disorganised procrastinator training to teach

[SophyStantonLacy]

I’m planning on applying for a School Direct training post in the autumn, as a secondary English teacher. I have thought about it for years, & feel confident that it’s the right path to take (for now anyway!). But I do worry, as I would describe myself as fairly disorganised (although I do manage 3 kids, activities, lately home schooling but previously I did work part time - but often things feel quite last minute) & I am definitely an awful procrastinator. It’s got worse over the years of being primarily a SAHM mum because eh what needs doing today really - I’m shrivelling away here. Anyone else manage teaching when you’re battling against your own lack of get up & go...?

A lot of people have talked about the teaching side, and I think they've pretty much covered the main issues.

However, doing an ITT course will also include some longer term things that you will have to do- e.g. you'll have assignments to research and write up (most Schools Direct courses now include a PGCE, so these can be quite lengthy). You'll also have to collect all the evidence that you need to get QTS and be responsible for all your own admin off your own back. In my experience, no-one really chases you up on this type of thing, and it is quite easy to fall behind- so I do think it's important to find a way to manage this side of things too!

For me, what worked was setting myself certain weekly targets- e.g. I need to do my observations for my assignment this week, or I need to get 2 sets of observation paperwork done this week, or I need to do x,y,z and so on. This helped me keep on top of things and not get overwhelmed at the end of each placement. Basically, I broke all the big things down into smaller targets and set myself short term deadlines, because it was very tempting to ignore them until the last minute!

As others have said, there are some part time routes into teaching- e.g. some SCITTs offer these. If you haven't worked full time recently, teacher training is very full on, so maybe doing it part time might be a better/easier option?