PGCE - Current Students Thread

Plus the bloody qts standards are already annoying me and I wish I could book the bloody skill tests already!!

We've not been given that number yet, so I can't book mine either. A blessing in one way, as I think it is going to be a pain to do [you can't do them here, so it'll be a case of getting the train somewhere else, when the train station is at least 30 minutes away from my flat lol], but then again, I'd like to get them out of the way.

We've discussed planning though. That is going to be the killer. My tutor said a few hours a week for the week long plans plus an average of 1 hour per hour for individual lesson plans. Plus the reflective assignments and essays that go with it. Joy!

I feel the same. However, what kills me the most is that I am starting to question the relevance of my subjects (Economics, Business, and ICT to KS3). If you asked me to honestly say whether I thought that what I teach is equipping kids for the real world of work, I'd have to say no. My main subjects (Business and Economics, and there's more Business than Economics going on in the teaching world these days) generally require students to remember facts and write essays. My school is a production line where all the senior leaders care about are grades, grades, grades and maintaining Outstanding status. We have a couple of students who will leave with 16 GCSEs across 4 BTEC subjects: Travel, Business, PE (with no physical element) and Childcare Studies. How is it possible that they don't do English and Maths? Surely they'd be better off with 8 GCSEs incl. Eng, Maths and Science?

I know education is a political football that politicians like to kick around but I personally think that there's a lot of room for improvement. Not to make teachers' lives hell, but to allow the students to get ahead in life. Then again, if you take a back to basics approach you may create another elitist system which isolates students who don't find it engaging. This profession goes over my head. I just don't know how we can best provide young people with an education ...

Now into my 3rd month of the secondary PGCE course and i can honestly say i have never looked forward to Xmas quite as much as i currently am! This has been the hardest few months i have ever experienced. Such a massive amount of work to be done all the time. Lesson plans still taking me hours and I'm never more than a day ahead of myself! Assignment due in 2 weeks and not even beyond the introduction. Getting home at 5pm every night due to the distance of my placement school and leaving at 7:20am every morning. Weekends written off and relationship with my partner suffering!

Anyone else feel this way too?

Also a little reminder to all those wanting to apply for next year; this is CERTAINLY not an option for you if you're doing it just to put off finding a job! HUGE step up from undergrad degree!! (i think the MA students are a little better prepared)

Rant over.

Not too bad so far, it's no way near as bad as Finals year at university. Had second week in school last week, including the first couple of lessons to teach and even a bit of assembly in front of the whole school which wasn't too bad.

Glad to be able to have a lie-in next week until 6:45, have been up at 5:45 the past week to get to the placement.

My first lesson (observed!) went terribly, but after that it went much better don't be afraid to ask before a lesson - the teacher will know the kids better after all sometimes you've got to try things tho! Even experienced teachers can have bad days/lessons

Haha no, but if you look at the time of my post - basically 5.30am this morning when I got in from my new year celebrations, got a bit excited...I'm from Newcastle but I find it rare to see northerners (proper northerners, not fake ones like Manchester etc) on TSR!

Anywho, I'll shut up now and crawl back into my hangover hole

Love it when people read through the thread from page 1 and find an incredibly old post to neg rep lol

Has anyone else booked QTS skills tests? There're all booked up in Oxford in the few afternoons we have off this term - after Michaelmas (Autumn term) we're in school 5 days a week until June - so Christmas holidays it'll have to be.

I feel bad about bumping it now!

Has anyone else booked QTS skills tests? There're all booked up in Oxford in the few afternoons we have off this term - after Michaelmas (Autumn term) we're in school 5 days a week until June - so Christmas holidays it'll have to be.

Also - has anyone got any experience using Prezi?! I really want to geek up and find an appropriate lesson to use it in...

Got my tests on Friday. Hope I pass the maths The level is the same as the online practice ones isn't it? I can just about pass those.

On my course everyone's so tired and we've had it pretty easy so far- been in school 3 days a week for the past 4 weeks but the next 5 of them are block placement, so we're in school 5 days a week teaching 40% of a timetable. This half term is apparently the worst for exhaustion/stress/wanting to leave so that will be interesting!

I'm currently 3/4 of the way through my first assignment, hoping to at least get the rest of it written out of the way today so I can spend the next couple of days planning for next week before I go back to it for final adjustments etc. Holiday? What holiday?