By Kathryn Elsdon
Kathryn Elsdon has just finished her PGCE in Secondary History at the University of Reading, and will soon be starting a job at her placement school in Tilehurst, Reading.
The first few weeks of my PGCE feels like a lifetime ago. It’s hard to fathom how much you learn, experience and overcome in just ten months!
Before you start, there is the fear of the unknown. You’ll have read the national curriculum and tried to top up your subject knowledge as much as you can. Then you have the wait until that first day begins. Some courses start with a couple of weeks at university, which allows you to get to know everyone on your course. This for me was really interesting! When you do your undergraduate degree you rarely get to know the vast majority of students on your course, but with teacher training there is a tangible common ground. You all want to learn to teach a subject you’re passionate about, and there’s a sense of shared experience as you go through this crazy year together. You’ll learn that everyone arrives with different experiences and knowledge about the subject and teaching, which makes discussions so rich and interesting. You’ll soon realise that these people also become your support system, as they’re the only ones who really understand what you’re going through.
During those first weeks you become a sponge, trying to take in every word anyone says about teaching, and holding onto as much as you can. But these first few weeks are a drop in the ocean compared to what you’ll learn during the rest of the year. You’ll be constantly learning and developing your practice, and this is something you’ll continue do throughout your teaching career. Don’t panic at the beginning, take every piece of wisdom given to you (and still frantically write it down!), but give yourself time to process it all and revisit it later when it might make more sense.
Eventually, that first day at school that you’ve been nervously and excitedly anticipating will arrive. For the first few weeks I spent three days at school and two at university, which allowed me to ease myself into the course. During these few weeks you start to surprise yourself with how much you notice and can relate to discussions and reading at university. You then start to question why a teacher may have shown a certain picture, organised a seating plan in a particular way, or posed that question to that student. I remember that in the first few lessons I observed, I did not say a word to any student for fear of my own inferiority. However, I soon realised that most students like talking about their lessons and will answer any questions you ask them. Therefore I’d suggest get stuck in from the start — really open yourself up to discussions with both students and teachers.
Whilst it’s easy for me to say now, try not to spend the first few weeks worrying about how you’ll deal with behaviour management or tricky questions from students. Starting your training is a nerve-wracking time, but remember that the whole point of the year is to learn, try new things and reflect. The reason you’re here is to teach students about a subject you’ve spent years studying and clearly love researching and talking about!
If you’d like to find out more about teacher training, visit the Get into Teaching website, where you can register for free help and support from a teacher training adviser. Find out more about teacher training at the University of Reading here.
