I have to teach Further Maths now...

[Bee]

Kalia - what do u teach? I'm in scotland too

I've recently finished the PGDE and I am on my probation year which I will miss some off and have to complete later on

 

[debecca]

Kalia, sounds like you're doing exactly what I'm intending to do a year or so after Connie is born - go back to teaching 2 days a week or something so that I still enjoy the classroom aspect but that it doesn't take over my life completely. What do you teach hun?

 

[Little miss pink]

Do you want to train for primary or secondary, LMP (or are they called something else in England?)

Well ideally i would like to teach secondary, if i can hack it, I currently have a degree in Business Studies and 10 years experience being an office manager, so i think the only thing i can teach coming from that without retraining would be to teach Business Studies. But its a huge career change

I know what everyone says about it being hard work etc i have a lot of people warn me off which is why for years i;ve been putting it off. But the longing to give it a go won't go away despite the warnings and lately i've decided that at the end of the day if i don't like it i can leave and go back to what i am doing now.

I currently work around 50 hours a week and have a lot of responsibility etc and this is the fewest hours per week i've worked in a long time (cut back when got married then again when i got my BFP). so i'm not to afraid of working hard especially if i enjoy it (which i don't at the minute), its more my ability to be a good teacher and not let the kids and the school down and my class management skills etc that i worry about but i suppose i'll never know till i give it a try.

LMP x

 

[kalia]

I used to teach secondary French because I didn't get on to the primary teaching course. I thought I would hate it but I didn't know what else to do - I actually really liked it which was a good surprise Still had bad days, but overall things were fine.

Then 2 years ago a Primary French job was advertised for 3 days a week. It was a big financial risk but I decided to go for it and I'm so glad I did! I love teaching primary French!!! I teach 6 to 11 year olds and mostly they learn through ludique approaches - which is to say we sing songs, play games and read stories!!!
And there's never been a shortage of supply teaching on the other two days. Now that I'm going to have baby there is no problem shifting to part time work - I'm just going to give up supply.

LMP, you'll be surprised at the things you can do. I think you should go for it. As for classroom management skills, as I said Bill Rogers is a very good read with excellent strategies. He wrote a thesis, possibly using the name William Rogers on starting with a new class and I would recommend reading that before meeting your first classes. I didn't find it until far later on in my first year of teaching and I wish I'd had it sooner. I am fairly certain my copy is at school somewhere. If you PM me your address if I can find it (that may be a big if, sometimes I lend these things out and they don't come back) I'll photocopy it and send it to you if you want.