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Oh my, I had my first observation today and got a good with outstanding features, I am in shock! :smile:
Original post by affinity89
I did when I applied...
The course has killed that for me. :frown:


Oh no :frown: How come? Are you doing lower primary? Perhaps tell your tutor? My friend was feeling similar so our tutor arranged for her and a few others to visit a really good school to get them re-inspired. Also about tomorrow, it's probably 'best' to go in but I don't think I would, not when there is so many things you could be doing. If you aren't going to be doing things relating to your placement (i.e with children) then there isn't much point being there!
Original post by balloon_parade
Oh my, I had my first observation today and got a good with outstanding features, I am in shock! :smile:


Fab well done :-D
Reply 863
Well I'm two weeks into my second placement, and I've had to take today off because of stress.

It doesn't help I got moved to a new school shortly before Xmas that was completely different to the last one. For my first placement, a full class of Y2 in a big school. I got moved to a village school to be put in a Reception/Y1/Y2 class, and I'm finding it very difficult to keep on top of the workload just because of the sheer amount of planning. I spend my weekends doing three separate phonics plans for three groups at different phases for every day of the week; only one of which I'll actually teach (one does handwriting, other works with a TA). I have to do a weekly plan for Literacy or numeracy, for which I have to decide which year group is doing what. Often Y2s do something completely different and I have to plan a second lesson within a lesson.

Every night I'm having to plan for the next day, because I just don't have the time at the weekend to try and mentally plan and type out 5 days' worth of lesson plans, and to be frank I don't have the energy. Spending every night until 10:30pm planning for the next day has just worn me down. Not only that, the class have started to wear me down by talking over me and just not listening, and that is also wearing me down. I haven't had chance to start ANYTHING to do with uni work, and that is seriously stressing me out as well right now. My medium term plans are almost redundant because having taught this class they just won't work, and I'm having to plan each lesson as I go from scratch almost.

I have broken down twice already, one of which was in front of my mentor and headteacher. Just the other night I almost quit there and then. Yesterday I went in and had a better day, but my mentor phoned my head of programme and they decided I need a day off 'sick'. I still have a headache today, but it's all being blamed on the fact that I am trying to do TOO MUCH, and I'm just not working efficiently enough.

It all sounds very negative I know. But the thing is, I have been graded 'good' with a couple of satisfactory elements so far. My mentor has reassured me I'm doing very very well at this point of my placement. The only downsides are promoting positive behaviour strategies and doing more monitoring and assessment. It's not like I'm terrible at teaching, I just can't mentally handle it. How the hell will I do this full time?!

So it's decision time for me this weekend. My academic tutor has told me it's perfectly normal and most students are feeling this way right now. I'm not the most positive of people anyway, but it's getting to the point my head hurts every time I think of planning! I have a lot of support around me, but it hurts my pride to have to ask for help all the time. It just makes me feel weak, and being a perfectionist/conscientious person I can't allow myself to be directed or steered by a teacher or a mapped-out unit, especially when I feel like they are boring lessons and in order to make them more exciting I have to spend more time planning. MY Y2s just look bored all the time, especially when I'm trying to teach about alphabetical order and one Y2 can order up to the third letter and a Reception child can't even say what comes after 'm'.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by jenren22
Well I'm two weeks into my second placement, and I've had to take today off because of stress.

It doesn't help I got moved to a new school shortly before Xmas that was completely different to the last one. For my first placement, a full class of Y2 in a big school. I got moved to a village school to be put in a Reception/Y1/Y2 class, and I'm finding it very difficult to keep on top of the workload just because of the sheer amount of planning. I spend my weekends doing three separate phonics plans for three groups at different phases for every day of the week; only one of which I'll actually teach (one does handwriting, other works with a TA). I have to do a weekly plan for Literacy or numeracy, for which I have to decide which year group is doing what. Often Y2s do something completely different and I have to plan a second lesson within a lesson.

