Scrolling through Twitter during the year brought back how I felt finishing my first placement. In short – exhausted and confused. December 2019 and January 2020 were my two lowest months in terms of mood during my whole course. I wanted to write this post, in the hope that other trainees might read it and feel comforted that they’re not alone.
As a follow up to my post Primary Placement – My PGCE Journey: Part 3, I wanted to discuss the findings of the British Council’s report into Language Trends in the UK in 2020, particularly looking at primary languages and the transition between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3.
If someone had told me even two years ago that after an eight-week French course that I would have been teaching French to 12/13 year-olds I would have laughed in their face. Or at least laughed awkwardly then crossed the street to avoid them!
I’m not sure if this is the case with all PGCE/SCITT/Teach First courses for secondary school teaching, but my course provider recommended that all students completed a week placement in a local primary school prior to the course starting at the university in September. We would then go on to complete more time at a… Continue reading Primary Placement – My PGCE Journey: Part 3
I’m back with more course suggestions – this time on Special Educational Needs. SEND is a broad category, and it’s important to say that as a trainee teacher or as a qualified teacher, no expects you to have all the answers and no-one actually has ALL the answers. A strategy that works with one student… Continue reading Pre-PGCE preparation – my recommended free courses on SEND
I don’t have Netflix. There, I said it. But I do subscribe to Amazon Prime – until recently I had only been using it for expedited shipping and next day delivery. This is until I discovered the wealth of foreign language films and programmes they had to offer.
The summer before the PGCE was a funny one for me – I’d left my job at a local school to complete a SKE course, learnt the basics of French in 2 months, went on holiday to Prague (was great would recommend!) and then found myself at a primary school for a week long visit… Continue reading Pre MFL PGCE Must Reads!
As a German specialist, the amount of free (or low cost), high-quality German resources is far lower than for French and Spanish. Yes for GCSE there’s always the textbook and the additional resources there, but sometimes it’s nice to see how other teachers have structured topics, grammar points or included cultural aspects in their teaching. For this, I have (re)turned to the black-hole that is Facebook.
Looking back at my purchases, what I’ve found most useful are revision guides/study guides. Recently GCSE specifications changed which has meant that all the old workbooks and guides have been replaced and rewritten. However, since I’m not currently teaching, using the old specification books is no problem for me – they’re all much cheaper than the current ones as well. Most of the books I’ve been using are not geared towards any particular exam boards, and those that are are pretty flexible as content and vocabulary could be used across the board.
To backtrack a little, a SKE is a Subject Knowledge Enhancement course that is funded by the Department for Education (i.e. the Government in the UK). Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers, can recommend that a candidate complete an SKE course prior to teacher training, in order to help them meet the teacher standards once they start the course. SKE courses can be done before training or alongside training both face-to-face, or online.
ichliebelanguages 