PGCE - Current Students Thread

Original post by sunfowers01

I have three primary age classes to teach, aged 5-6, 7-8 and 10 year olds. I'm looking for advice on how to approach and prepare for these classes. I'm teaching ESL and I'm not very confident with teaching children.

I'm 3-7 trained. What bits are you most worried about? Teaching style? Assessment? Behaviour management? Generally being around young children?

Also, I'd definitely have a snoop around the governments Web archives, they have lots of good EAL examples for primary age. They are designed for general teaching but I'm sure there would be many useful tips there for you. I will see if I can find anything within my mass of PGCE info once I get on my laptop.

Xxx

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Reply 2383

Steveluis10

10

Started my PGCE on Monday (secondary English) and whilst I'm slightly overwhelmed, very tired and haven't found out where my first school placement will be yet, have to say I'm really enjoying it so far!

Everyone on my course seems really nice and it's nice to know we're all pretty much in the same boat and there to support one another through an intense, challenging year.

I've got a ton of handbooks and info that I'm still trying to digest; I need to get some big folders for the different files we need to keep during the year.

We are in the Uni this week, next week then in the third week we go on our first placement on the Wednesday to Friday until Christmas. I'm nervous, but I'm sure many others are too. I think it will be a case of growing in confidence as methods appear to work well with classes and things but right now it's the unknown to me as I've had very limited actual teaching experience.

Reply 2384

Original post by Steveluis10

Started my PGCE on Monday (secondary English) and whilst I'm slightly overwhelmed, very tired and haven't found out where my first school placement will be yet, have to say I'm really enjoying it so far!

Everyone on my course seems really nice and it's nice to know we're all pretty much in the same boat and there to support one another through an intense, challenging year.

I've got a ton of handbooks and info that I'm still trying to digest; I need to get some big folders for the different files we need to keep during the year.

We are in the Uni this week, next week then in the third week we go on our first placement on the Wednesday to Friday until Christmas. I'm nervous, but I'm sure many others are too. I think it will be a case of growing in confidence as methods appear to work well with classes and things but right now it's the unknown to me as I've had very limited actual teaching experience.

Nice to hear you are enjoying it so far :smile:

my course is pretty much the same structure but I start tomorrow instead. I know how you feel with the teaching experience - I did a year-long placement module in the second year of my undergrad teaching History but it only amounted to around 2 solid weeks of experience as I only went in one day a week.

I've since had 3 more days at my old secondary but I'm so worried I'll meet everyone on my course and they will all be people who have been TA's/have more experience than me!

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Reply 2385

sunfowers01

16

Original post by kpwxx

I'm 3-7 trained. What bits are you most worried about? Teaching style? Assessment? Behaviour management? Generally being around young children?

Also, I'd definitely have a snoop around the governments Web archives, they have lots of good EAL examples for primary age. They are designed for general teaching but I'm sure there would be many useful tips there for you. I will see if I can find anything within my mass of PGCE info once I get on my laptop.

Xxx

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I think it's the behaviour management and general approach to teaching children that is stressing me most. I'll have a look at that website. Also, I'm not sure how to structure a lesson for kids. Thanks for your help.

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Reply 2386

Original post by Steveluis10

Started my PGCE on Monday (secondary English) and whilst I'm slightly overwhelmed, very tired and haven't found out where my first school placement will be yet, have to say I'm really enjoying it so far!

Everyone on my course seems really nice and it's nice to know we're all pretty much in the same boat and there to support one another through an intense, challenging year.

I've got a ton of handbooks and info that I'm still trying to digest; I need to get some big folders for the different files we need to keep during the year.

We are in the Uni this week, next week then in the third week we go on our first placement on the Wednesday to Friday until Christmas. I'm nervous, but I'm sure many others are too. I think it will be a case of growing in confidence as methods appear to work well with classes and things but right now it's the unknown to me as I've had very limited actual teaching experience.

Original post by outlaw-torn

Nice to hear you are enjoying it so far :smile:

my course is pretty much the same structure but I start tomorrow instead. I know how you feel with the teaching experience - I did a year-long placement module in the second year of my undergrad teaching History but it only amounted to around 2 solid weeks of experience as I only went in one day a week.

I've since had 3 more days at my old secondary but I'm so worried I'll meet everyone on my course and they will all be people who have been TA's/have more experience than me!

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I did my PGCE last year and had very little experience - about 22 days in total. You're right about the confidence thing Stevelius... I got more and more nervous building up to the placement! But then once you've done it it doesn't seem as scary any more. The confidence builds very quickly :smile:

The majority do have more experience but it doesn't seem to matter very much when you're there... everyone feels on level pegging as you're all going through it together, and everyone has ways they can help others, so don't feel like you'll be really behind.

xxx

Reply 2387

Mr Advice

How many PGCE student teachers will be at each school? I take it there's got to be more than one because there won't be enough primary schools for all the trainees. Talking specifically primary here.

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Reply 2388

Original post by Mr Advice

How many PGCE student teachers will be at each school? I take it there's got to be more than one because there won't be enough primary schools for all the trainees. Talking specifically primary here.

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It depends. I did my Primary PGCE at UEA in Norwich. Our first placements were 'paired placements' in most cases, where two trainees shared a class. Often only one pair was in a school but in some larger primaries there was more than one pair. My first school had 400 something on role (quite a lot) and there were only 2 pairs.

Then for our second placements it was pretty similar... if you get placed in a school with only 2 classes chances are you'll be the only trainee. But if it's a large school there will probably be at least one other. My second school had 333 on role and there were 3 of us on placement there at once.

