves! I think being paired with a student teacher or a NQT is a good idea so that it doesn't feel like too much pressure and someone else knows what you're going through

Reply 7458

EmJayy

Hey everyone!
Long time follower of this thread and recently started my Primary PGCE!
Feeling a little overwhelmed at how much we have to do already!
Does anyone else find that they keep comparing themselves to other students and how much they have done? I know I shouldn't because it just really worries me as i've done less and i'm a bit behind but I can't help it!

I hope everyone is doing ok :smile:

Reply 7459

hana&feather

2

Original post by EmJayy

Hey everyone!
Long time follower of this thread and recently started my Primary PGCE!
Feeling a little overwhelmed at how much we have to do already!
Does anyone else find that they keep comparing themselves to other students and how much they have done? I know I shouldn't because it just really worries me as i've done less and i'm a bit behind but I can't help it!

I hope everyone is doing ok :smile:

Yes we do although not explicitly, from placement schools to adcademic tutors to the number of folders prepared and lesson plans typed - some just seem super-organised and know-it-all so it's hard not to feel inadequate next to them. However, one of our tutors said that the PGCE is a personal journey - it is about you developing as a good/ outstanding teacher and everyone's journey is different.

After that I'm more relaxed, and talking to various trainees revealed that most of us are feeling overwhelmed and very tired. Everyone is facing some form of challenge so there's no need to compare!

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