Does anyone here teach?

paulfitz

Sara - I'm a Teaching Assistant, and plan to do the PGCE some time soon, but not really in any rush - want to start a family and do up my house before I commit to something like that.

Being a TA for a year or two may be a good experience for you Sara - see if you really want to get into teaching before you commit to a PGCE year...it pays well enough to run a house, you don't do any lesson planning or marking and still get 13 weeks holiday a year - cant be bad!

No seriously there are all the good points, but its also a really rewarding job - I work with special needs kids in a secondary school so it can be challenging at times but I love it.

You will also get to see the kids from a different point of view sitting with them in the class rather than at the front - you'll learn what kids do, how they react in certain situations (they are all the same - only the faces change!!!) and also 'learn' for free from good teachers- teaching practices, how to talk to the the kids etc... you also get to see the bad teachers aswell, and see what doesn't work in a class and what the kids dont respond to.

pottssteve

I teach in Hong Kong. Teaching has allowed me to live and work in 5 different countries in 3 continents over the past 16 years. The money's OK, there's job security and the holidays are nice. It is dynamic, challenging and rewarding. It can be the best job in the world and probably one of the worst. I'm a Science teacher,so if you want advice, feel free to PM me.
Cheers,
Steve

NGale

An idea for you, if you have skills in Electronic Engineering, why not get involved with a local Sea Cadet or Air Cadet unit, they are screaming out for volunteers with skills like that.

It'll give you an idea of if you want to persue a teaching career path, but it's also fun. Also certinally within the Sea Cadet you can work towards the A1 and V1 qualifications to assess and verify and other varying qualifications

I have been doing a PGCE in post compulsory education which is for the 14+ age group as I teach some first aid, so there are three options open to you now.

jimmcdonnell

I've been a DT teacher for 13 years, and was a DT technician for 4 years before that. My original training and 'career' was in jewellery design and manufacture - the technician job fortuitously came along simply because I wasn't making enough money being self employed, and being a technician seemed a good way of earning a regular monthly
wage while still doing practical work.

I'm a Head of Department now, and if you're happy climbing the ladder then the pay is good. Plus, you can never underestimate the joy of 13 weeks off a year. I'm never more than 8 weeks away from a (paid!) week off...

However; as a HOD I see a lot of Beginner Teachers, and there's a very straightforward black/white split in people who teach - some should be doing it, some shouldn't. There's a climate of 'teaching as a management skill' at the moment - I see loads of young trainee teachers (and quite senior career teachers too) for whom teaching works along the lines of 'if classroom situation (a) occurs, then use teaching strategy (x)' This is ridiculous, and one of the main things wrong with teaching.

I agree 100% that you need to find opportunities to get yourself in a classroom situation to see if it suits you. When I became a technician I KNEW within about a month I wanted to be a teacher. It's genuinely, literally a vocation - a 'calling'. Teaching will let you know whether you're supposed to teach or not. There are WAY too many teachers new and experienced who think they can do it either by algorithm, or as 'something to fall back on'.

Whatever subject you want to teach, you need SUPERB subject knowledge, a real love of the subject, and you need to know you really, really, want to teach. Otherwise, do yourself and everyone else a favour and head for the non-teaching hills!

In any given week I'll veer wildly between;

- utter love of the job
- utter frustration at the bureaucracy of Education
- love of the students
-hatred of modern yoof
- and a thousand more things plus their opposites.

I wouldn't change jobs for the world.

You're welcome to come and spend a day at my school if you like - as HOD I can arrange to have you shadow staff or students for as long as you like. You can email me if you want to know more, or I'm happy to meet and talk about teaching with you. You could train via the GTP - Graduate Teacher Programme - (although you've missed it for this year), which means you'd learn 'on the job' (oo-err), while getting paid as a main-scale teacher.

Let me know if you want to know more, or if there's anything I can do to help.

- Jim

always_tyred

simple_salmon wrote:

TBH I'd never really considered it; just drifted into it really after a degree in Sports Science and Physics.

I've also taught at degree level and it was much more enjoyable; many universities will want you do have a PhD and do research as well though - not sure about FE colleges and the like.

