Unhelpful school mentor?

*Reading Nobles posts, I'm not surprised that the teaching profession is on its knees.^

It’s true, I’m responsible for the recruitment and retention crisis, nothing to do with workload, funding, behaviour.

What’s interesting on this thread is that the people disagreeing with me aren’t teachers. What have I said?

1. your expectations are unrealistic
2. it will be better in September when you’re actually there officially

Have I said that I’m a grumpy-arsed mentor who scares away trainees by growling at them whenever they come near? No. But people seem to be trying to pin that on me from their own poor experiences, just because I pointed out that organising work experience for someone for 4 days in June is just another thing added to a long list of jobs for an exhausted teacher.

followthefairytalexx

What about my answer suggested that I was “trolling” you?

I’m going to give you some (very genuine) advice: get better at accepting criticism, or you are in for a hell of a ride in a secondary school as an unqualified. Really.

Sorry but you are being unreasonable, OP. They are not being rude (and you are yourself very rude). They are busy. If you ever qualify as a teacher, I suspect you will lose the attitude quite quickly.

Ha! I do believe I might be, but I can eat lunch without someone holding my hand, so I suppose I have that.

You sound like hard work, OP. It’s nice when people are welcoming, but she isn’t employed to roll out the red carpet. She’s trying to teach. Stuff like finding your way round a school site and being able to manage to eat a sandwich on your own is part of being a professional. If she’s unhelpful during your observations and mentor meetings in September, speak to your course provider about it.

From what I saw those doing schools direct were chucked in at the deep end with little or no support, from day one they were teaching whole lessons (admittedly a reduced timetable) and many seemed to be making it up as they were going along they had attended an intensive course in August and were now standing up in front of a class of kids and were trying to be teach with very little knowledge both practical or theoretical, and with mentors who had the time for them due to their teaching commitments or couldn’t be bothered to help then seeing them as a burden or mix of both. One poor lady who’d Id forgotten about till I saw your comments will always stay with me she was so utterly miserable and drowning she was struggling with lesson planning differentiation, behaviour management you name it and felt totally unsupported she’d moved away from home and had no friends locally she stuck it out for nearly 6 months before throwing in the towel. Others doing schools direct were not as unhappy as that but none finished the training. We were frequently told by our tutors to “fake it until you make it” and they were definitely faking it.

It's not a problem and if you're still mumsnetting on the course then feel free to PM me. School direct can be a funny route if the trainee is a stand alone teacher as it can turn into people putting on the trainee and forgetting they are a trainee who needs support.

Personally, I would absolutely get your mentor meeting set in stone in September and make sure it happens and you get the required support. It can be easy for mentors to fob off the meetings but they are really important, especially in the early days (and they can ease off later once the trainee is secure).

“Schools direct style”
Sorry to be negative but good luck with that one you really will need a very good supportive mentor if youve chosen that route. We had six who sometimes joined our lectures when I was doing my PGCE non finished. Obviously I met teachers who’d been successful in their training through schools direct but it really is a hard route.

Ok, so what I would do is ask your mentor if they have 20 mins or so to have a chat about September at a convenient time.

Then make some notes about what you'd like to know and I would suggest the following sort of questions:

• what texts do they study at ks3/4 so you can read them?
• would it be possible for them to email your timetable when it gets released so you aren't going in cold in September (only do that if you know you are going to be a stand alone member if staff - if you're going to pick up other people's classes don't ask this as it won't be done!)
• is it possible to have access to schemes of work for the autumn term so that you can swot up?
• what's the format of the PD day on the first day?
• if you have any questions between now and the end of terms, would it be ok to contact by email or would they rather start fresh in September
• is there anything they feel a trainee joining their department needs to do/know?

They'll be impressed by your initiative, it gives you an opportunity to speak to mentor properly and also starts to establish expectations.

Ah that sounds fair enough. Have they put together a timetable?

There's usually a more formal settling in day in September where you get handbooks etc.

Try not to take the lack of feeling "welcome" personally. They're probably just busy. I don't really see how you can struggle with observations and meeting people though?!

Teacherofmaths perhaps I have. I have to say that when I did my PGCE I was unsure what we learnt in university little of it could be applied to actual teaching. Our trainees luckily are not just taught airy fairy out of date ideas.

followthefairytalexx
Maps would be a logical thing for them to have provided you with. I find that having things like that ready reduces the number of questions

Are you all in one block? Or at you moving around a bit?

I think you're seeing the common phenomenon of 'passing like ships in the night' which is quite common. If you say your mentor is nice then I'd probably chalk this up to it being a busy time of year.

When you said PGCE but one school, are you going to be shadowing classes gradually (usually with 2 placements) or more school direct teaching your own timetable? That would make a difference to what I might advise moving forward.

I had a similar experience when I was in one of my pgce posts - one staff member was so rude, pulling faces and shrugging at me when I asked for help with classroom control of a tricky group, made me feel like an idiot all the time, complained about pgce students coming into her lessons while I was standing there, mocked me in front of the kids. I wish I had some advice to make it easier but some people are just arseholes :( it’ll go fast and hopefully u will be luckier with your first job x

They also bring up to date ideas they’ve learnt in university

You obviously have no experience of trainee teachers. The ideas coming out of university are like something from the dark ages in most cases.