It depends on so many factors as well - what transport people have available, where they live, what connections they have etc.

xxx

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2389

Interrobang

Original post by Mr Advice

How many PGCE student teachers will be at each school? I take it there's got to be more than one because there won't be enough primary schools for all the trainees. Talking specifically primary here.

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It all depends. There may well be schools that take no trainees, and there might be some that take one or several (as said above). The unis contact schools and ask how many they would be able to take and then have to convince schools to take more if they need more spaces!

Reply 2390

Original post by sunfowers01

I think it's the behaviour management and general approach to teaching children that is stressing me most. I'll have a look at that website. Also, I'm not sure how to structure a lesson for kids. Thanks for your help.

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Well I guess the main thing with children that age is don't expect them to sit and listen for a long time. The actual time they can will depend on the children. I'd start with a fun starter they're all involved in, like matching words with definitions on slips of paper (find your partner style), singing a song which they could help write a new verse for, working in pairs to correct a short text etc. Then I'd try and keep the bit where I speak max ten minutes, but again it depends on children... I've gone on much longer on occasion because the children were really engrossed, on other days they'd struggle to stay for ten! If you have some who really can't handle sitting well but you want to talk to the class for a little bit, see if you can send them off early to start their task, or have them doing something else like a game at first then call them to join you. Our use a TA to chat/work with them if you have one- you can then check up once you finish the whole class bit.

Stop sometimes to check they all get what you have asked to do and address issues. You can always bring them back to have more whole class bits, for some children breaking it into small chunks works really well, for others they prefer to get it over with then get in to the flow... You'll see this quite quickly.

If they're really distracted or tired or switched off, you could try stopping and doing a dance! An action one, so they'll be learning/using vocab too. This really helps some kids wake up.

Another good option is having several activities that the children can move between... You could even have a passport that you soon or stamp to say they've done each activity, then say they must do all 5 over 2/3 days or similar. Then they have more freedom of choice in managing their own learning, and you can have extra games, resources or let them choose any activity which uses English (like reading a book or writing) of they complete all 5.

Generally at that age you're still an adult and they're still a child and they see that barrier... You're the one in charge. My previous school used this system for behaviour issues:
-praise a good role model (oh join and Katie you are sitting wonderfully!). Perhaps give them stickers, merits, move up a behaviour chart etc if that's your style. You might be surprised how quickly this works as the others suddenly sit amazingly too.
-give 2 reminders to the child. Make sure you remind them the rule and why we have it (if you can make the rules with the children, it's never too late in the year to do this). Ask them to make a good choice, to emphasise that they can either choose to follow the rule or to receive the Consequence.

The consequence can again vary, you could use pegs on traffic lights, loss of break time, a demerit scheme, sent to another class. But whatever it is try and be clear with that in your warnings so they know what's coming and can make an informed choice.

Sometimes you may just have to ask children to move away from certain other children (again, try and warn them to allow them a choice to change behaviour) . If a child has done superbly with behaviour mention it to their parents or give a phone call or note home.

Lastly try to keep really positive with all of it. One of my tutors said try to keep a 3:1 positive to negative ratio with every behaviour comment you make. So if you have to make a negative comment try to find 3 positives to make... Obviously it's not a hard and fast rule, and you don't have to do the positives immediately, but bearing the ratio on mind just helps you keep it more positive, then your children will learn that's how they get attention and time from you! Oh and also always criticise the behaviour, never the child!

Any of this any good? Bear in mind a lot of it will reflect my personal style!

Xxx
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Reply 2391

Original post by sunfowers01

I think it's the behaviour management and general approach to teaching children that is stressing me most. I'll have a look at that website. Also, I'm not sure how to structure a lesson for kids. Thanks for your help.

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Oh and check out class dojo online. I've not used it in practice because my school had a different system already in place but it looks great and I'd imagine it would appeal greatly to kids. Plus it has great reviews. It's basically an online rewards chart, each child gets an avatar and you can add (or deduct) points for different things, and show it on the whiteboard do everyone can see. Plus you can look at charts to see trends in behaviour issues with certain children, send reports to parents and personalise it all. Plus it's free!

Xxx

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Reply 2392

Mr Advice

First week over! Gotta say it's been pretty enjoyable - nice people on the course and okish tutors/lecturers (bit dull but hey can't have it all).

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Reply 2393

Original post by Mr Advice

First week over! Gotta say it's been pretty enjoyable - nice people on the course and okish tutors/lecturers (bit dull but hey can't have it all).

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I think I've been really lucky - got absolutely lovely tutors (really laid back, funny etc) but really helpful as well. And lovely people on the course too!

My first week is over too but it was only 2 full days so I don't think it counts :tongue:

two more weeks in uni then we start our placement induction.

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Reply 2394

Frankenstein

8

Original post by outlaw-torn

I think I've been really lucky - got absolutely lovely tutors (really laid back, funny etc) but really helpful as well. And lovely people on the course too!

My first week is over too but it was only 2 full days so I don't think it counts :tongue:

two more weeks in uni then we start our placement induction.

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Where are you at? :-)

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Reply 2395

Original post by Frankenstein

Where are you at? :-)

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MMU

you?

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Reply 2396

Frankenstein

8

Original post by outlaw-torn

MMU

you?

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Ahhh same! Primary? X

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Reply 2397

el244

Original post by outlaw-torn

I think I've been really lucky - got absolutely lovely tutors (really laid back, funny etc) but really helpful as well. And lovely people on the course too!

My first week is over too but it was only 2 full days so I don't think it counts :tongue:

two more weeks in uni then we start our placement induction.

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Can you believe it's two weeks til we're in school!?! Ahhh!!! My two days have been brilliant - lovely people, lovely tutors and the course looks set to be amazing and very busy!!! Really excited to start properly next week!

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Reply 2398