The time has come...
...for the PGCE student to do his work!
I am going to be honest with you. I know that
over the next three and a half weeks, my blog writing time is
going to suffer. But feel better knowing that it’s not just the
blog I am having to take time off from, it’s pretty much everything
in my life. Why? Because I am doing a PGCE!
Ok, that may be being a little melodramatic,
but it’s not too far from the truth. I have been back off Christmas
(which I had a lovely time, hope you did too) for about three
weeks now and the course is getting intense. The main reason for
this is that I have started my attachment 1b, in which I teach 60%
of the timetable and I am being assessed for it! This pretty much
makes or breaks me as a teacher and so far, it is slowly
breaking.
Alright, another melodramatic moment. Not only
am I not the only one feeling it on my course, but I’m fairly
certain that any PGCE student around the country is feeling the
same thing I am. We want to get our lessons just right. For me,
that means spending hours on my lesson plans, trying to make them
unique as well as doable. Spending far too much time on my
recourses (some of which, I foolish tried to make myself!), but
most of the time, I'm pointlessly stressing about actually doing
the lessons!
Before I started the attachment, I wasn’t too
worried about actually delivering the lessons. My first time round
I had a wonderful class, that did as they were told and were
reasonably independent. I am now teaching significantly younger
children who to need hand holding at most junctions. But at least
they are a very sweet bunch of kids and I get to watch Cbeebies
with them!
So, content. What have I actually been doing
(university wise) since the last blog. Well, I have only had two
lectures in the past three weeks. Some would think I was
lucky, but not when compared to what I have been doing for 3 weeks
(stated above). It is always nice to get back into uni after a
break. You get to meet everyone again, which is brilliant as you
have so much to catch up on. Everyone had a nice Christmas, but
wasn’t much time to catch up on the first day as we had three
back-to-back lectures, most of them being about assignments. That’s
another thing that makes this course hard (I am going to go off on
a tangent here, so skip ahead if you like). I have spent the past
week stressing about my lessons, gathering everything I need for
them and trying not to panic whilst I am delivering a lesson to 30
kids. And when it hits the weekend, you think I could take a break?
Sit back with an ice cold beer and just relax before the next week
of teaching? NO!! I have assignments to think about! So I spend my
Sunday, sitting in the library so that when I do and deliver my
lessons, the only panic I'm feeling is about whether I am achieving
the learning objectives, not whether my assignment is due in or
not!
Right, rant over. Thanks for sticking with me.
So the second day of lectures is a little better. Mainly because
one is canceled, the second is a tutorial and the final is science!
It’s a shame when lectures get cancelled because you know the work
will have to be made up at another time (possibly more inconvenient
time). But hey, you can’t win them all. The tutorial was good as it
allowed to know fully what I was doing for this attachment (and set
the date of my formal observation! Argh!). But any progress is good
progress so I can’t be sad about that!
Sorry not much of this one has been about
being in the university, this is mainly because I haven’t been
there! Don’t worry; I can post another stress blog when I am
finished with my attachment, hopefully with pictures then!
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