Every night I'm having to plan for the next day, because I just don't have the time at the weekend to try and mentally plan and type out 5 days' worth of lesson plans, and to be frank I don't have the energy. Spending every night until 10:30pm planning for the next day has just worn me down. Not only that, the class have started to wear me down by talking over me and just not listening, and that is also wearing me down. I haven't had chance to start ANYTHING to do with uni work, and that is seriously stressing me out as well right now. My medium term plans are almost redundant because having taught this class they just won't work, and I'm having to plan each lesson as I go from scratch almost.

I have broken down twice already, one of which was in front of my mentor and headteacher. Just the other night I almost quit there and then. Yesterday I went in and had a better day, but my mentor phoned my head of programme and they decided I need a day off 'sick'. I still have a headache today, but it's all being blamed on the fact that I am trying to do TOO MUCH, and I'm just not working efficiently enough.

It all sounds very negative I know. But the thing is, I have been graded 'good' with a couple of satisfactory elements so far. My mentor has reassured me I'm doing very very well at this point of my placement. The only downsides are promoting positive behaviour strategies and doing more monitoring and assessment. It's not like I'm terrible at teaching, I just can't mentally handle it. How the hell will I do this full time?!

So it's decision time for me this weekend. My academic tutor has told me it's perfectly normal and most students are feeling this way right now. I'm not the most positive of people anyway, but it's getting to the point my head hurts every time I think of planning! I have a lot of support around me, but it hurts my pride to have to ask for help all the time. It just makes me feel weak, and being a perfectionist/conscientious person I can't allow myself to be directed or steered by a teacher or a mapped-out unit, especially when I feel like they are boring lessons and in order to make them more exciting I have to spend more time planning. MY Y2s just look bored all the time, especially when I'm trying to teach about alphabetical order and one Y2 can order up to the third letter and a Reception child can't even say what comes after 'm'.


*hugs* Try not to think about it today. Take some time, sleep and do something completely unrelated to the pgce. You need a break from it all...

I can understand the mounting pressure. This week, I've broken down and cried three times! I keep thinking that I can't keep going like this. Last night, in a bout of spite, I wanted to drop out [a common thought in my head] as it would mean the teacher, who has been so unhelpful so far on this placement, would be left with three weeks of planning to sort at short notice [the sort of pressure she is putting me under]. Of course, that would be petty and I love the children in the class. So, I am now focusing on trying to enjoy being with the class [teacher aside] and moving on to the next placement. It was definitely a tempting thought last night though. :redface:

Split age classes pose a lot of challenges. I am in a 2/3/4 at the moment. It seems incredibly common around here to have split year classes, so I am not holding out much hope on my second placement being a single class. :/

In reference to my previous post...
I have stayed home today. I went to bed early last night and for the first time in weeks, my head isn't completely banging. I emailed my teacher last night to say I was going to work on this replanning business, although she hasn't replied so I suspect she isn't happy about it.
I spent all morning finding new stories and trying to make everything fit with this new culture on my stories from other cultures unit. I am not as happy with it as I was with the Indian unit I had planned [the one my supervisor said was great] but it should hit all the objectives and I've got a few extra 'target' lessons in there to help move the children on [they've had the same targets since September!]. Hopefully it will all work. I've emailed it to the teacher and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't expect me to change it again. :redface:
Now I'm going to either work on my essay or do the replanning for ICT. I wish they'd let me know they were scrapping the silly scheme before I struggled to match up three completely different units [one for each year group] in each of my lessons, but nevermind lol.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 865
Thanks for your support. It seems like I'm not the only one. For me it's crossing over ELGs (some of the Y1s are still working towards ELGs!!) with KS1. For you it's KS1/KS2 I guess. My medium term plans are stupidly long because of all the separate LOs. Thank god for the primary framework and it's objectives by strand!

I think I really need to go back to the drawing board and look at my medium term plans, and go forward from there. I know what you mean about the units. I was given a Y1 unit about labels, lists and captions which is incredibly boring to teach in itself, but also my teacher wanted it to be combined with a Y2 unit on glossaries/indexes which of course is an entirely different lesson to teach. Thankfully this week she realised and made the Y1 unit information texts also...

