What makes a good teacher?

[back2work]

I am seriously thinking about training to be a maths teacher. Maybe this sounds stupid, but I don't want to do it unless I will be a good teacher. What makes a teacher a good teacher though? Are there personality traits that all good teachers have, and weak teachers don't have?

Any other advice would be appreciated too

Stubborness is good Teenagers are very stubborn and you need to be more so.
I find it helps enormously that I like teenagers: they make me laugh, so I can control irritation at them most of the time.
You need to be able to make connections really quickly and make good working relationships with a variety of people (staff and pupils).
It's very hard to know if you will be good until you are doing it full time, though. Good teachers are not all the same, and I'm not sure whether there are many qualities they even have in common.

I like young children, but I don't know any teenagers. Oh dear!

However, I am quite stubborn!

What about training colleges? What do you actually learn there? Is it the technique of preparing lessons and legislation?

Go and see what it is like in a secondary school, preferably 2 as they are all really different. You will have to do at least 2 weeks observation before you apply for teacher training anyway. (Although I think Maths is easier to get into than a lot of other subjects so they may be less strict about this.)

You have to be very confident in yourself, and not take crap personally. You need to be able to explain things clearly, and then in another way and another way.... until they get it.

PGCEs at uni are hugely variable, some are good, some bad, sometimes they are both at the same time and it is just luck. At uni you learn the theory, basics (very basics) of legislation around CP, SEN etc and some subject based theory. You will also have to do assignments at masters level, and of course pass your school placements.

Can i just ring up a secondary school and ask if I can come in?

I just spoke to the teaching information line and I got some good advice. Apparently there is a shortage of maths teachers and there is even spaces available on courses due to start in September.

They see me as a good candidate because I have a lot of professional experience using mathematics and I have business and personnel management experience too, both professionally and, more recently, from running my own company.

I really want to be a teacher because I just feel like its my vocation (I know that's not a fashionable word).

However, they did say that I would likely have to take a loan of £9k to pay the tuition fees, which i would then start repaying as soon as i got a job which would pay £25k per year before tax as we live just outside London.

I fully accepted that I would not be paid well but Wow! £2k a month from which i have to pay tax as well as transport to work, clothes for work, childcare and repayments on a debt of £9k??? I don't think I'll break even. I am really shocked.

They said that the salary could go up by a large percentage (but I am a maths graduate and I understand that a large % of a small number can mean a very small increase in absolute terms, so that's just using statistics to mislead).

DH doesn't want me to become a teacher. I don't think its about the money, although he would prefer me to earn a good salary (which i used to do) if I am not going to be a SAHM. However, I need to really think about this now because I had not realised that as well as buying my food, paying our rent, travel, entertainment etc with his salary, I may need him to help repay my student loan too. Expecting DH to subsidise my wish to teach is asking a lot.

Do not rush into it! The hours are long. If you really don't know teenagers or how schools work, you could be in for a huge shock. Also colleges which still have places may not be the best places to learn.
Next year a lot of the training is going to change, as far as I know GTP is going to disappear, but a lot of GTP providers are going to become SCITT instead eg. you train with schools instead of outside colleges.
Maths teachers are in demand, but it is still a demanding job, and there is a lot to teaching other than knowing your subject.

The best thing to do is to contact schools and ask to go in for observation, and make the most of anytime doing observation you get.

I've been helping out in primary school as a parent volunteer for the last three years. Last year I was working with the special needs group approx 2 days per week. This year i seem to be the TA's office junior!

So I know a bit about primary schools and I can see what goes on (though obviously not a full picture!). Are there any similarities with secondary schools or is it completely different?

If you teach Maths you will more than likely get a bursary which will more than cover the tuition fees (it's upto 20K depending on your degree classification) so realistically you wouldn't need a loan.

what is GTP and SCITT?

I just looked up SCITT and it sounded ideal! The only problem is that there is nowhere near me. The nearest that offers maths is probably Bromley but that's at least an hour away (probably much longer in the m25 rush hour).

GTP (Graduate Teaching programme) is doing a PGCE at university - hlaf your time at in university half in a school. SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) is all in school but universitt assessors will come out and see you. SCITT folk are usualy paid by the school (TA rates maybe?).

Yes secondary is very different from primary I wouldimagine!!!!!

You may start on £25k but you get £1500 increments each year to about 32k ish. After a few years in a large secondary you could also be head ofyear, form tutor, head of maths, deputy head of lower school etc all of which would increase your grade and therefore salary.

But please go into a school first!

There are also various online options; open university, hibernia and edge hill I think. Also have a look at school direct. Would definitely agree with getting some observation soon though (do you know any teachers?) I was very unsure about teaching until I saw it in action!

I went to school and got my degree in the 80s. Are qualifications from that era considered direct equivalents of today's grades?

Actually have you thought about spending a year as a TA in a secondary?

Have you considered doing primary teacher training? It sounds like you enjoy being in a primary school.

Secondary is very very different. You are teaching 4 to 5 1 hour classes a day, each with different groups of kids. So you need to learn about 300 kids names (Drama teachers can need to learn 1000). You will be teaching top set year 11 one lesson, then a mixed ability year 7, then a bottom set year 10 (who still don't get how to work out the area of a triangle, or can't plot points on a graph), then a mid set year 9 (lots of hormones) then sixth form.

I started a PGCE, and quit because I couldn't cope with it and family life (despite kids of 7, 11 and 14). The biggest difference between secondary and primary is the total lack of time. I spent 5 minutes with one girl, really made a breakthrough and boosted her confidence, but then realised I couldn't spend anymore time with her for 2-3 weeks, as other kids needed my time.

BTW there are more places offering SCITT from next year, there could be somewhere much closer to you, but not all of that information is released yet.

I've sent an email to the secondary that I hope my son will go to next year outlining the situation and asking if they will permit me to come into the school to get some experience. Its short notice as I'd need to do this before the end of term, but maybe I'll be lucky.

Annoyingly, I have been toying with this idea for several months, but its only in the last week or so that I started to make inquiries and I had no idea that schools would give me access to the classroom unless I was there as a parent volunteer.

Not all GTPs involved a Uni, and you didn't get a PGCE (which caused people problems if they wanted to work overseas).

I really enjoy being with young children but I am not remotely artistic and it seems to be a big part of life in primary schools. Also, I thought that I might actually be able to give a decent answer to that age-old question "what's the point of studying this because it will never be used in the real world".

Your reaction is exactly why there is a shortage of maths teachers! I live it and wouldn't do anything else but you have to really want to be there! If you phone up a school and explain they will be more than happy to let you in for a day. We get loads of people. The only thing I will say is you will have to get used to being at the bottom. I have worked with many mature students who have had quite senior jobs before teaching and a lit of them struggled with being told what to do by people a lot younger. Some of them also tried to tell us what to do and how to work. Thus didn't go down well!

mnistooaddictive - I know where you are coming from! I find it a bit uncomfortable when the TA bosses me around like I am a half-wit. (I always count to 10 and remind myself that it probably shows more about her than it does about me).

As a secondary school maths teacher, how many hours a day/week do you have with a combination lesson planning, teaching and marking? And how much doing bureaucratic things?

At the start, absolutely loads, back2work, I won't lie. It does get easier as you get more experinced at both planning and marking, but bureacracy seems to be increasing all the time. I love the actual teaching, but other things are beginning to make me wonder whether I need to get out - it isn;t the job I started doing 22 years ago. THat said, it is rewarding and the staff are usually great.

I'm an English teacher by the way, not maths - we probably have more (or at least longer) marking.