Most universities, surely? The job title "lecturer" has always been a euphamism in my experience. Yes, they do lecturing, but its a necessary evil which distracts them from what they are really there to do. I'd certainlyhave felt short changed if the person lecturing to me was no more qualified than I was going to be once I completed the exam they were going to set.

timestar

So you know where I am coming from, I have been lecturing in universities for more than 10 years now, including teaching students doing PGCE's and BEd's. Before quitting your job and any other serious decisions, I would think long and hard (as you have/are no doubt doing). As some have said, I would look to arrange spending sometime in a school to get a genuine feel for life in a modern school. I don't mean to patronise you but "enjoying working with kids" is helpful, but you need much more motivation/reason to do it. Personally I would never teach in a school for several reasons. Firstly, prior to A level, all the students will be there because they have to be, which can affect motivation. Secondly, in schools you are massively restricted by the national curriculum and other frameworks, in terms of what you can and can't teach. Thirdly, thanks to government policies, schools and head have to focus too much on their place in various league tables, which can distort what they do. How "good" any teaching job is will always depend hugely on the nature/type of school, their catchment area and other staff - so choose carefully - if you can! All the student teachers I see who are on teaching practice look severely stressed and constantly playing catch-up with teaching plans etc. Basically, during term say goodbye to evenings and week-ends - certainly for the first few years. But, despite all this, if you really want to do it then go for it. I gave up a full-time job/salary to return to full-time education and do a degree and have never looked back. Good luck!

sarajoy

Wow lots of good advice here

Well, I'm not about to rush into it, as I have just booked a long (well, long for me, 2-week) holiday with the bloke over the beginning of term for this year's PGCEs (Physics is still open in many places).

This was a mistake really as I've closed a possible door - however, extra thinking-time would be good, and I'd like some more time to go and get some experience.

I have one week (5 days) of holiday allowance left before Christmas, so I plan to use most of that sitting-in at a school or two. I'm thinking of looking up two in the locality, one rougher, one smarter. No point only going into the grammar school and thinking "jolly good, this will be fine" without seeing what it's like at the slightly disadvantaged city comp (not thinking anywhere in particular, not looked anything up yet).

If my ideal situation happens, I'll do said experience, begin an "enhancement course" in January which runs for 24 weeks, take some kind related job over the summer (summer schools?), then start a PGCE proper in Sept 2010.

jimmcdonnell

Firstly, prior to A level, all the students will be there because they have to be, which can affect motivation. Secondly, in schools you are massively restricted by the national curriculum and other frameworks, in terms of what you can and can't teach. Thirdly, thanks to government policies, schools and head have to focus too much on their place in various league tables, which can distort what they do. How "good" any teaching job is will always depend hugely on the nature/type of school, their catchment area and other staff - so choose carefully - if you can!

Couldn't agree more. Forgot to mention, I teach at an 11-16 all-girls inner London school, with an upside-down demographic, ie 92% 'minorities', 8% white british. We're not a faith school but it's predominantly Muslim, Hindu, then Christian. As a card-carrying atheist I have some very interesting conversations... Our biggest problem is the poor literacy - 76% English as a 2nd/3rd... language. Many girls arrive here part-way through year 9, year 10. Still, we do pretty well against the national average (aah! Statistics hell!) with around 50% A*-C grades.

Hope it goes well for you, whatever route you take.

- Jim

sarajoy

I understand the worries about motivation etc. I can definitely see the teaching of a lower-set (foundation level) physics GCSE class being a real "challenge".

But, someone's got to teach them. And I don't really see any decent reason why I shouldn't!

I mean, according to others, I am patient, no-nonsense, robust, confident, enthused.

If I'm not good material to be the cannon-fodder for this teenage group that's fairly unwilling to be there, who is?

Also, very specialised subjects like one gets at university, or like I'd be lecturing in... don't excite me. If I'd wanted to go and do a PhD I'd only just be finishing it now. There's no point me trying to teach students of higher education when I don't have the graduate education in place myself! I'd MUCH prefer to teach a broader yet simpler view of science and physics. And part of me fancies the challenge of grabbing their interest.

sarajoy

Just thinking further - I'm seeing this whole secondary teaching as more than just passing on information in an easily digestible way (which is the way I see lecturers, sorry if that causes offence) - but also the process of trying to instil enthusiasm or hopefully at least mild interest in the pupils. Arming them with something for life.

Granted at some places, and in some classes, that'll be harder work than in others.

But makes it all the more worthwhile, no?

NGale

sarajoy wrote:

I understand the worries about motivation etc. I can definitely see the teaching of a lower-set (foundation level) physics GCSE class being a real "challenge".

