Career choices, Teaching.

[JonB]

Right, i'm in my first year of study at university and I thought it was about time I started thinking rather seriously about where I want to go when I leave university.

I've had many options thrown forward at me from the careers service provided by the university and I have had a good long hard think about what I want to do. For some reason Secondary school teaching has a very real appeal to me about what I want and can be seen "doing" after university. I'm aware of the academic procedures that would need to take place after (if) I got my degree in History and that it would probably be best to go for a PGCE in teaching at a university.

One bad thing about this is that it is another £3,000 for this one year course, well it is at Exeter anyway. I was thinking that perhaps after graduating I could probably wait a year before starting, so I could save up £3000 by working my socks off full-time and preferably live with my parents for the year between graduating and starting my course. The nearest university to me that does a PGCE course is Exeter and I could easily do the commute. Would probably buy a 500cc commuter for the run.

Anyway, that's enough of my planning, the real intention of this thread was to get a partial insight to the job by people who are teachers (I know there are a few here) and how demanding, mentally and physically on yourself.

The only real off-putter of being a teacher is that it was only 3 years ago I left school and I still remember the grief some of the teachers got from the little shites when I was studying. However I have used my experience from seeing the teachers who gained a true respect from the students and those that were power-hungry and got the pins on the chairs and their suede coats covered in Parker ink.

So yeah, opinions please.
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[Annabella]

Except you get a tax free busary of £6000-£9000 depending on the subject (i.e. how desperate they are for teachers in that subject area) so you don't need to save up £3000...
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[JonB]

Well on the Exeter site it says they give out £1,500 bursaries and on top of that, because History is a subject they are low on right now another £6000 tax free "Golden Hello".

Funnily enough it's not just the money that is attracting me to the job.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[thegubner]

I really wish, I had been the sort of person with foreward planning and future careers on my mind when I was younger (only 23 now)

I am permenantly skint, and am never happy in a job as I can only get shit jobs. At the moment I can't even get a shit job!



Hope it all works out for ya.

[cagiva gezzer]

I think the others here who've done Uni will be with me and say there's a certain "type" of people who do PGCEs after their degree.

People who're lacking actual direction and just choose teaching as it's thrust in their face soo much.

People with lower class degrees who believe they can do better if they get another chance at the academic world.

People who get swayed by the golden hello.

It's like people who do sixth form as they're not sure what else to do and it's an easy step....
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[Rookie]

Good point cagiva gezzer, but there are some (mad) people out there who actually do want to become teachers. Jon, I assume you went to school in Chard all your life, and it was a pretty decent school. Have you taken into account the fact that you'll be teaching some absolute wankers if you do go into it? Do you want to spend your whole day around spotty gits who don't ever shut up or stop texting?

If you do, teaching's for you, but you're also mad.

My mum taught at Broadoak school in Weston-Super-Mare, as head of the Special Needs department. Forced her into early retirement about 7 years ago, that's how bad it was. Anti depressents galore, she had a breakdown. But -

If it appeals to you as a job, what's stopping you? If you decide once you get there that it's not 'you', well you're £3k out and having an extra qualification can't hurt in another job. And if you do like it as a career, people say teaching is the most rewarding job on the planet. I say go for it.

[cagiva gezzer]

Or you get the PGCE and decide you don't want to teach as you'd have to deal with asshole kids. You give up on the teaching route and people won't employ you as you "lack commitment"......

It's not for me as i couldn't cope with brats.

You can always work a year, then drop back in a do a PGCE.

+ You're in your fist year, you've got another year to go before you should even start thinking about it. Course direction changes loads in teh second year. You should still be drinking all the time!
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[CortezTheKill...]

[JonB]

[CortezTheKill...]

[Silver]

Can't you do the PGCE at Open University (or something similar), so you can't work and earn money at the same time?

[CortezTheKill...]

P.S. Avoid Sidney Stringer School in Cov like the plague if you do decide to do a week in a school.
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[JonB]

I think I will probably do some sort of work experience at a school local to my home back in Somerset at the end of Year two as school carries on quite a while after Uni finishes.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Annabella]

[pwntifex]

My parents went into teaching.
Neither of them particularly started out with that intention, but that's where they ended up. Both have Upper Second degrees in French, for the record of whomever it was that stated teachers were lazy and inferior.

Both of them feel that the good experiences more than compensate for the bad, but unfortunately good experiences are few and far between.
The general consensus is that dealing with the bullshit of senior leadership, staff squabbles, ofsted and red tape is much more stressful than the bullshit that kids dole out.

As a teacher of anything other than modern foreign languages—especially if it's something like P.E., Design and Tech, etc.— you have it a lot easier. If you're a drama, performing arts, psychology or dance teacher, welcome to the new world. You got it made.

There are very few kids who want to know anything about mod. foreign languages, especially in the tolerant and open-minded East Midlands, and especially since a mod. foreign language is no longer a requirement at GCSE here.
It's interesting that many of our recently-immigrated Polish kids also have no desire to learn other European languages, though this may just be down to the type of people that ends up in these parts.

