Teaching

.../> BACKGROUND:

Teaching wasn't something that I wanted to do. When I was younger I wanted to be a solicitor because that's what my Dad did. When it came to applying for university I really couldn't face the thought of studying law for three years so decided to do my degree in History (my passion in life - no jokes thank you very much!). I always thought that I'd carry on with the law stuff after my degree.

However, ...
...A few people had suggested teaching to me in the past but it was never something that I'd taken too seriously. No one was any help - 'do what you want' - ARGH!!! I phoned my best friend in turmoil and she said that she could really see me as a teacher and thought I would be really good at it. I decided that I would go for it. My decision was based mainly on the fact that I loved History so much and thought it would be great to work around it every ... more

Before I start - a little warning that this is going to be a long review!

BACKGROUND:

Teaching wasn't something that I wanted to do. When I was younger I wanted to be a solicitor because that's what my Dad did. When it came to applying for university I really couldn't face the thought of studying law for three years so decided to do my degree in History (my passion in life - no jokes thank you very much!). I always thought that I'd carry on with the law stuff after my degree.

However, by the time I was finishing my degree, I'd really gone off the law idea and wanted to carry on being involved in History. I decided to do a Masters while I decided what I wanted to do with my life. My Masters History based but involved a lot of museum studies, included an internship at the British Museum. This inspired me to look for museum jobs but the money was not really good enough. So, four years after leaving school I was very well qualified but with no idea about what I wanted to do!

It was a choice between law and teaching. A few people had suggested teaching to me in the past but it was never something that I'd taken too seriously. No one was any help - 'do what you want' - ARGH!!! I phoned my best friend in turmoil and she said that she could really see me as a teacher and thought I would be really good at it. I decided that I would go for it. My decision was based mainly on the fact that I loved History so much and thought it would be great to work around it every day. I also really enjoyed being around children, although it wasn't something I had a lot of experience with.

WHICH ROUTE?

There are two ways into teaching (technically if you work in a private school you don't have to have done either of these although private schools are becoming much fussier now), these are the PGCE and the GTP. GTP is the Graduate Training Programme. If you take this route, you are based at a school rather than at a university. You do a lot more teaching and you work the whole school year. You are also paid which is a huge bonus - I think its around £12000.

A PGCE (post-graduate certificate in education) is the route I decided on. This is university based. You are sent to two different schools during you time there and also have around 12 weeks university time. The government kindly give you £6000 for training - tax free which helps! However, you do have to pay £1800 in fees (its £3000 but the rest gets paid by others - in my case the Welsh Assembly).

I chose the PGCE route. I wanted to have the back up of the theory which university gives you and also the support of 16 other people going through the same things at the same time was really reassuring.

Also there is the choice between primary and secondary education. I chose secondary for a couple of reasons. I love my subject so couldn't imagine having to teach other things. Also, primary teachers only usually spend a year with their pupils before they move on to another class, and I wanted to be able to follow my pupils through. I'm quite academic so i wanted to be able to work with higher level pupils at A-Level.

APPLYING:

My main advice would be apply early. To apply for a PGCE you need to go through the GTTR (Graduate Teacher Training Registry) website - http://www.gttr.ac.uk/ On here you can see which universities offer the course you want and which still have places. Its two years since I applied so I will tell you about my experience although it may have changed since.

You have to fill in basic details, exam results etc. You also have to fill in a personal statement. Mine consisted of an explanation of my passion for History and why I thought History and teaching in general were important. You also have to put down two referees, one of whom should be an academic. Then you have to choose up to four universities to apply to. It's a good idea to check out their Ofsted ratings first.

Then it's a waiting game. Your application only gets sent to one university at a time - in the order you put them. This can mean that by the time you've been rejected from one the others are all full. I had three PGCE interviews and was on the waiting list until June. PGCE courses are really hard to get on to and are hugely over-subscribed - so it is vital to impress on your application form and then at interview. My first interview was a complete disaster but by my third I was more relaxed. Make sure you mug up on current education issues - they will ask you!

