I am going to be embarking on my teacher training as of next September. I am still deciding between primary and secondary and have some observations in both environments lined up to help with that. I was wondering, however, if any of you are teachers (even in other countries) and if so, do you have any advice for a still young and enthusiastic pupil?
I'm a post compulsory teacher, so A-level literature and Adult Literary. Teaching English Literature at a high level is what I love, and I highly recommend it. Personal preference is speaking there though. Also, be brave when you start, and expect to pull your hair out. Teacher training, and teaching is not always exactly easy.
Have been teaching for a couple of years and loving it. Taught back home in Australia and now in the UK. I teach years 7-11 and Y13 Literature. Love all of it. Harnessing kids' own creativity is important in creative writing. Inspiring a love of reading is important too... still working on ways to do that with low-literacy students. It takes time to work yourself out as a teacher and what approach is going to work for you. Perseverance is crucial, as is getting to know your students. They are all interesting people with lots going on in their lives they we can forget to account for!
Hi Katie, I was going to study a PGCE myself last year but had to drop out due to personal reasons, but I did a series of lesson observations and read into the techniques and psychological aspects behind teaching, and I recommend you do the same. Go to your local college or your old high school and ask if you can sit in on a few lessons to observe how the teacher relates to their pupils in various situations. You'll probably get a taste for what age group you want to teach as well in the process. I was originally going to train for post-compulsory as I was planning to teach business studies, and that's mostly a level 3 and higher subject. Good luck, and I hope it goes well.
Since I wrote this I have qualified as an English teacher; and have worked as a private teacher, private school teacher and as a college lecturer since qualifying.
I am a qualified English as a second language teacher (CELTA) and I have so far taught 5yrs in the South of China (hoping to go back). Here's what I learnt... 1) No matter how bad you are you can become a great teacher (my first class was terrible and I mean really terrible but went on to being the most popular teacher in the school). 2) If you are bored they will be too, so try to find ways to keep it interesting for yourself. 3) Make it interactive and fun, they can learn facts on the internet without you. You need to make them want to learn and help them understand. 4) Don't be afraid to not know, you can tell them you will look it up after. It's better to say you don't know than get it wrong. 5) Engage with the students outside of class (I don't mean be their friend but try to care about them as people as much as pupils. Take some time out of class to ask them how they are and what they are doing). 6) Even the worst students usually don't want you to fail, they just don't want to be there. So just relax and do it. 7) What seems like the scariest thing to do (get up in front of people and speak) becomes second nature. Just don't sweat it and be brilliant you.
@Lemex you ever heard of the CELTA qualification? I'm thinking of doing one when I get my shit together.
It is some coincidence haha. If you are a writer and you want to earn money and have lots of time to write, go to china and teach. You can find schools that will pay you to work 20hrs a week and pay you a wage that will give you lots of money to save. Even doing the Celta was fun. Hard work, but fun. It takes 4 weeks to do it full time and it's full on. My second degree combined with a Diploma was done in two years and this course was more intense than that. It's not hard, just intense and hard work.
Cool. Thanks for the info. I like that it's only 4 weeks, so you don't have to dedicate months or years to it.
Yeah it's over very quickly, but you are exhausted when it is haha. You can do it over 3months if you do it part time (which is designed for people working), but it's even more full on unless you are unemployed.
Oh, I'm all inspired and excited now. One of my university friends is in Japan at the moment teaching English. He was the one who told me about CELTA. I'd heard of TEFL and TESOL before, but CELTA I'd not.
Lucky teaching in Japan! That was my plan originally. CELTA is the one you want because it's the one 95% of TEFL jobs ask for by name.
Yeah, I read that somewhere; and it also includes actual teaching time which is a massive advantage one would think.
I'm an elementary teacher and although it doesn't seem like it would be the case, elementary is a lot more work. In secondary you are probably teaching 1-2 different lesson plans a few times a day while in elementary its the same kids ALL DAY and you're teaching a bunch of different things and you have to have lesson plans on all of it. For advice I would say go in with a management plan, honestly elementary is like 80% classroom management, and if you don't have that down it wont matter how great your lessons are. Since you're going into training network constantly at whatever schools you go to, ask advice, constantly ask how you can help out or "do you think I could teach that lesson, it looks really great,"or "How do you think i did on that Lesson and how can i improve?" On another note and i really cant emphasize this enough to student teachers SAVE EVERYTHING! photocopy student examples of your lessons, save extra worksheets, ask if you can have copies of the veteran teacher's lesson units. You will need that stuff for your portfolio when you apply, and having examples of working lessons/units will make your own life much easier. Good luck
I completed the two-year teacher training for subject teaching in Finland, so it's probably really quite different from what you guys do in the UK. The best part was practical training, but we had to learn a lot of theory as well. Pedagogy/didactics have been theorized pretty extensively already, but at least over here teachers are encouraged to do research as well, so that too was a significant part of the training. It was tough, loads of work, but I had fun. After that I've taught English for short stints in high schools and one university of applied sciences, and now I'm finishing my last paper for the teacher's training department (an advanced study option that makes me a notch more qualified). However, I've worked as a trainer/facilitator for a multinational company now and I might actually continue on this path rather than return to school life 'cause I've got more extensive career opportunities now. It's also less stressful, less "public," and I don't have difficult students or don't have raise children in addition to teaching them (or, like it is nowadays, teachers have become stand-in parents who raise the kids first, then teach them). I did like teaching English, though, and got pretty good feedback on my work, so it's possible I will take it up again at some point and what I'm doing now is just something of a stopgap. Being a teacher is a meaningful job and pays relatively well too (well, in Finland at least... I've heard things are crappier for teachers elsewhere). Good luck with your studies! You've made a good choice.
