PGCE - Current Students Thread

Ok well I was teaching Y2, so we had to do time to five minutes. Time is funny though. Your ability groups could be totally messed up up because some children are taught it by their parents very early, others never even look at a clock. So you might very well have children who have a watch, who are working at a y2 level because they're fab.

My problem with time was that I didn't break it down into enough steps. If I could do it again, I'd get the children to spend time looking at the clock, telling me things they notice. I'd break down exactly what I want them to do (which way does the clock go round, minute/hour hands etc.) and test them before starting the topic properly so I could reset my ability groups. I'd spend a lot more time covering the 'basics'.

Sorry if any of this seems obvious, I just had a hard time teaching this. The children had a great deal of misconceptions and because I didn't break it down into tiny, achievable steps, these weren't corrected. Good luck! I'm sure it'll go better than it did for me, haha.

If that is directed to me, I don't teach in the UK. I dropped QTS in my 3rd year (of a 4 year PE QTS course), due to falling out with my mentor and losing my confidence.... long story!

After I graduated in 2012 I started working at an English language summer camp, loved it, and did the CELTA course (most known TEFL course).

Now I teach at a small private language school in Lisbon, Portugal. I love living and teaching abroad.

I don't want to rub it in, but what I love is all the things I love about teaching I have, the things I hated about teaching during my degree and teaching practises I don't have to do here.

Yes it was. Forgot to quote you in first message. Sounds good. How did you get your first job without the CELTA?

I understand where you're coming from. I'm working in TEFL in Spain at the moment.

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I wish I could teach abroad. I was highly interested in the JET programme in Japan. I wouldn't want to move away for that long though. I have commitments in this country for the time being.

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Have you considered just getting a teaching job overseas for a few years? There can be huge financial benefits to it. My parents got jobs in the middle east for 5 years because salary is tax free and they give you a place to live so they could rent out their house here to pay the mortgage and just stash for a few years.

Are essays the worst part of the course for everyone else? I just need to finish this one and then I only have to worry about my dissertation after this but I think I make a right meal of freaking out over them.

I think it's made worse because it's the exact same essay I wrote for my first essay except I'm looking at different standards so there's so much that I wish I could just lift and use over in this one too.

And having another look at how much I did for TS8 during placement 1 just makes me more pissed about getting a requires improvement for it. Nobody else understands why it was RI either.

*grumbles*

Are essays the worst part of the course for everyone else? I just need to finish this one and then I only have to worry about my dissertation after this but I think I make a right meal of freaking out over them.

I think it's made worse because it's the exact same essay I wrote for my first essay except I'm looking at different standards so there's so much that I wish I could just lift and use over in this one too.

And having another look at how much I did for TS8 during placement 1 just makes me more pissed about getting a requires improvement for it. Nobody else understands why it was RI either.

*grumbles*

Yeah, they're killing me! Thankfully I've only got the 3 4,000 word essays for the year. But, writing in an education discipline is so different than my original discipline and i've found that really tough!

They're not the hardest part for me - I did my degree in Education so I'm pretty used to the format. They are difficult though. I just feel like my brain is mush! We've been allowed 2 days off to work on the assignment but apart from this we are in uni as normal. There isn't much time to think properly about what we're doing. At the moment I have 1,000 words and just five days to add 4,000 words to it. I'd normally spend much more time on an assignment.

You're computing too, right? I find moving from that very dry essay style to being all mushy and feely really really hard.



I've written 2500 since yesterday morning when I started and the essay is due at 4 today. I really don't help myself :/ I think the main issue really is time because there really isn't enough of it when juggling a full time job on top of the essays. I'm glad they put the deadline in half term but at the same time I've been prepping for the 9 new classes I pick up next week, plus the 5 others I'm already teaching. I need more days

History, whilst it's a written subject, the education format is just difficult. And I hate Harvard referencing too so my referencing takes me ages!

How long does /it need to be?

You're computing too, right? I find moving from that very dry essay style to being all mushy and feely really really hard.



I've written 2500 since yesterday morning when I started and the essay is due at 4 today. I really don't help myself :/ I think the main issue really is time because there really isn't enough of it when juggling a full time job on top of the essays. I'm glad they put the deadline in half term but at the same time I've been prepping for the 9 new classes I pick up next week, plus the 5 others I'm already teaching. I need more days

Are essays the worst part of the course for everyone else? I just need to finish this one and then I only have to worry about my dissertation after this but I think I make a right meal of freaking out over them.

I think it's made worse because it's the exact same essay I wrote for my first essay except I'm looking at different standards so there's so much that I wish I could just lift and use over in this one too.

And having another look at how much I did for TS8 during placement 1 just makes me more pissed about getting a requires improvement for it. Nobody else understands why it was RI either.

*grumbles*

Ah, there's another CS student somewhere around here. Yeah, the education is weird because it's formal but personal and it's weird to hit the balance.

It needs to be anything below 3000 and I'm at 2800. The issue is what I've actually written is super reflective but not all that academic :/

I'm finding the reflective/academic distinction really confusing! Most of our essays are supposed to be reflective, but at the same time we get criticised if we don't reference enough, but I don't understand how you can reference loads when it is a reflective piece.

Yep time is definitely an issue. Are you working a full time job as well as the PGCE? That's insane!

Congrats on 2500 in 2 days I need to make progress like that! Finding it hard to be systematic about how I'm working right now though. Keep getting stuck.

Nope, I meant the school hours I'm doing, plus part time stuff I'm involved in.

I'm hitting so many brick walls and struggling to get things done. I've just submitted my essay though so hopefully I can now get back to focusing on teaching. The worst that happens is I'll have to resubmit the damn thing!