Pgce woes

[destiel00]

My nephew is doing a pgce. He's really struggling atm and I'm worried. One of his cohort quit last week! He is working all the hours he can - help literally works and sleeps. He's just finding it so hard to get all the work expected from both school and university done. He looks ill and I'm very concerned. My sister has asked me what she can do but other than talk to his mentor and course leader I don't know what to suggest? Help!

Teacher her- 30 years. It.is hard because you are expected to do lesson plans in greater detail than you would do when in post and juggle uni work. Disagree that he should not be preparing lessons. If he doesn't do it how will he ever learn The demands of the job are too great. I am leaving teaching at 55. Can't keep up pace. Hope he gets some respite OP

The PGCE provider I work specifically says that students should not be expected to plan from scratch.

If a department is understaffed with not even a textbook to work from they shouldn't be taking placements!

Agree re part time working on ur day off. I was part time for one year and used my day off to keep my weekend free.

You’re right, however if there has been a high turn over of previous staff for instance there may be gaps in schemes of work, some teaching staff may have been plugging gaps without fully knowing the subject curriculum particularly if it’s a shortage stem subject that sort of thing. I remember a teaching observation in which a pupil was not included in feedback because his behaviour was challenging and my mentor acknowledged that he should not be in mainstream. Schools are far from ideal environments.
They may be snapping up placements for shortage subject trainees, even if they are not ideally provisioned.

When I questioned the sow issue he told me that its part of the course at his his university ?
I don't think hos TP2 mentor is as good as his first one tbh from what he's said (he hasn't criticised them btw, just what I'm picking up on)
Dsis says he's done some marking this evening and is having tomorrow off...

Sounds very hard, I'm sorry you're not sleeping

Teaching is a killer job. No two ways about it. I have a friend who works until 1 or 2am most nights. Planning. Data. Reports (NOT just student reports). Marking. There is minimal planning time in school because that time will be taken for other things. Break time duties. After school meetings (no school sticks to the 1 meeting a week rule).

The PGCE year is tough. There’s a lot of work, a very steep learning curve, and usually minimal support from school or uni. But it is a realistic picture of what teaching is like, at least in the early years of your career.

And people dropping out is very common too. When I did my PGCE I was put in a group of 5 students. Only 2 of us successfully finished the course, and only I was still teaching 2 years later. I lasted 12 years before it broke me. This is why teacher retention is such an issue.

The pgce is brutal. But it is a reflection of teaching as a whole. Teachin Is thankless and utterly demanding.

The PGCE year is the hardest in my view. He does need to do some lesson planning and SOW for the PGCE. A lot have people have made the point about knowing what to just let slide, but that's takes time to learn. He should definitely speak to his mentor. I do think he's right at the hardest part now. We need good teachers and hopefully he's enjoying at least some aspects.

@VivienneDelacroix's description of the working hours is accurate but it does get better as you go on. I'm 15 years in but I did other jobs first which really helped with perspective and boundaries. Plus the fact I had a baby a month after getting QTS!

The planning from scratch thing is just daft. It is worthwhile when the subject or topic is new to you, but there's so much out there already that it's mad not to use some of it and then you can gradually improve it and develop your own suite of resources.

I know they're unfashionable but I've got a full shelf of good quality textbooks too.

And a pdf editor so I can adapt anything. And a printer, scanner, laminator, guillotine...

Plus (actually the most important bit) a lovely husband who does all the food shopping and cooking so at least I was never hungry.

I have also lately been experimenting with ChatGPT to make handouts with reading comprehension questions and calculations, with answers. It can also source suitable exam questions and video clips on specific topics. Big time saver.

I thought it might be this - we had to create two medium term plans as part of our course requirements. In far greater detail than you'd ever need to for department purposes as well. Hopefully he's just got one to go this year, if it's similar?

Op I'm not sure you're getting the full story here. Students WHO ARE TRAINING to be teachers should not blindly be creating schemes of work alone, for the classes they're teaching. SOWs are collaborative and a huge piece of work - a PGCE trainee doesn't have time off-timetable to be writing them as well as lesson plans and everything else

Our PGCE trainees are expected to write lesson plans but using guidance from uni/the school and from the school's SOW. If he's in a STEM subject they will definitely have a SOW for him to follow - schools are desperately keen to keep core subjects (including STEM) on a certain path, and will likely have SLT assigned to each subject, as well as departmental input into the SOW each year.