If you are thinking of applying - make sure that you go and visit a school first and check that you could spend every day in that environment. If you've seen the adverts and are thinking about teaching because they offer you money to train - this is not a reason!!! They say you can get up to £9k to train - this is only if you can teach a shortage subject (like physics) and the golden handshake is only for these lucky people (really wish I'd carried on with physics after A-Level…..!).

THE COURSE:

I completed my PGCE at the University of the West of England. It's not a year for the feint hearted! It's a lot of hard work. Getting used to writing essays at the same time as marking, planning lessons and writing reports is par for the course.

Each course is set up differently. With mine, I was sent to one school from October to December and the second school from January to May. I was then placed in a local museum (if you get sent to a Welsh school you can only stay there a certain number of weeks - even if like me you're actually Welsh - flipping Assembly!). In school you are assigned a mentor - my first one was rubbish and not at all supportive but my second one was amazing. You are given control of a number of classes, the number increases in your second placement.

I had to write three essays and give one assessed presentation. These were quite hard work and involved reading a lot of theory.

Before my first time in the classroom I was quite nervous - I mean kids can be scary and horrible sometimes - and I'd heard horror stories of experienced teachers being reduced to tears. However, once I was stood in front of the class, that all disappeared - I was running on adrenaline and it felt bloody fantastic! Now this was an achievement for me - when I was a school I used to physically shake if I had to speak in front of the class - but here I was talking to 30 faces who were expecting me to teach them for an hour!

So nine months later, I had completed my training and had emerged a qualified teacher. I didn't have too many battle scars and I hadn't been reduced to tears by the little bu**ers (sorry, darlings!). I also had managed to get a job. It was only a maternity cover for a year but it was a a really high achieving school which was what I wanted. I was quite picky on the schools I applied for. I went into teaching to share my love of History, in a word, to teach; not to manage children and hope they didn't throw chairs at me!

To pass the course you have to meet the Qualified Teacher Status standards. There are a lot of these but most are really simple to meet. There are ones like 'having respect for the pupils' - which if you don't do anyway then you shouldn't be there in the first place! You also have to pass QTS skills tests, one in English, one in Maths and one in ICT. You can take these as many times as you like while you are training, but have to have them by the end of the year. I passed all mine first time but they can be tricky - especially the maths one where you are up against the clock.

THE JOB:

So now I've been in my own classroom for six months, how am I finding it? I'm sorry - you didn't put your hand up for that question - no shouting out allowed!! Ok enough teacher jokes (well we don't get out much).

Well, I really can't believe that I found this amazing career and that I'm lucky enough to get paid for doing something that I love so much. I wake up in the morning have never had that dread of going to work and I come home and sometimes find myself smiling about my job! Don't get me wrong - its hard work and I get days when I just think I really haven't got the energy, especially for certain classes, but in general it's great.

I've got lucky with the school I'm in. My head of department is an amazing and inspirational teacher and person and has helped me well beyond the call of duty. He guides me with what to teach and helps explain marking policies etc. It is so hard to be in a school where those around you aren't supportive and a few of the people who graduated with me have left the profession for this reason which I think is really sad.

In general the pupils are great. There is the odd one who is difficult. Some people are told not to smile at the pupils for the first term of teaching - I think this is complete rubbish. I think it's really important to give a little of yourself to these people who are in your care and who are supposed to trust you and learn from you. I chat to my pupils as much as possible - about all sorts of things - and find out about their interests so that I can try to relate to them. I think this is so important and I find that it really gets results. I have only been sworn at once but my school has a good hierarchy of punishment which is usually very effective. I have one class who are my nemesis. I have been on the verge of tears with them but none have actually spilled over yet.

One of the best feelings is when you see a pupil finally understand something or when they get a good result. I recently handed out some coursework results and the pupils' faces just beamed! This was with my nemesis class and so I came away with a big smile on my face.

