Any "Teachers" in here?

[heyyo]

Hi,

Im thinking about doing a PGCE course, I was wondering if you could give me some insight in to the course and why you decided to teach?

Cheers

[Russ]

Someone give Coggy a shout

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by heyyo

Hi,

Im thinking about doing a PGCE course, I was wondering if you could give me some insight in to the course and why you decided to teach?

Cheers

I never did that course myself(I'm a result of the old Teacher Training Colleges) but it's a good course.You get a good grounding in everything that is required as a teacher and it is intensive at training on the job so to speak.

I chose to go into teaching basically because having got a lot out of state education myself I wanted to give back so to speak.I'm also a natural big mouth that can't help but show off my knowledge.I have to physically slap my hand over my mouth at times because I know I'm being annoying but I just can't help it.

I feel that education is the most important part of everyone's lives and if you are thinking of going for it why not try one of the new positions in schools of LCT's.They are cover staff who are not teachers but can cover for teaching staff in a variety of subjects while staff are on courses,ill or busy doing teaching functions.The pay is not brilliant,about £10,000 to £15,000 in a year.However the positions are not expected to be long term posts so it would suit someone who is thinking of teaching but would like to try before going on to full time teaching courses.

Hope you find teaching is for you.It doesn't suit everyone but then I'm a cynical secondary teacher of 30 years.I suspect that Infant and Junior school teachers tend to have a better attitude so a chat to one or two of them might be a good idea.

Good Luck!

Incog.

[heyyo]

Thank you for the information. I will keep researching and speak to some teachers as you suggested.

My better half is a primary school teacher, teaches reception.

Shes of the view that ALL people should go through teacher training college like Coggy did. Her experience is that a lot of recruits they take on with a PGCE tend to leave teaching within 2-3 years where as teacher training college recruits tend to know its for them.

Her advice is to approach some of the local schools and see if you can go along to observe for a few days. Then make you decision as to doing the PGCE.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by gary_580

My better half is a primary school teacher, teaches reception.

Shes of the view that ALL people should go through teacher training college like Coggy did. Her experience is that a lot of recruits they take on with a PGCE tend to leave teaching within 2-3 years where as teacher training college recruits tend to know its for them.

Her advice is to approach some of the local schools and see if you can go along to observe for a few days. Then make you decision as to doing the PGCE.

Oooh I so admire reception teachers.They have the toughest but the most important job in teaching.They are the first teacher that a child meets and they have so much responsibility for setting the child up for 12 years of schooling.Respect to all reception teachers.

Incog.

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Oooh I so admire reception teachers.They have the toughest but the most important job in teaching.They are the first teacher that a child meets and they have so much responsibility for setting the child up for 12 years of schooling.Respect to all reception teachers.

Incog.

she says the same about secondary teachers. She says the kids dont have attitudes in reception, where as later on .............


Shes the reception manager too, they have 90 of the little blighters every year!!

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by gary_580

she says the same about secondary teachers. She says the kids dont have attitudes in reception, where as later on .............


Shes the reception manager too, they have 90 of the little blighters every year!!

Do they split them into two or three classes?I wouldn't want to teach a class of 45 personally.

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Do they split them into two or three classes?I wouldn't want to teach a class of 45 personally.

Three classes, they have three classes per year group all through the primary school she works at. So they have 21 classes and about 650 ish under 12 year old kids.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by gary_580

Three classes, they have three classes per year group all through the primary school she works at. So they have 21 classes and about 650 ish under 12 year old kids.

Well that's a lot better but personally a class of five year olds at 30 to the class must still be hard work.I was Junior/Secondary trained and did some of my teaching practice in junior school.Phew! Very hard work but also very enjoyable.

I just felt too split when doing it because I had to deal with too many subjects on one day.

However that experience now comes in handy as a supply teacher when I can be teaching 5 different subjects in one day alone.

[Nugget]

Both of my parents were primary teachers (probably explains something about me ), and loved their jobs when they were actually teaching.

My Dad ended up as Head Teacher of a fairly big primary in West Bromwich, and has always said it was a nightmare - he was effectively running a small business which, let's face it, isn't what you go into teaching for.

Originally Posted by Nugget

he was effectively running a small business.

so didnt employ young females as teachers i presumme

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by gary_580

so didnt employ young females as teachers i presumme

Yes, I saw the quote too but if the truth be known the education service runs on young women ( and more mature ones too!!).There are a few male teachers in Primary Education but more in Secondary Education. Numbers may be increasing or decreasing depending on which papers you read. As are the classroom "aides" i.e. generally untrained helpers.

Education is in crisis at the moment. You can blame that on the management, i.e. local and central government, who have chopped and changed education so much for reasons of political correctness that lots of staff took early retirement. And then after they left the government found it hard to recruit staff. I wonder why!! They are recruiting from as far away as Australia and New Zealand but the "imported" staff usually only stay a couple of years before heading home. That's a generalism as there might be the odd few still here.

Unfortunately, the same management crowd who made the mess are in charge of putting the situation right. Personally, I'm glad I got out but the drop in educational standards and all the political fiddling to make things look better than they really are does make me fear for the future of the country.

It's no wonder people are emigrating!!

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by ntluser

Yes, I saw the quote too but if the truth be known the education service runs on young women ( and more mature ones too!!).There are a few male teachers in Primary Education but more in Secondary Education. Numbers may be increasing or decreasing depending on which papers you read. As are the classroom "aides" i.e. generally untrained helpers.

Education is in crisis at the moment. You can blame that on the management, i.e. local and central government, who have chopped and changed education so much for reasons of political correctness that lots of staff took early retirement. And then after they left the government found it hard to recruit staff. I wonder why!! They are recruiting from as far away as Australia and New Zealand but the "imported" staff usually only stay a couple of years before heading home. That's a generalism as there might be the odd few still here.

Unfortunately, the same management crowd who made the mess are in charge of putting the situation right. Personally, I'm glad I got out but the drop in educational standards and all the political fiddling to make things look better than they really are does make me fear for the future of the country.

It's no wonder people are emigrating!!

It's one of the very few professions where we women predominate.However it's not really a good thing for the pupils especially at infant and junior level where young boys from single parent families are not getting enough role models.

[BBKing]

I have a former primary school teacher camped on my living room floor at the moment - she's moving to South America next week to teach English.

Her comments on teaching primary kids in south London, there was more in the same vein but I can't type that fast - she talks rather fast when she gets worked up about something:

"Enlightening, but not in a good way, in a very sad kind of way, what we're doing to our children"

"The Government is ruining our children by being too PC and brushing things under the table"

"They treat the black kids with so much care that they can't reprimand them, and therefore can't reprimand the white kids either"*

"After working in the state school sector I would never send my children to a state school in London"

"Some children are sweet, but are following the crowd or are intimidated by the crowd"

"There's this air of total complete disrespect and children don't appreciate going to school"

"The children don't say please or thank you, ever"

"You could be giving them a sweet and they'd be saying 'I don't want that one'"

"Some people blame the parents but that's not the whole story, the Government must take some of the blame"

"I don't plan to teach in England again"

*she's mixed-race, incidentally