You almost feel like you're trying to teach each individual their own lesson. Of course this can be a very good thing when it comes to assessment and knowledge of learner's needs etc but it's incredibly tough to cater for such a range in ability. My Y2s are doing completely different activities to the Y1s and Reception at times and it's very hard to keep track of it all.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by affinity89
*hugs* Try not to think about it today. Take some time, sleep and do something completely unrelated to the pgce. You need a break from it all...

I can understand the mounting pressure. This week, I've broken down and cried three times! I keep thinking that I can't keep going like this. Last night, in a bout of spite, I wanted to drop out [a common thought in my head] as it would mean the teacher, who has been so unhelpful so far on this placement, would be left with three weeks of planning to sort at short notice [the sort of pressure she is putting me under]. Of course, that would be petty and I love the children in the class. So, I am now focusing on trying to enjoy being with the class [teacher aside] and moving on to the next placement. It was definitely a tempting thought last night though. :redface:

Split age classes pose a lot of challenges. I am in a 2/3/4 at the moment. It seems incredibly common around here to have split year classes, so I am not holding out much hope on my second placement being a single class. :/

In reference to my previous post...
I have stayed home today. I went to bed early last night and for the first time in weeks, my head isn't completely banging. I emailed my teacher last night to say I was going to work on this replanning business, although she hasn't replied so I suspect she isn't happy about it.
I spent all morning finding new stories and trying to make everything fit with this new culture on my stories from other cultures unit. I am not as happy with it as I was with the Indian unit I had planned [the one my supervisor said was great] but it should hit all the objectives and I've got a few extra 'target' lessons in there to help move the children on [they've had the same targets since September!]. Hopefully it will all work. I've emailed it to the teacher and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't expect me to change it again. :redface:
Now I'm going to either work on my essay or do the replanning for ICT. I wish they'd let me know they were scrapping the silly scheme before I struggled to match up three completely different units [one for each year group] in each of my lessons, but nevermind lol.


I found copies of Egyptian god myths if you need them? The kids in my Year 3 class really loved them (and I only used them for comprehension work)
Well, I had my first interview and rejection today. Apparently my lesson wasn't up to scratch with what they were looking for. A bit disappointed as I really liked the area and school, but onwards and upwards, as they say.

Hopefully they'll send through detailed feedback fairly soon, my confidence in teaching was lacking anyway since starting at my new placement, so some feedback from elsewhere should be useful.

Apparently I did interview well though so that's a bonus! Not 100% convinced that she meant it, though- she'd have had nothing nice to say otherwise I guess!
Original post by noodles!
Well, I had my first interview and rejection today. Apparently my lesson wasn't up to scratch with what they were looking for. A bit disappointed as I really liked the area and school, but onwards and upwards, as they say.

Hopefully they'll send through detailed feedback fairly soon, my confidence in teaching was lacking anyway since starting at my new placement, so some feedback from elsewhere should be useful.

Apparently I did interview well though so that's a bonus! Not 100% convinced that she meant it, though- she'd have had nothing nice to say otherwise I guess!

Oh, I'm so sorry. It's both brutal and kind, in a funny way, the fact that you find out on the day. At least you aren't hanging about to find out. The right thing will come along.:smile:
Original post by noodles!
Well, I had my first interview and rejection today. Apparently my lesson wasn't up to scratch with what they were looking for. A bit disappointed as I really liked the area and school, but onwards and upwards, as they say.

Hopefully they'll send through detailed feedback fairly soon, my confidence in teaching was lacking anyway since starting at my new placement, so some feedback from elsewhere should be useful.

Apparently I did interview well though so that's a bonus! Not 100% convinced that she meant it, though- she'd have had nothing nice to say otherwise I guess!