Of course, one of the main advantages to teaching is the holidays. I have had some stick from friends about the amount of holidays teachers get but I always come back with the fact that teachers cram 48 weeks of work into 36. I work less than a lot of teachers I know. I think it's vitally important to get the work-life balance write because a tired teacher is not a good idea in front of 30 kids expecting you to perform! I get into work just before 8 and leave around 4.30. I bring marking home sometimes and sometimes have to works weekends. Also, marking takes time because there has to be a comment on pieces of work, along the lines of 'you have done XYZ well and to improve you need to …..'. This is so much better than when I was in school and all I had was a mark out of 10 - which means what exactly in a History classroom? If my school was less well organised then I would have to plan a lot more and create more resources but luckily most of my lessons are already planned by the department (and I've never really been one for lots of planning - even on my PGCE - just don't tell my tutor!). However much planning and marking you do, just standing in front of classes and talking for 5 hours a day really takes it out of you. I often get home and sit in front of the TV because I'm too tired to move! The holidays are absolutely vital to recover some energy! You will find that you spend lots of the holidays with colds which the pupils have kindly donated right at the end of term - bless them.....! It is great to be able to think in July - great, I have the next 6 weeks off and I'm getting paid the same amount each month - woo hoo!

Another thing that I spend a lot of time doing is mugging up on certain topics. History is obviously a vast topic and every school seems to teach different things (at the moment I'm learning about Ancient Greek medicine and the First World War!). I'm always improving my own subject knowledge and that's great - it also means I try to stay one step ahead of the kids!

Another huge benefit to teaching is the variety. I've worked in other places where it's the same thing day in day out. In teaching no two days are the same. There will always be a new crisis to deal with, or a new achievement to praise.

Every teacher has a different teaching style. Mine is quite lively - I think that there is a certain amount of acting involved in keeping children's attention for an hour at a time. I tend to move around quite a lot and put on silly voices and accents. They laugh at me but they remember it. A few weeks ago I was teaching the Reformation and to get them to remember the word Protestants I had some pictures of ants on my PowerPoint, with speech bubbles of them complaining and a sound clip of a mob - get it? Protesting ants??? Well they liked it! I try to be firm but fair in the classroom. When I first started my voice was raised a lot of the time. I now shout rarely - but this is far more effective. Having a strong voice which can cut across a lot of chatter in the room is a really useful tool as a teacher.

Of course, teaching is a huge responsibility. You are responsible for the safety of those children while they are in your classroom - and that does sometimes scare me a little. This is intensified on school trips. I read a lot in the press about how many teachers are now too afraid to take trips out of school but I really hope I never feel like this. I think that trips are vital for developing pupils' understanding and enjoyment - I bet that when you think back to your school days you'll remember a trip but very few will remember an individual lesson. I'm in the middle of planning a trip at the moment (the first that I've planned and not just attached myself to!). I'm not really worried but I think on the actual day I will be relieved when we're all back at school safely!

There is a lot in the papers about teachers going off the profession because of all the red tape. There is a lot sometimes but I think it's worth it. These days you have to be very careful about what you say and do around pupils. You can't touch a pupil - which is of course correct but I find that if a pupil is upset then I will put a hand on a shoulder (I work in an all girls school so this makes this easier).

You also have to remember as a teacher that you are not just there to impart knowledge. Most teachers are also involved in the pastoral side of the job. This involves being a tutor or being a head of year etc. Sometimes in this role pupils tell you things that they wouldn't normally divulge. It is important to remember that you are there to protect children and anything they tell you that could indicate abuse needs to be reported immediately. You also need to tell them before they speak to you that you can't keep anything to yourself - it will have to be passed on to the relevant people. I haven't had any disclosures made to me although I have dealt with child protection issues through other means.

So, how much do you get paid for giving up your social life for 36 weeks a year? Well, realistically not nearly enough for the hours but it's not so bad. A teacher's starting salary is around £20000 at the moment, although it goes up every year. Your salary rises automatically every year and when you are given extra responsibilities you get a higher salary as well. Those working in or near London get more money.

CONCLUSION:

As you've probably guessed - I really love teaching. I definitely made the right career choice and really can't imagine doing anything else. The interaction with the pupils is so amazingly rewarding. The training was hard work but well worth it and the pay isn't bad. Also, that many holidays had to be a good thing right!!!! In all seriousness though, this job really is one of the best in the world. It's all about job satisfaction. I hear my friends (mainly accountants - so no offence to the accountants out there!) talk about the great salaries they get but then say how dull their work is and how uninspired they are. Well I may not have as much money as them - but teaching is definitely not a job where you will be left uninspired.

Thank you for reading (and sorry it was so long!!) 

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