Teaching
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
jenks
thread death
Teaching A level Lit is a joy to the right kind of class - but not in a Robin Williams 'Captain, my captain' kind of way. Classes are smaller, the kinds of discussions are more varied.
However, in a school, A level Lit is just a small part of the job. Teaching low level sets GCSE Shakespeare can be very hard and you find that you have to do mots of their thinking for them.
SATs in Y9 mean that they are tested on a Shakespeare play. For some this can be a real turn off.
English teaching is about so much more now - lots of work is done on language skills - writing for specific audiences and purposes. Reading non-fiction text types and working out how they are made etc Some kids will get through school having never had a Victorian novel taught to them, for example.
The quality fo class readers has improved dramatically and there are many lower school books which are great to teach and the pupils really love them.
Here are a couple of links - the first is teh most popular exam board for A level Lit, the other is a site that is devoted to providng resources for Engish teachers - have a rummage through to get the idea about what actually gets taught inside a school.
http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/eng_lit_a_new.php
http://www.teachit.co.uk/index.asp?CurrMenu=64
However, in a school, A level Lit is just a small part of the job. Teaching low level sets GCSE Shakespeare can be very hard and you find that you have to do mots of their thinking for them.
SATs in Y9 mean that they are tested on a Shakespeare play. For some this can be a real turn off.
English teaching is about so much more now - lots of work is done on language skills - writing for specific audiences and purposes. Reading non-fiction text types and working out how they are made etc Some kids will get through school having never had a Victorian novel taught to them, for example.
The quality fo class readers has improved dramatically and there are many lower school books which are great to teach and the pupils really love them.
Here are a couple of links - the first is teh most popular exam board for A level Lit, the other is a site that is devoted to providng resources for Engish teachers - have a rummage through to get the idea about what actually gets taught inside a school.
http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/eng_lit_a_new.php
http://www.teachit.co.uk/index.asp?CurrMenu=64
jenks
thread death
chips with curry sauce!
No trouble, though. Keep asking the questions!
If you are fortunate enough to get your own classroom then, yes, you do get to decorate it. Mine is currently covered in quotes from Shakespeare, some displays made by Y10 on knife crime, a 'how to get an A' poster, lots of pictures of my sons, a reproduction of the great tapestry in the Australian Houses of Parliament in Canberra and an unhealthy number of pictures of british cyclists which I am claiming are there because we want to look at heroism in Henry V. Plus, of course, a million Health and Safety announcements.
Tomorrow, I see my AS Lit Kids for the first time and we are doing Tennyson's Ulysses and Arnold's Dover Beach - that beats most ways to start the week in my eyes.
I think your life sounds idyllic actually, Jenks. When I first thought of doing teaching, I remembered you describing your job to Luke and I over tea in Naze tower. I suddenly realised it might not be so bad. And then I remembered that all my old teachers used to get to decorate their own classrooms.
I think I'd have made a cracking English teacher circa 1950, but I'm a bit more alarmed by modern children and curriculum requirements, but it's got to beat what I do now, it's got to be more challenging and interesting, and with a bit of guts and imagination and humour, I think I'd stand a chance. Maybe.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
You just want to be able to address pupils as "You, boy!" and throw bits of chalk at them, don't you? I know I would.
jenks
thread death
Yes, I can see you taking them out on extra curricular bird spotting trips whilst sporting tweed and a pair of waders!
I'm pleased you are looking into the job - it's bastard hard at times but then again so are most jobs.
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Get some work experience in:
a) a private school
b) a decent comp
c) a tough comp
a) a private school
b) a decent comp
c) a tough comp
Ok, first thing's first, on the CRB website it says:
The current legislation does not allow the self-employed or individuals to apply for a CRB check on themselves.
So, presumably, if the school I approach agree to let me in for a weeks work experience, they will provide me with the CRB application form, right?
The current legislation does not allow the self-employed or individuals to apply for a CRB check on themselves.
