Worst student teacher you have seen on placement

[icecreamandapple]

About to start a PGCE very soon, just wondering are there any teachers who's had a teacher student who's been shockingly bad? Not that I am planning to be by the way, I'm just curious. Hopefully I will be ok but I keep telling myself that I'm sure some teachers would have seen some bad student teachers. Also what happens if a teacher is so bad can they get removed from the placement if it's affecting the children education and progress?

I also suffered from following the behaviour policy but being the only one doing it, so the kids thought I was the biggest bitch in the whole wide world for actually giving them detentions

yes and that stems from the 'cool' teachers who won't use the behaviour code so that when other teachers try they get student abuse as mr x doesn't do it.

There is no reason you can't plan a week in advance, sure you might want to make minor changes but there shouldn't be sweeping changes needed day to day.
Student teachers need a firm plan so they can be sure to cover the relevant learning outcomes, so they can plan lesson timings, so that they can stand up in front of that class and feel at least a little like they know what they are doing.
And the poor sap of a mentor isn't sitting up every night 'til late checking 6-8 lesson plans for the next day when it will be too late to change them anyway by the time the first class arrives the next morning.

6-8 lesson plans a day? I’m primary trained and would never expect so many from a trainee, when are they meant to write them up or reflect on them? Are you talking the university template lesson plans which are often 5/6/7 pages long?

Indeed, I had one teacher so cool they emailed me to ask if I really thought the section I had given one of her tutor group was appropriate. This was last year though, so instead of having an existential trainee crisis I just emailed back 'yes'.,

Strangely, the school is failing and this year are joining a MAT and having a crackdown on standards. I'm hoping my old departmental colleagues will keep me in the loop because I would love to see how the cool teachers deal with that. Don't get me wrong, once I found my feet I absolutely loved it there, once the kids know you're in it for the long haul they stop pushing so much, but it's a hard place to be new!

@CatkinToadflax

DS1 had an NQT as his Reception teacher. She was an absolutely brilliant teacher in terms of pure teaching, but her knowledge of SEN was less than zero and she had absolutely no interest in learning.

Oh god love her but this has made me laugh.😂 @CatkinToadflax

@QueenofLouisiana

A chap who lived in our halls during our PGCE year: he told his yr10 chemistry students to light the Bunsen burner using the spliff on their desks. When the class started sniggering he got cross and insisted that they all used their spliffs, the spliffs he had put there for them, to light the flame.

His school placement was less amused. This wasn’t the sole reason he failed his placement, but it didn’t help. The university was horrified- it relies heavily on its excellent reputation.

Getting words mixed up is hardly the crime of the century. Splint sounds a lot like spliff.

newtb, they do indeed deserve to be remembered.
thank you for telling their story.

@BrozTito

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas is recommended to not be shown to kids by all sorts of holocaust remembrance organisations. Its ahistorical and has very dodgy themes like the jews being compared to other creatures and the whole 'tragic ending' being an aryan child mixed in the killing by accident

Outside of that the book just seemed inaccurate and, to be honest, a bit ‘blah.’

How did Bruno, a 9 year old living in 1940s Germany with an officer for a father, have not the slightest understanding or awareness of the war or Hitler? He would have likely been a member of the Hitler Youth and would have heard Hitler talked about at school. And the whole oh he’s calling it the furie/out with because he doesn’t understand but we as adults know xyz just seemed lazy to me.

Why does Bruno even call Auchwitz ‘out with?’ Does this misunderstanding still make sense in German?

There are good books for children dealing with world war 2 but I don’t think the boy in the striped pyjamas is particularly one of them. I can see how it would help open a conversation though.

And agree it’s not great that the tragic ending is a German child being killed and his heartbroken family, while Shmuel as a character is pretty flat and undeveloped, so you never really develop as much interest in him (as his own character, outside of sympathy attached just purely to his situation).

@Confusionreigns2021

Not a teaching student but a graduate teacher in their first year of teaching and they didn’t know their times tables. One of the pupils had to repeatedly correct them. The school’s roll has decreased noticeably over recent years.

