Teaching

craner

Beast of Burden
But don't people keep telling you, "don't worry, it gets easier?"

Are you a NQT, by the way, or beyond that now?
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Worst thing about PGCE is not being in school or even teaching, it's lesson planning on weekends and Uni paperwork and assignments.
 

don_quixote

Trent End
people keep telling me that this is the hardest term.

yes, i'm an nqt. i spent a year part-time unqualified, then did a pgce and now im here.

you're exactly right about that being the worst part of a pgce, it's the worst part of teaching full stop. the bit that everyone actually knows you do (ie in the classroom) is the easy bit, you might be juggling plates, but it's what you're in the job for. the planning and marking takes fucking ages. and the level of organisational skills you have to have...

uni assignments i wasn't overly conscientious about, because i was a maths student and not used to writing academic essays i felt less pressure. i just tried to get by with them. at least one of mine was started two days before it was due in. two of them had a lot of work put into them because we'd finished placement by then.

the most important thing you do is the bit in the classroom. you can have perfect essays but if it all goes wrong in the classroom that's far far worse.
 

jenks

thread death
Yep it is a monster term - just did a twilight and a parents'eve and have marking coming out my ears. There's no getting round the hard work bit, i still take marking home at the weekend but planning does get much easier.

What i find draining is the way the job impinges on all other aspects of life - i can't read a newspaper, see a tv programme, unwrap a sandwich without thinking about this might be a handy resource. It drives my wife mad.

However, after twenty years I still really look forward to coming into work most days and that isn't something everyone on here could say.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Easy, my friends.

I just had the rite of passage during period 5 today: The Lesson of Doom.

My first ever Drama lesson: Year 7 in the drama studio last period today. A lesson plan hastily thrown at me by a drama teacher departing to co-ordinate his Madness-inspired afternoon assembly.

My warm up almost immediately dissolved into lots of children running around hitting each other and falling over. Tried to get them to focus on the Craig Raine poem 'Martian sends a letter home' to break them into the concept of the lesson. Sat in a circle, screwing up or staring blankly at my lovely handout, they were having none of it. Start the group work.

Yr. 7: "Sir, can we use costumes?"
Me: "Yes, alright."

The wardrobe was my downfall.

At this point the lesson went into total meltdown. Sirens wailed. Alarm bells rang. Rather than small groups of eager young thespians putting together creative and intelligent ideas and organising them into clever and insightful 3-minute dramatic sequences, as the lesson plan stipulated, I was facing a gaseous mass of brats tearing about in funny costumes, dragging each other round the studio in boxes, and shouting and screaming any old shit at each other.

At this point I turned into Bill Murray's Rushmore character, minus cigarettes and whiskey in hand, but with five-day facial fuzz and hangover hair in effect. Suddenly something amazing happened, as I circled the room making cutting comments in a world-weary, bleary, erudite tone: some of the groups started to do some work! And apart from three kids, whom I deviously punished at the end of the lesson by making them tidy up all the crap I instructed the others to leave, we ended up with some redeemable pieces of work. One group of girls were so spectacular, considering the circumstances, that they probably saved my lesson alone. (I went and sang praise to their form tutors.)

I must say, though, the whole disaster was perversely enjoyable, and I've been chuckling about it ever since. I was quite heartened, actually, that when I gave up on Mr. Teacher and just fell back to a closer version of myself, they responded a little better. You just need a few kids with a good sense of humour to put a lesson in order. Fascinating! This never occured to me.
 
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don_quixote

Trent End
that sounds a lot better than my period 5. a group of year 10s who had just finished their maths exam and i ended up making one of them cry and then i gave them the silent killer treatment.

absolutely bloody lairy they were.

i miss year 7s a lot by the way (i work in a 14-18 college). i seriously don't miss year 9s.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I am doing ok so far, as an English teacher, and that is what I am being trained to do. I have zero experience as a drama teacher, so I'm not beating myself up. Having said that, I have been directing a group of Yr 11s in their GCSE drama pracs, which is being showcased next Tuesday and Wednesday. If you live in East Anglia and want to see my kids producing art in front of your eyes, PM me.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I predict that within 10 years we teachers will all be reading our lessons from scripts.

I've been reading a book on the increasing use and usefulness of statistical analysis called Super Crunchers. It mentions the 'Direct Instruction' approach, by which close analysis and testing of countless lessons has produced a minutely-planned curriculum that the teacher can pick up and run with - having done no preparation at all. All you do is read from the script and follow the instructions. Probably the first truly scientific method in pedagogy (in that it has been built up from analysing results rather than applying theory). The only thing is that following the instructions is the only thing the teacher gets, is expected, is allowed to do.

Expect grades to rocket and salaries to plummet?
 

jenks

thread death
I predict that within 10 years we teachers will all be reading our lessons from scripts.

I've been reading a book on the increasing use and usefulness of statistical analysis called Super Crunchers. It mentions the 'Direct Instruction' approach, by which close analysis and testing of countless lessons has produced a minutely-planned curriculum that the teacher can pick up and run with - having done no preparation at all. All you do is read from the script and follow the instructions. Probably the first truly scientific method in pedagogy (in that it has been built up from analysing results rather than applying theory). The only thing is that following the instructions is the only thing the teacher gets, is expected, is allowed to do.

Expect grades to rocket and salaries to plummet?

Just cannot see it - not for any subject, not even ICT. The premise seems to conflate instructing and teaching (and learning) and quite clearly tehy are not the same thing.

Now if someone could get me a marking monkey, i might be interested.
 

jenks

thread death
Easy, my friends.

I just had the rite of passage during period 5 today: The Lesson of Doom.

My first ever Drama lesson: Year 7 in the drama studio last period today. A lesson plan hastily thrown at me by a drama teacher departing to co-ordinate his Madness-inspired afternoon assembly.

... You just need a few kids with a good sense of humour to put a lesson in order. Fascinating! This never occured to me.

Drama, last thing on a Friday - they fucking saw you coming mate!

Glad it turned out ok for you though.

Always hated the no smiling to Xmas schtick - my only advice is don't try to be someone you are not. Teaching is generally (and I think I may have said this before) an amplification of your personality - be yourself but only more so, if that makes sense.

Willing kids are always a bonus and it is amazing how many of them that actually exist in a classroom - they want you to do well cos the alternative is an hour of hell for both them and you.

Humour too - priceless although often wasted on Y7 - for whom the only rational response is to be the irascible uncle who just wants to read his paper in peace. I don't teach lower the Y9 now - it's an arrangement everyone is happy with.
 
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