Some more experience at the school

Yesterday - 6th March 2008

Yesterday, I went to Reading to attend a meeting at Reading University about the GTP route into teaching. I took the day off from my work experience to go to the meeting and the school didn't mind. I wanted to learn more about this route because I thought it might be a good option for me rather than PGCE as you get paid a salary of around £14-£15k to work and train as a teacher. Plus applications are still being accepted whereas the PGCE primary deadlines have gone and I wouldn't be able to do the primary PGCE route for this september because at the time of application I didn't have the relevant experience. However, from doing my primary school work experience, I have come to the conclusion that I would actually prefer to be a secondary school teacher after all, which means I can still potentially get onto a PGCE for this September because the application deadline isn't until June. This is not to say that I haven't been enjoying my primary school work experience, because I really have enjoyed it very much and I have learned a lot more than I thought I would. I am opting for secondary now though because after teaching the older kids in the primary school, I have realised that I prefer teaching the older kids rather than the younger ones, because I get the chance to do more complex work with them etc. Also, it seems I would get paid more to do secondary school teaching and I could also specialise in Art and Religious Studies I think, which are two of my favourite subjects. In primary I would have to teach all subjects which I am not sure that I would want to do. I wouldn't have been able to know that I wanted to do secondary teaching without first doing the primary experience so my time spent in the school has been invaluable. Plus I have had a fantastic time! There are other reasons that have made me want to do secondary teaching but I think I have waffled enough! Anyway, the GTP meeting in reading has made me rule out the GTP route to secondary because I found out that you only get a QTS qualification from the GTP route and it means that you would not be qualified to teach in Scotland, Ireland and a lot of places abroad. I figure if you are going to work just as hard as a PGCE student then you should get the same qualifications but it seems you don't. You also don't get a University certificate or any modules towards a masters, wheras all this you get with a PGCE. PGCE seems just more varied and interesting as you switch schools through the course and get extra qualifications. So...PGCE here I come!


Today - 7th March 2008

I was back in the primary school today with my favourite Year 3 class that I have got to know quite well in a short space of time. I promised the Year 3 class, who I spent the day with on Wednesday 5th March, that I would come back to their class today for the whole day again (because they asked me to come back and because their teacher was OK with that). In the morning I listened to two children read and helped them if they got stuck. Then I sat with a table that was allocated to me to help and helped them finish their numeracy work from Wednesday which was bar graphs. They all finished with a few minutes to spare before break time so I allowed them to ask questions and I answered them - normally they ask questions all the time anyway that are not necessarily work related and I have to tell them to concentrate. I indirectly got a bit in trouble with their teacher though because several times the teacher started shouting at my table to be quiet and only talk about work, so I guess she was sort of telling me to keep them more in line. I like listening to their questions and stuff though and I didn't know if it's my place to tell them off so I let them talk a bit but after the teacher not being happy with that I became stricter! Then came assembly. The children's parents were in from the lower years in the school to watch the little ones do readings about St Davids Day. I had to sit with the parents rather than the teachers and I got some dirty looks from parents. I know why and it made me laugh. They must have thought I was a young teenage mum (because I look only about 17/18 a lot of people say)and because I was sat with the parents. I also didn't have a video camera like all the parents so I think they thought I wasn't interested in my child, even though little did they know I don't have one! After assembly, came P.E. One of the teacher's was off sick so I was given half the class to teach - it was a different Year 3 class and I had to teach all by myself! Great experience though. I was teaching them basic tennis skills and I had to really shout across the playground at times and think on my feet because I wasn't given time to plan a lesson so I made up activities like asking them to work on their own and try to keep the ball in the air by bouncing the ball on the racket to see how many times they could bounce it before losing control of the ball. I then put them into pairs and got them to try making one bounce on the ground only before they hit it back to eachother . After P.E, I helped my favourite Year 3 class again and the kids had to make up imaginary animals as in a few weeks time they are having a sculpture maker come in to look at their ideas and then help them to create a sculpture. The kids were aksed to draw an imaginary creature, such as something completely random or perhaps a shark's head and a horse's body. Some kids had really good ideas. Some struggled to even think of one type of animal! As usual, all the kids were shouting for my help at once so I had to be firm and say to stay quiet until I got round to their table. I was a bit shocked and embarrassed because a couple of kids started crying because even though I had already spent a lot of time with them, I had to share my time with everyone so they cried because they wanted some more help or for me to draw something for them. It was embarrassing because the teacher had to keep going over to them to ask why they were crying and it was because I couldn't help them all at once! hehe. One girl got in a very sulky strop because I couldn't spend the whole lesson just with her and when I came over to her for like the 4th time she wouldn't even speak to me or try and come up with any ideas for animals! In the end I left her to it because she was just attention seeking and misbehaving. Other than that everyone was really well behaved. After the imaginary animal session, there was Golden Time. Golden Time is time the kids have earned for being good and in this time they can do whatever they like. So, I went in the playground with some of them and also the teacher. Some of them performed songs from High School Musical for me because they are going to be auditioning to be in the school play of it. Then I played catch with a few of the kids and spent time chatting to them. Also, incidentally, today was my record breaking day for number of hugs received. It's really sweet, these kids just love to hug! I had to ask the teacher if I should be pushing them straight off me though because sadly the world has to be more careful now and there are some dodgy people in the world so I had to find out what the rules were. The teacher said it's fine if they hug me and not to worry, as long as I don't let them hug me for long which I didn't anyway. At the end of the day, the teacher told them it might be my last day with their class so everyone said thank you and bye and gave me a mountain of hugs! Sorry if this blog is a bit rushed but I was too tired after my day of work experience today to write it up straight away and I'm still tired now as it's getting late so I'm rushing a bit!