But, someone's got to teach them. And I don't really see any decent reason why I shouldn't!

I mean, according to others, I am patient, no-nonsense, robust, confident, enthused.

If I'm not good material to be the cannon-fodder for this teenage group that's fairly unwilling to be there, who is?

Also, very specialised subjects like one gets at university, or like I'd be lecturing in... don't excite me. If I'd wanted to go and do a PhD I'd only just be finishing it now. There's no point me trying to teach students of higher education when I don't have the graduate education in place myself! I'd MUCH prefer to teach a broader yet simpler view of science and physics. And part of me fancies the challenge of grabbing their interest.

as I say, get involved in some of the cadet groups as a volunteer to see if you like teaching that age group, not only will you get to teach a bit and gain a few very useful qualifications (I'm starting my A1 within the next few weeks and will be running the BETC in Public Services for cadets within the next six months) but also it's a real hoot. if you go to the Air Cadets then there are the chances to fly with the RAF, the Sea Cadets the chance to get onto TS Royalist (which no doubt you know about) and onto a few of the RN ships) and the Army Cadets....well you can live in a ditch for a week, but I'm sure they do other stuff as well and most of the time they pay you to do all this stuff.

It would certinally give a taster as to if you want to become a teacher full time. It has taught me that I actually don't want to do it on a full time basis, but I get a hell of alot out of what I do and wouldn't change that.

linsen

You need the following to be a great teacher

Passion
Patience
Resourcefulness
Organisational skills

You need to love your subject and love hanging out with teenagers, in my experience. It is those people who end up sticking it out.
The red tape sucks, and gets worse, but it is tolerable.

bomberesque

linsen wrote:

You need the following to be a great teacher

Passion
Patience
Resourcefulness
Organisational skills

You need to love your subject and love hanging out with teenagers, in my experience. It is those people who end up sticking it out.
The red tape sucks, and gets worse, but it is tolerable.

all true, but you forgot the LOOK

Mrs B can melt steel plate at 20 paces with her stare

linsen

bomberesque wrote:

linsen wrote:

You need the following to be a great teacher

Passion
Patience
Resourcefulness
Organisational skills

You need to love your subject and love hanging out with teenagers, in my experience. It is those people who end up sticking it out.
The red tape sucks, and gets worse, but it is tolerable.

all true, but you forgot the LOOK

Mrs B can melt steel plate at 20 paces with her stare

Ah yes, the LOOK

check

timestar

I may be accused of being cynical here, but don't be too idealistic about teaching/lecturing. You will have to try and teach people who really don't want to be there and don't care - think Lauren in Catherine Tate Show! It's not your fault and it is almost impossible to teach someone who doesn't care. For your interview for your PGCE - if that's what you go for - they will look for someone with a real interest in teaching supported by relevant experience. So can't over stress need for time spent in schools, colleges or indeed any setting working with young people.

biondino

bomberesque wrote:

all true, but you forgot the LOOK

Mrs B can melt steel plate at 20 paces with her stare

Oh, for a moment I thought you meant the "look" like my old French teacher - low-cut blouses and skirts with slits revealing tantalising amounts of stocking top....

Ah, schooldays.

sarajoy

timestar wrote:

I may be accused of being cynical here, but don't be too idealistic about teaching/lecturing. You will have to try and teach people who really don't want to be there and don't care - think Lauren in Catherine Tate Show! It's not your fault and it is almost impossible to teach someone who doesn't care. For your interview for your PGCE - if that's what you go for - they will look for someone with a real interest in teaching supported by relevant experience. So can't over stress need for time spent in schools, colleges or indeed any setting working with young people.

I understand completely, and am in the very process of negotiating myself time in schools in prep for a possible interview. Plan to pick one fairly well-to-do school and one at the other end of the spectrum. I have friends-of-friends who work in one which has just been taken over in an attempt to revive it (it was a 'struggling' school, otherwise known as 'falling apart at the seams').

My point is that if every aspiring teacher went in with an attitude of "Oh, what, school kids who'd rather go out and play/drink/rave? Gosh, who'd have thought, maybe I should try something else." then we wouldn't have any secondary school teachers.