Ahhhh no I'm sorry!! At least they gave you feedback, and she has no reason to lie about your interview.
Original post by carnationlilyrose
Oh, I'm so sorry. It's both brutal and kind, in a funny way, the fact that you find out on the day. At least you aren't hanging about to find out. The right thing will come along.:smile:


Yeah it's out of the way at least. But harsh. Especially when the only competition was another trainee from not far from me, who I also had to avoid at the train station!
Original post by noodles!
Yeah it's out of the way at least. But harsh. Especially when the only competition was another trainee from not far from me, who I also had to avoid at the train station!

That's hard, I know. When I got my first job, there were 2 posts and the girl who got the other one and I had to travel home on the train with a third girl who was on my course. She cried all the way home and my new colleague and I weren't able to get know each other for fear of being insensitive. Your turn will come. Having been on the other side of the fence a good few times in subsequent years, I know there are often hidden agendas the candidates know nothing about, so don't feel too bad.
Hi,

My boyfriend is currently in the same position as you all with massive workloads and no time to actually have a life. Is there anything I could do to help and support him more? I feel really helpless that he is going through something so tough.
Original post by England2012
Hi,

My boyfriend is currently in the same position as you all with massive workloads and no time to actually have a life. Is there anything I could do to help and support him more? I feel really helpless that he is going through something so tough.

Do all the cooking and just put food in front of him at regular intervals. Nod sympathetically when he tells you some anecdote about some kid even if it seems completely pointless to you. Be non-judgemental when a kid less than half his age seems to have got the better of him. Believe him when he says it's really difficult. Tell him it won't always be like this. Tell him you still love him even though he's starting to become like a teacher.
Reply 874
Original post by England2012
Hi,

My boyfriend is currently in the same position as you all with massive workloads and no time to actually have a life. Is there anything I could do to help and support him more? I feel really helpless that he is going through something so tough.

What my bf did brilliantly when I was having a hard time was be there (albeit almost always on the phone as we were long-distance then) was just put up with my crabbiness, rants etc. Gave me lots of hugs when he was there. What I would have liked was to have someone to make me cups of tea during long periods of planning and make my lunch for me the night before! :p:
All this stress and annoyance of making work and creating schemes of work and lesson plans.

I'm strangely jealous >_>
A quote I found..

'Most things are hard before they are easy' :smile:
Original post by England2012
Hi,

My boyfriend is currently in the same position as you all with massive workloads and no time to actually have a life. Is there anything I could do to help and support him more? I feel really helpless that he is going through something so tough.


Frequent cups of tea and coffee - beer in the fridge for when he is having a night off.
Just take away all of the little tasks - I ask my boyfriend to help with simple stuff, like putting work into plastic wallets, putting stickers on things etc, the silly mindless things that take ages!!
Having a real battle with my class at the moment. They are just so noisy and they really struggle to listen. I like to have lots of partner-talk interaction in my lessons, but it is getting to the point where I might have to stop that sort of thing. My teacher has given me some extra strategies to try and overcome the problem, but I am finding it really hard. I am just not a shouty sort of person. Standing in front of the class was a big deal lol [I am one of those people who doesn't ever speak in seminars etc], so tackling this sort of disruption is going to be an uphill struggle.

I've got the class all day tomorrow. Quite literally from morning registration until home time. So, I feel like it is going to be make or break for me in that class. :/
Original post by affinity89
Having a real battle with my class at the moment. They are just so noisy and they really struggle to listen. I like to have lots of partner-talk interaction in my lessons, but it is getting to the point where I might have to stop that sort of thing. My teacher has given me some extra strategies to try and overcome the problem, but I am finding it really hard. I am just not a shouty sort of person. Standing in front of the class was a big deal lol [I am one of those people who doesn't ever speak in seminars etc], so tackling this sort of disruption is going to be an uphill struggle.

I've got the class all day tomorrow. Quite literally from morning registration until home time. So, I feel like it is going to be make or break for me in that class. :/

Try silent smouldering. Stand very still, with a face like thunder and do nothing except drum your fingers on the desk, filing cabinet, whatever. They'll start shushing each other up. Then speak very quietly. They expect ranting. Defeat their expectations with icy coldness. Saves the vocal cords as well. Remember, you don't have to feel anger, only fake it convincingly.:biggrin:

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