PGCE. Did you plan every lesson while on placement?

[Bella43]

Hello. I'm on my PGCE placement at the moment. I've had a good couple of weeks there. I've planned some lessons but so far have been teaching parts of the lesson from the teacher's lesson plan. I'm happy to do this and find that building up to a whole lesson is a real confidence builder. I know that whole lessons will soon be upon me so my question is, did you plan all lessons on placement or use the teacher's/mentor's lessons initially? Will I have to keep a teaching file of all full lessons I've taught? If so, would that include the lesson plans you've created? It's all very exciting but I want to make sure I'm prepared. Thanks in advance 😊

[hoodiemum]

My first placement, I had to plan my own lessons pretty much from the start of doing whole-length lessons. Yes, kept all lesson plans, plus reflections written after the lessons, in a file.
Second placement was Year 6, and they were on more of a fixed direction of travel towards SATs, so more time working from the teacher's plans. Personally, I'd have preferred it the other way around, with more teaching off someone else's plan at the beginning. Especially teaching maths, I found it incredibly hard. 'Plan a week of lessons on division', after previously teaching 10 mins here or there, was pretty scary and didn't go so well!!!

[DominaShantotto]

I did a week or so (from what I recall) of "can you just hop in and do my starter... this story" etc - then I was given set lessons that were "mine" and I had to plan/sort resources and teach from there. Percentage of the timetable I was doing increased as the weeks went on.

First lesson I taught was Maths, after a breaktime where there'd been a charity bake sale - as the sugar rush hit the whole thing rapidly fell apart - it was like you had fed a bunch of 30 gremlins after midnight and they went from fluffy and lovely (loved that class) to bouncing off the walls!

[Bella43]

Thank you for your replies. I've been writing more lesson plans today and will check with my mentor next week as to whether she wants me to write all of my own or teach from hers. My only concern is that I don't want to throw her scheme of work off track by creating lessons that are way different to what she's aiming for as the end goal.

[Redlocks28]

@Bella43

Thank you for your replies. I've been writing more lesson plans today and will check with my mentor next week as to whether she wants me to write all of my own or teach from hers. My only concern is that I don't want to throw her scheme of work off track by creating lessons that are way different to what she's aiming for as the end goal.

That shouldn’t happen though if you are using the learning objectives that need to be covered.

We planned all our own lessons for my PGCE when I trained. That was back in the dark ages though when you did a topic web and then used the NLS and NNS!

[Bella43]

@Redlocks28 Thank you. I just lack a little confidence and want to get it right. The last lesson plan I created took less than two hours so I seem to be getting the hang of it now. The first one I ever made took me hours. Actually, scrap that. It took days!!

[BackforGood]

I think this is something you need to talk to the class teacher or your mentor about.

What I did or what another poster did isn't really important if either your teacher, or even your university want you to do differently.

However, either way, you should be planning within the scheme, not going off on a tangent.
Would you be able to get them prepped the week before and book a time to go over them with your teacher / mentor in time to re-do them if you are a long way from where you ought to be ?