Lol I have been a teacher for 5 years and don't know my tables off by heart but use the methods that help me to help children who struggle. I guess parents shouldn't send their kids to a school that employs dyspraxic teachers!

Equally as a trainee I was on the receiving end of poor mentoring, and I was probably seen as being shockingly bad, so don’t be afraid to ask for more support if you need it. I really regret not pursuing it with the university at the time as it really affected my early career. I always aim to be the mentor I wish I’d had.
Absolutely this. I had a terrible mentor (aforementioned teacher who just wandered off during a lesson I was leading, and never came back). I complained to the university and made a big fuss and was moved to a different placement. You are paying the university £9k for your training, make sure they are putting you with mentors who will actually provide that training.

Well, actually, the university is charging the huge fees to train teachers, but the mentors are used basically as slave labour. Back in the day, I had an enviable reputation as an outstanding teacher whose students achieved consistently brilliant results. I had at least one student teacher for 4 weeks of every term. The workload, on top of the usual preparation, marking, pastoral duties and so on was horrendous. I was expected to critique every lesson before and after delivery. This involved at least an hour a day extra, in addition to sitting in and writing copious notes on the student's performance. After discussion, these had to be written up for their file, with a summary of suggested future actions and advice. There would be constant questions, crises of confidence that required soothing, demands for resources...It was very demanding and draining, when I had to keep in mind my students' exams and internal assessments, always conscious of the time constraints. The financial compensation for all this work? Peanuts. A fraction of that paid to their lecturers. I'm not surprised that many teachers simply refused to take on this huge responsibility.

Most trainees need support to become good teachers. Sometimes you get one who is lazy and disinterested.

I’ve met a lot more terrible teachers though. Used to do supply and the amount of schools that I went in that had no planning whatsoever was crazy! I had no idea what I was supposed to be teaching. One school I went to I arrived late (as they had phoned late) and the headteacher was covered for the class. He literally said hello and left; I didn’t even know what year group they were!! There was no timetable anywhere and of course no planning. It was so unprofessional!!

@BluebellsGreenbells

Respect the TA’s they are their to help you, they aren’t your personal servant and you need them onboard.

Yes this!!! They can be your most valuable source of information about what works with kids. Take them into account with your planning. Just because there is a TA in your classroom doesn't mean you don't have to work with the child with the EHCP. Use them to focus on higher ability (when appropriate) so you cam focus on the SEN Students as they will need your input the most.

Know who is SEN and be aware of what ASD can look like in a loud classroom and find out the strengths and difficulties of your sen children.

Firm boundaries! Don't shout at the whole class but bore them into submission by practicing routines until they get it right.

Build relationships with the kids. Once they know you have their back they will behave for you. Find the good in the tricky ones and make yourself like them and don't take it personally if they are vile. Respond in a neutral way like nothing phases. Fake it till you make it!

Remember, every day is a new day. You might have a shocking lesson one day but you can always get it back the next.

What a strange thread to start.

Think I might start a thread myself:

I'm about to have my tonsils removed. Tell me all your stories of people who died on the operating table during a tonsillectomy.

@AuldAlliance

One PE teacher teaching science, who was just telling the kids stuff that was plain wrong

If you make teachers teach other subjects, can you expect them not to get stuff plain wrong?

PE teachers learn a lot of science. Physiology, biomechanics etc. It isn't just playing sport!

I was on placement with a man who was so bad he was failing. Only he didn’t get failed because the police came and arrested him from school before he could be failed!

He had been stalking a TV presenter and it was around the time of the Jill Dando murder so police were taking stalking very seriously.

He went to prison but I don’t know what happened to him after that.

So OP, you will NEVER be as bad as that person!

@Suetully

Why can’t introverts be good teachers

because many schools want the opposite these days and want teachers to build relationships with the kids and be confident and outgoing.

I am an introvert, very quiet, prefer my own company etc.

I was successful, ran a department outside my own subject, maths and English in an FE College. Go figure how I managed to win round those students!

I think you might need to do some research on what an introvert actually is!

