To want to pack it all in

[Bella43]

I started a PGCE in September and I absolutely hate it! Nearly everyone in my class is already in a teaching role so the information is absorbed quickly or known already. They're excellent in IT. I have little experience having worked in retail all my adult life. I feel way out of my comfort zone and dread going into class each week. I have to start placement in two weeks and an dreading that too.

I loved every minute of my degree. I thought this would be a way to share that passion. It turns out that teaching is mostly planning/paperwork/setting up IT. Hardly any of it is the actual teaching.

I'll have to balance placement with the day in PGCE class, work and two children. I'm a single parent too. No help from their father.

My family are incredibly proud of me for doing this PGCE and I feel like I'd be letting them down but I'm not coping. I hate the assignment I'm working on. It's a huge amount of work. I can't do the things I enjoy anymore because this is zapping my energy. I have no intention of going into teaching. Tutoring maybe but definitely not teaching. The industry is so tough with so much expected of you. Aibu to want to through the towel in? I feel so embarrassed and wish I never enrolled on it.

I trained before I had a boyfriend. I met DH at the end of my PGCE and I thought the timing was amazing because I would not have coped with the workload if I had any extra time constraints. Now, I witness the huge workout on trainees and I couldn’t do it now. It is so much.

Following with interest as I have recently applied for a place on a PGCE course starting next September. Very unsure about whether it is the right thing to do!

A former colleague of mine left our (unrelated to teaching) profession to do a PGCE and teach.

I remember getting horrified texts from her saying how much she hated it, was thinking of quitting, coming back etc.

She stuck it out and it got better and she's been teaching for some years now and loves it.

Starting a new career is always difficult and I think we underestimate how hard it can be to take on new roles and learn new things particularly when you're older and long out of the school and uni learning cycle.

I think you need to give it more than a few weeks before you jack it in.

If the teaching part is what you signed up for, I would hang in there. I'm sure you will find your on way of lesson planning once you get started in a job.

It sounds like this is partly imposter syndrome, as you make reference to your peers being better than you. I'm sure you have other strengths that may come into their own on placement.

I think you should stick with it.

I'd see it through OP because the qualification can open other doors both in teaching and outside.
My niece, in her thirties, did a PGCE as a single parent. She felt like you about the course but was determined to see it through even though she hated the workload and had serious doubts about continuing. She qualified, found a part time post locally, then applied for a full time post overseas a year later.
She's in Dubai now, teaching in an international school which allows free places for teachers' kids. Work/life balance is brilliant.
And she's loving it.

Wait and see how you get on in the classroom.

Teaching is rather all consuming and will fill up every corner of your life if you let it I work part time officially but my working hours are effectively full time which I can manage. If I officially worked full time I don't know where I'd fit all the additional hours needed.

Pgce was hellish at times. IT and planning IMO isn't work aside from teaching it's the mechanism of how you teach. Is it worth getting some help with basic IT skills? It's essential in school and the software and platforms we use change regularly so you never feel like you know it all.

We also have craziness of multiple platforms and systems for different parts of the job, so behaviour and attendance may be recorded on one platform, homework set and monitored on another and data recording and reports on another and lesson plans and resources still elsewhere etc. Just as you get confident some salesman persuades the school that platform x is so much better so they change to that only to find there's limited functionality so we'll still have to use platform W for part of the task etc. My point being willingness to wrangle with it and be out of your depth with it at times and rapidly bring up your competence is part and parcel of the job.

The main thing is can you handle the classroom. The extra work is manageable if you're competent in the classroom and in planning, assessing and adjusting your approach to learners. If the classroom itself is really hard to get through then it definitely becomes overwhelming.

I think if you feel like that then give it up now and find something you want to do. It is easy to end up stuck in teaching.

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I've mellowed out today and decided to stick it out. I've had confirmation details today that my placement is in a small class and that the learners are lovely! This has really put my mind at rest. Two have SEN so I think I could really help them and certainly boost their confidence. I've also been told that I just have to observe for the first few lessons. I wish they'd told me this at the start. I've been asking for placement details/hours since the interview stage so I would know how I can fit it into my routine and let work know. All they kept telling me was how many hours in total I needed to do for the year. I needed to know if this is a full day or half day to spread over the year. I just got told it was up to me! My placement mentor has been brilliant today. She's explained everything I've wanted to know all this time. I'm actually looking forward to it now 😊

I love the sound of a museum education officer. And yes, you're all right. The PGCE will open up so many doors. I'm trying to keep positive now. I finished my assignment today so that's a big weight off. I'm also remembering why I signed up to all this in the first place - to reach those who, like me, just need that helping hand in life.

Teaching is an awful job in my view. I have a much better life now I’ve left. However, you haven’t even started your placement yet so of course it’s been theory heavy so far. Perhaps give it a bit longer. You may love the actual teaching!

Eh? How can you pick your own hours on placement? Pgce is full time surely and you're either in school or at uni every day and evenings and weekends are when you can do your essays etc.

Did I miss something?

@TheHoneyBadger It's a part-time course over two years. I wish it was full-time over a year. I might've had more clarity then on hours/days to spend on placement. As it is, I attend uni one day a week, have a part-time job and have been told a today that my placement is half a day a week. Then you have all the independent learning to fit in around it all as well. I knew it would be tough and I'm going to hang on in there now for the actual teaching part. I've only done presentations to my peers so far and loved that. Everything else has been theoretical and all very new. There's a lot crammed into that one day and it always runs over by two hours. We don't get time to digest anything before ploughing into an activity on it. By the end of the day I have brain overload but I'm getting used to that pace now. It was a shock at the start though.

I'm also still trying to get used to having peers. I graduated from the OU which is mostly distance learning. I met my peers at a tutorial just once or twice a year. Apart from that it's all independent learning so could fit it in as and when I could. PGCE is obviously a contact course in the main. I knew that but struggling to find my place there and my peers are all 'talkers' as in, they ask so many questions and interrupt the tutor so much that we run over by two hours and never get full breaks. Usually we get one 10 min break in the morning and one 15 min break for lunch so you can't even leave the class really before it's time to come back. If we had 30 mins for lunch at least I could get some air and feel like I've had a proper breather.

That makes more sense. If it's part time it shouldn't be so overwhelming and hopefully it's just this term when they're trying to ram loads in before you start placements. 🤞

I think you have made the right decision to give it a go. I hope you enjoy your placement.

I did a pgce 6 years ago- it was the hardest year ever and nearly broke up my marriage- hopefully the part time course is a bit less stressful.

I discovered that I really didn't enjoy classroom teaching,and gave up after 4 years.

I now tutor full time and really really love it. It makes all the work and stress of the pgce worthwhile and is so much more flexible than school. Also it is all over Zoom now which really suits me. I miss the printer and (some)colleagues from school but that is it!