So, presumably, if the school I approach agree to let me in for a weeks work experience, they will provide me with the CRB application form, right?
I have no doubt that this job is hard. My mother was Head of Drama at a large comprehensive in South Wales, and being witness to that in my formative years put me right off teaching for almost a decade of my working life. I think this was slightly stupid on my part, but then again, I saw the job get less rewarding and interesting and far harder for her the older she got and the more bureaucratic the job got.
Then again, what I do now has become thoroughly boring and routine. When I started, it was a unique place to work, which made the job interesting and enjoyable. Now the combination of bad pay, massively increased responsibility, appalling hours, and all the normal difficulties working and living in Central London have squeezed almost everything else out of my life. It's hard to enjoy anything with no time, no energy, and no money.
For all that teaching is challenging, I notice that Jenks has time to read outside his job, write poetry, and conduct a normal family life; likewise, my mother was able to raise me and pursue amatuer drama after school. I'm thinking that this job is exhausting but rewarding and leaves space for a far better quality of life than where I am now, and I'm thinking this despite the wearying "kids pulling knives on teachers" stories I get told every time I mention doing the job.
Then again, what I do now has become thoroughly boring and routine. When I started, it was a unique place to work, which made the job interesting and enjoyable. Now the combination of bad pay, massively increased responsibility, appalling hours, and all the normal difficulties working and living in Central London have squeezed almost everything else out of my life. It's hard to enjoy anything with no time, no energy, and no money.
For all that teaching is challenging, I notice that Jenks has time to read outside his job, write poetry, and conduct a normal family life; likewise, my mother was able to raise me and pursue amatuer drama after school. I'm thinking that this job is exhausting but rewarding and leaves space for a far better quality of life than where I am now, and I'm thinking this despite the wearying "kids pulling knives on teachers" stories I get told every time I mention doing the job.
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matt b
Indexing all opinion
in my experience law makes lawyer's hearts feel heavy.
don't forget to add into the 'pro' teaching column 3 months holiday a year
don_quixote
Trent End
i'm doing a pgce. got asked why i'm not doing gtp today actually because i'm currently in a school on a voluntary placement. i chose to do a pgce because im attracted to learning within a group of students and last year i missed being around people of my own age a bit (i only graduated last year). also, the place i was working was my old sixth form college so i wasn't particularly keen on staying on and working around my old teachers still.
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Things that you may find irritating whilst teacher training on a PGCE:
- the easiness of classwork contrasted with the difficulty of placements
- cringeworthily patronising lectures ('don't spit at gypsies' etc)
- the politicisation of education academics
- the lack of current school work experience amongst the academic staff
- biased lectures and essay topics ('write in praise of...')
- paperwork: chronicling every whistle and fart in triplicate
- the uselessness of academic smarts for many parts of the job
- the tedium of many parts of the job
- the mounting slope of increasing, real, responsibility
- anxiety-making observations, the seemingly never-ending supply of
The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult (or at least it was in my experience) to wing anything - it is this novel, somewhat persistent, sensation (I had previously been able to avoid anything truly challenging) that has, annoyingly, kept me slogging away at the job (which I do actually (now) enjoy).
- the easiness of classwork contrasted with the difficulty of placements
- cringeworthily patronising lectures ('don't spit at gypsies' etc)
- the politicisation of education academics
- the lack of current school work experience amongst the academic staff
- biased lectures and essay topics ('write in praise of...')
- paperwork: chronicling every whistle and fart in triplicate
- the uselessness of academic smarts for many parts of the job
- the tedium of many parts of the job
- the mounting slope of increasing, real, responsibility
- anxiety-making observations, the seemingly never-ending supply of
The most annoying thing is that it is so difficult (or at least it was in my experience) to wing anything - it is this novel, somewhat persistent, sensation (I had previously been able to avoid anything truly challenging) that has, annoyingly, kept me slogging away at the job (which I do actually (now) enjoy).