Are you new to mumsnet OP and searching for crap trainee teacher stories to feed something? I’m sort of aware that the government are planning to overhaul teacher training for no particular reason. Just wondering

One who kept one ear bud in under her hair so she could listen to music..... in class....

CuriousaboutSamphire
PE teachers learn a lot of science. Physiology, biomechanics etc. It isn't just playing sport!

I know.
Learning and teaching are two different things, though.
I learnt a lot of things when I was studying - doesn't mean I could have taught them alongside my core subject when I was a trainee, though.
Expecting young teachers to be competent in 2 fields is asking quite a lot (I live in a country where it basically doesn't happen and I know how hard the trainee teachers I've taught work in their one subject area) and it seems particularly unfair to criticise them if they screw up.

But this whole thread is a bit unpleasant, so I'll check out.

Introverts can be fantastic teachers. They often have a lot of empathy for their students - and many of the quieter students will much prefer a teacher they can relate to. A 'jolly hockey sticks' bubbly teacher is actually quite off putting for many students (and also for some of their colleagues!)

I was 16 in a Higher maths class, we had a student teacher who was clearly very bright but had zero teaching skills, he started a lesson on scale or something by holding up a toy bus and saying "who can tell me what this is"?

Here's a positive story! When I was at secondary school we had a trainee teacher who was obviously very nervous and unsure of himself. I felt a bit sorry for him but some of the other students used it as an excuse to just mess about.

I have a much younger sister, and when she was doing her GCSEs his name came up for some reason. Turned out he was now head of department at the same school and she thought he was quite a good teacher!

My bit of advice is to listen to your TAs, especially if you get one who has been at the school for years and years. In the Foundation Stage unit I worked in we once had a new teacher who snapped 'I don't take orders from TAs!' when politely informed about an aspect of the normal school routine that she didn't seem to be aware of. It wasn't long before every TA in the school knew about it, and she didn't get anyone going the extra mile to help her out like we usually would with someone new. (It was the tone/attitude, not possibly wanting to do something different with the routine that was the problem!)

I remember one of my secondary school science teachers saying both of these things! He also said that nobody would ever see the blue blood because it would just turn red as soon as the air hit it. This was in the 1990s - maybe PE teacher was in the same class

OMG teaching in FE I have had this from so many students, particularly around Coventry. They think blood hitting air is oxygenation.
I had a couple of comments in my PGCE that I thought were unfair, one was that I should stand up more, I have arthritis and walk with a stick. Another student also had a similar comment, he's a permanent wheelchair user.

Build relationships with the kids.

This ^

and it can be simple things that do this. I once welcomed the class and added, "And happy new year to anyone celebrating", I got huh' looks from most students and beaming smiles from the the two kids with Chinese parents.

@AuldAlliance

CuriousaboutSamphire PE teachers learn a lot of science. Physiology, biomechanics etc. It isn't just playing sport!

I know.
Learning and teaching are two different things, though.
I learnt a lot of things when I was studying - doesn't mean I could have taught them alongside my core subject when I was a trainee, though.
Expecting young teachers to be competent in 2 fields is asking quite a lot (I live in a country where it basically doesn't happen and I know how hard the trainee teachers I've taught work in their one subject area) and it seems particularly unfair to criticise them if they screw up.

But this whole thread is a bit unpleasant, so I'll check out.

I wonder if it is different with you. PE is not just playing sport here, we have exams at GCSE and A level and most PE teachers are expected to teach the academic subject as well as the practical elements, though some do just teach either the practical or academic units.

I am usually quite defensive of my subject and its teachers, as so many people insist it is entirely non academic and a waste of time! In reality it includes a lot of biology, some physics and psychology. So many PE teachers can adequately cover other lessons because their subject and degrees include those subjects. Just as many PE teachers have long been the go to cover for maths - lots and lots of maths in sport science!

The best trainee I ever had took a biology class as part of her observed sessions and did it very well - that opened up a lot of cross teaching opportunities for the PE and biology departments that hadn't been deemed acceptable prior to her sessions.

The worst couldn't get the whistle out of his mouth when taking a basic fitness session.