If his school does not have a SOW he should speak to his uni mentor and the course team - it doesn't sound like the school is suitable for placement students.

We lose students off our courses every year. For some it's blindingly obvious they're not going to make it as teachers, others are overwhelmed by the intensity of the course/workload.

Is there an option to suspend the academic assignments and concentrate on placement, or vice versa?

I do wonder...
He's certainly not telling them how late he's been staying
I'll try and chat to him this weekend
I also think (knowing him!) that he is perhaps being asked to make adjustments to lesson plans and is changing everything rather than just a couple of things?
Are there any resources that can help him on this?

Also, he seems (to my untrained eye) to sometimes struggle to explain his rationale/what he wants the pupils to learn?
Any tips?

This makes no sense at all. You can’t do a full time PGCE and work- that would be impossible.

Hello,
I wonder if he is being asked to design a hypothetical SOW as part of his training, to satisfy one of the competencies. Or, collaborating on plan for next year. This year's SOW should already be in place - not least because we are in the middle of Spring 2 now.

Planning is an absolute arse but you just have to crack on - it's part and parcel of the intellectual rigour of the profession. The more he does, the easier he will find it. However, we are 3 week away from Easter so he should be nearly finished by now, or at least have it on the horizon?

As PP have said, he will have his pick of jobs so if he can just push through this awful bit, it will be worth it.

Ps, perfectly normal for people to be quitting throughout the course - this happens every year.

Best of luck to him - can he plan anything amazing for the Easter hols to look forward to? I promised myself a trip to the John lewis cafe at the station at the end of my second placement - that scone and cup of tea was my peak achievement that year 😁.

I did the PGCE over 30 years ago and it was absolutely knackering. Having spoken recently to student teachers, I get the impression it’s even harder work nowadays. I’ve had a few difficult times in my teaching career but none has been as draining and stressful as my PGCE year.

I think he's off to see some friends at Easter.

I think he needs to cut back on his adjustments and also try and do more in school where he has his mentor to ask.

I think he did go in with his eyes open but it's been worse than he thought

Has he seen the 5 minute lesson plan template?

I'd recommend getting him to complete an exit ticket / task he wants students to be able to complete by the end of the lesson. Then annotate that with what students need to know (...) and to be able to do (...) in order to complete it. Get really granular and break the task and lesson objective down (ie simplify or narrow the focus of the lesson to allow for in depth assessment and feedback so students can actually master the objective in the time allowed).

Though tbh he should be working on this with his mentor as it's not a quick fix - is he getting regularly observed and given feedback?

No, it don't think so?
He is observed and given feedback regularly, yes.
Initially it was his timing which has improved a lot.
Now it seems to be planning and rationale he's struggling with (although his friends seem to be the same...)
How does he find the 5 minute lesson plan?

That all sounds really normal, getting to grips with timing then planning. He won't need to be perfect by the end of the year either, though he'll be much better and feel more confident.

I'm not sure how to link but it's the top results on Google images for 'five minute lesson plan template' (how my mentor for it for me).

It will also help him to identify from other lesson resources/ observations or asking his mentor a few key activities he can use for each stage of his lessons. He could stick to those for a while while he's getting to grips with planning.

Eg. Starter (assuming retrieval) - gap fill, match up, correct the error

He'll probably also be advised to really think about how each stage of the lesson is helping him to help the students master the lesson objective. It comes with experience but it will eventually feel less like box-ticking or filling the time with PowerPoint activities, and he'll get to the point where he could teach with just a pen and the board.

One last thing I found useful as a trainee was showing my lesson to another adult and talking them through it - they can point out if something doesn't make sense, even if the layout is confusing.

Thank you!
He is going to talk to his mentor today re his lesson plans and sow.
I sspoke to hom yesterday and he sounded much brighter...he's had early nights and Saturday off.
His course leader is observing him on Wednesday
I told him that no one is perfect and he will continue to improve his practice.
He is SO hard on himself.
I think he needs to accept that he will always have areas for Improvement

Oh, and apparently the sow from scratch is part of his course?
It's an RG uni is that makes any difference?
But it's the only one he'll have to do from scratch