I know, I know, I've been awfully badly behaved. Every time I think of something I'd like to write about, I then decide that I'm too busy, too tired, or just couldn't be bothered. That, my friends, is the true nature of a PGCE student. There is so much to do and to think about that it's hard to want to do or think about anything else.
That's not fair... I've been keeping my social life going as much as I can. Actually, my social life has improved. Between the new people I'm meeting on my course and other people who are suddenly going, "Where are you? We miss you!" I've been spending a fair chunk of my time on the circuit. But I have a feeling that won't be able to continue much longer.
So, what are all these things I've been doing and thinking about? Most uni days, we're in class from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. The timetable is dynamic and unpredictable and half the time we'll be on our way to class and realise we don't know where we're going. Sometimes we have a bit of "time off," but this is invariably used to catch up on work. There is a lot of work: readings and directed tasks coming out the wazoo. We don't always know what these are, so we spend a lot of time talking to each other, trying to figure it out.
Technically, there are 3 modules: Professional Practice, Learning & Teaching, and Specialism. The latter two are M level (we get Masters credits for them) and the first one is Honours level, but don't let this deceive you. Professional Practice is by far the biggest and most monstrous of them all. It includes everything about "being a teacher" (behaviour management, planning, safeguarding, differentiation, etc, etc), all the core and foundation subjects (English, maths, science, ICT, geography, art & design, the list goes on...), and all of our school experience. We've barely started Learning & Teaching so I don't know much about it, but I imagine it's fairly self-explanatory. And then we've each chosen a specialism that we spend a measly 8 days on. Mine is French. Due to a combination of factors (including the fact that teaching Modern Foreign Languages from Year 3 upwards is going to become mandatory in 2014), they're essentially grooming us to be MFL Coordinators. Forget about becoming Newly Qualified Teachers... we already have to be thinking about a leadership role. It's kind of cool, but was also a bit of a shock the first day.
Then there's school experience. A few weeks into the course, we took off for a two week observation period. I was lucky enough to be placed in a really lovely school not too far from where I live, but the variability in placements is huge. Others were sent up to 1.5 hours away and have come back with some pretty shocking stories. I thought the observation period would be boring but it really wasn't. I got stuck in with everything right away, got to know some of the children and the staff, picked up a lot of great ideas, and was amazed by how much progress the children made over even that small chunk of time. Truly inspiring.
On Monday, I'm going back to the same school for 4 more weeks. I'm feeling a little bit apprehensive after spending the last little while back in the cocoon of university, but I know it'll be amazing once I get there. This time, I need to plan mini-lessons and teach small groups of children, paying close attention to their progression. I also need to start getting involved with bits of the whole class teaching, mainly so that the children see me as a teacher and not just a helper.
I'll try and keep you updated on how that goes.
[Edit]: I forgot to mention there are two national skills tests we need to pass in order to gain our qualification: literacy and numeracy. I passed my literacy test last week (yay!), but numeracy is coming up in December and I'm scared. My maths skills have improved in leaps and bounds since I started this course (who knew maths can be fun?!) but the timed mental section still freaks me out.
That's not fair... I've been keeping my social life going as much as I can. Actually, my social life has improved. Between the new people I'm meeting on my course and other people who are suddenly going, "Where are you? We miss you!" I've been spending a fair chunk of my time on the circuit. But I have a feeling that won't be able to continue much longer.
So, what are all these things I've been doing and thinking about? Most uni days, we're in class from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. The timetable is dynamic and unpredictable and half the time we'll be on our way to class and realise we don't know where we're going. Sometimes we have a bit of "time off," but this is invariably used to catch up on work. There is a lot of work: readings and directed tasks coming out the wazoo. We don't always know what these are, so we spend a lot of time talking to each other, trying to figure it out.
Technically, there are 3 modules: Professional Practice, Learning & Teaching, and Specialism. The latter two are M level (we get Masters credits for them) and the first one is Honours level, but don't let this deceive you. Professional Practice is by far the biggest and most monstrous of them all. It includes everything about "being a teacher" (behaviour management, planning, safeguarding, differentiation, etc, etc), all the core and foundation subjects (English, maths, science, ICT, geography, art & design, the list goes on...), and all of our school experience. We've barely started Learning & Teaching so I don't know much about it, but I imagine it's fairly self-explanatory. And then we've each chosen a specialism that we spend a measly 8 days on. Mine is French. Due to a combination of factors (including the fact that teaching Modern Foreign Languages from Year 3 upwards is going to become mandatory in 2014), they're essentially grooming us to be MFL Coordinators. Forget about becoming Newly Qualified Teachers... we already have to be thinking about a leadership role. It's kind of cool, but was also a bit of a shock the first day.
Then there's school experience. A few weeks into the course, we took off for a two week observation period. I was lucky enough to be placed in a really lovely school not too far from where I live, but the variability in placements is huge. Others were sent up to 1.5 hours away and have come back with some pretty shocking stories. I thought the observation period would be boring but it really wasn't. I got stuck in with everything right away, got to know some of the children and the staff, picked up a lot of great ideas, and was amazed by how much progress the children made over even that small chunk of time. Truly inspiring.
On Monday, I'm going back to the same school for 4 more weeks. I'm feeling a little bit apprehensive after spending the last little while back in the cocoon of university, but I know it'll be amazing once I get there. This time, I need to plan mini-lessons and teach small groups of children, paying close attention to their progression. I also need to start getting involved with bits of the whole class teaching, mainly so that the children see me as a teacher and not just a helper.
I'll try and keep you updated on how that goes.
[Edit]: I forgot to mention there are two national skills tests we need to pass in order to gain our qualification: literacy and numeracy. I passed my literacy test last week (yay!), but numeracy is coming up in December and I'm scared. My maths skills have improved in leaps and bounds since I started this course (who knew maths can be fun?!) but the timed mental section still freaks me out.
No comments:
Post a Comment