/Someone/ has got to do it. And those who do it have got to want to, or they won't last long. Does something give you the impression that I shouldn't try?

timestar

If you really want to do it then you should go for it. All I'm suggesting is that you go in with your eyes WIDE open and certainly don't be fooled by the TV commercials for teacching. Talk to as many current teachers as you can.

biondino

A friend of mine used to tell me a day on which she wasn't physically or sexually assaulted was a good day. She loves teaching, though, and is now head of department and wouldn't consider an alternative career.

sarajoy

Well, the application plus reference has been sent off, Linsen has graciously organised what sounds like a great bit of school-experience for me in mid-June, now all I can do now is sit back and wait to be invited to interview.

WISH ME LUCK!

My fingers are so tightly crossed it's getting hard to type. The day I get a formal acceptance and know my dates for the forthcoming year or two, will end in rather a drunken evening I should think.

Nnngghh!

lost_in_thought

GOOD LUCK!!


I've been inspired by your willingness to change careers and fired off an application to NATS - for a trainee Air Traffic Controller course... :shock:

sarajoy

Oh sweet!

Via teh internets I know of a couple of people who've done that, would you like to hear from them?

I'm currently incredibly jealous of my workmate who, having been inspired by my plans kicked off a course to change direction herself... and her application was somewhat less long winded and she's off in September. Sigh. I have rather longer to wait (will go in Jan at the earliest)...!

greg66_tri_v2.0

lost_in_thought wrote:

GOOD LUCK!!


I've been inspired by your willingness to change careers and fired off an application to NATS - for a trainee Air Traffic Controller course... :shock:

Woahhh there girl!! :shock: :shock:

You do realise that that's a career with which surfing the net all day is deeply incompatible, don't you :shock: :shock: :P

greg66_tri_v2.0

sarajoy wrote:

Well, the application plus reference has been sent off, Linsen has graciously organised what sounds like a great bit of school-experience for me in mid-June, now all I can do now is sit back and wait to be invited to interview.

WISH ME LUCK!

My fingers are so tightly crossed it's getting hard to type. The day I get a formal acceptance and know my dates for the forthcoming year or two, will end in rather a drunken evening I should think.

Nnngghh!

Good luck indeed. Sure you shouldn't've done the school-experience before sending off the application form?

lost_in_thought

sarajoy wrote:

Oh sweet!

Via teh internets I know of a couple of people who've done that, would you like to hear from them?

Yeah, sure! That would be interesting at the very least... Thanks!

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

GOOD LUCK!!


I've been inspired by your willingness to change careers and fired off an application to NATS - for a trainee Air Traffic Controller course... :shock:

Woahhh there girl!! :shock: :shock:

You do realise that that's a career with which surfing the net all day is deeply incompatible, don't you :shock: :shock: :P

Yes, however my critera for job choices don't really include 'being bored enough to browse random websites all day'... which is part of my dissatisfaction with my current 'career' :P

cullen_bay

LOL, im actaully in school, although my mum is a secondry school teacher.

you are thinking school is great, which it is when your the pupil, but if your the teacher, you get smart-arse kids trying to be clever, classes laughing at you, and although it may not sound bad, it does affect people, if you become a teacher, get a job in a private school, theyr much better.

DonDaddyD

lost_in_thought wrote:

Yes, however my critera for job choices don't really include 'being bored enough to browse random websites all day'... which is part of my dissatisfaction with my current 'career' :P

+1, I think this is a truism most in this forum can only accept.

sarajoy

LOL thanks cullen_bay but I realise what kids are like and that it'll be no walk in the park. But I can be a smartarse myself and I'd like to think I can whip 'em into shape!

We'll see. Clearly some people find it too much, and that might be me as well, but the proof is in the pudding, eh!

Greg66 wrote:

Good luck indeed. Sure you shouldn't've done the school-experience before sending off the application form?

Yes, that would have been ideal - however I'm keen to get through the process as fast as possible so that I can begin to lay down plans and stop being so darned secretive at work

cjcp

sarajoy wrote:

LOL thanks cullen_bay but I realise what kids are like and that it'll be no walk in the park. But I can be a smartarse myself and I'd like to think I can whip 'em into shape!

We'll see. Clearly some people find it too much, and that might be me as well, but the proof is in the pudding, eh!

Good luck. Kids are a force of nature. They don't stop. They're relentless. In fact, they're like The Terminator. A roomful of Terminators. Yikes!

Ahem, yeah, anyway, good luck!

Chapeau for having the balls to make a career change.