After 25 years, my parents are looking forward to retirement. I am also looking forward to never donating my unpaid time to helping ungrateful little shits with their French again.

Having said that, I will be embarking on my degree in Russian and French later this year, so the chances of ending up in teaching yet are above average.
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the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[ZRX61]

[thegubner]

[Chinaboy]

Cortez, you must be some sort of effing Angel or something, I even laughed out loud at your explaination of teaching.
For the record, Exeter Uni does hold one of the best PGCE courses going, but it damn near killed my missus because of the wanker of a Lecturer she had to be taught by. He was a sexist twat who had the reputaion for picking a 'golden girl/boy' as well as always trying it on with a new female each term. For his sake I will not name him. But in an interview with my missus, he commented on her 'beautiful eyes'!!! inappropriate or what?.

I teach in a Somerset college, I did my degree as I was teaching. As for being the most rewarding job you can ever have, that is a crock of shit. I teach the 14-16 cohort as well as students up to 65 years old, I deliver NVQ's and run my department. This job is hard as hell. The students are thick as shit, do not want to learn, all have chips on their shoulders and expect to have everything drip fed to them. In fact we have to do this just to hit tragets set by the LSC for funding.
Teaching today is all about playing the system. Not the teachers, the students. They have the right to abuse and run riot, and as a teacher you have no way of controlling them. You cannot be alone with a student for fear of being accused of touching them, and all you get is abuse and disrespect. I guess this is not the fault of 'schools' but society as a whole. But in FE (further education) we have to pick up the pieces of what the schools fail to install.
The new Government initatives just add to your problems when starting out in teaching, paper work will overtake your life if you let it.
For me, I 'never' bring work home, it is not how I work. I do a 37 hour week, if I have deadlines, they are missed if I cannot do it in the short times I have free between lessons for prep. I teach by the seat of my pants, teaching off the cuff if needs be. But then again I know my subject. I am never more than a lesson in front of my class. Your life will be consumed if you start taking marking or prep home..never do it.

In my teaching life so far, I have had just a few, counting on one hand, success stories, where I think I have made a difference. Yes, it makes you feel good, but this is seldom, hardly rewarding!!

We, in FE get paid a fraction of what you do in Compulsary Ed, but by Priciple is paid nearly 100K He knows nothing of what I do, he wouldn't even know me if he walked past me. Shouldn't he know me?

Ok, I paint a dull picture on teaching, I am looking at getting back into a real job in industry.
You will see the ads on television enticing you to teach, but those children you see on the screen are only the top 2% at most, of any school kids. The rest are useless, disrespectful, thick, jumped up horrible scum.
Are you sure you want to teach??

[CortezTheKill...]

I don't profess to be an angel, though I don't think you meant it as a compliment.

I'm just very hard-working and I love what I do.

Hell, there are times when I'm tearing my hair out, but I did refer to that in my earlier post.

It sounds like you're having a very bad experience of teaching, but I wouldn't say your's was a typical case. Neither would I say the same for myself, either.

That's why I advised a week of observation in a school. You can listen to all the opinions about teaching that you want, but nothing is better than actually being in an educational environment for making you realise whether you're up for the job or not.
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SV650 - TRASHED
ZX636R C6F - SOLD
Current number of wheels: 0 (not including a bicycle).

[pwntifex]

Where do you teach, Cortez, and in what type of establishment?
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the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[CortezTheKill...]

I work in a state-funded 11-18 secondary school in Staffordshire. It's what you might call a 'bog-standard comp'. Lots of kids from areas with low employment and low aspirations and some kids from more wealthy, aspirational backgrounds. It's nothing special.
____________________
SV650 - TRASHED
ZX636R C6F - SOLD
Current number of wheels: 0 (not including a bicycle).

[Rookie]

[Chinaboy]

Cortez, no disrespect meant at all, I applaud your dedication to the cause. It's just my experiences have been on the flip side of yours, and I believe that more and more teaching staff are feeling like me these days.

Steve

[Fran]

Well Im quite new to teaching and it has been an aspiration of mine since I was 14.

I had a shit time at school and its quite ironic that Im back there now, but I think there isnt a better job to suit me and what I want to do.

I got a bursary as Design & Technology is a shortage subject, and I will get a golden hello at the end of the year.

If you think its for folk with no talent who are just drifting in well theres some maybe but I wasnt one, I got a 1st and loved my subject, I get to do fun stuff with the kids all year round and have a workshop to do any bike/car related diy in

The main benefit I have found is the lifestyle, I dont have to kill myself to get the kids through, I can use most of the holidays for myself, out on the bike! Theres the odd late night and the last 6 weeks of the spring term were very hard with the practical coursework, however I get to teach 11-16 and A-level so it is challenging.
Im in a good state school but one that is very very busy.......makes for a great day almost everyday, and I would definatly reccommend it.

[CortezTheKill...]

None taken.

I'm so aware that I'm in my comfort zone dealing with kids I understand. Put me in a sink-school and I'd be having a nervous breakdown within a week. I'm not saying I teach a load of angelic kids...far from it.

I once taught in the largest school in Britain - 2500 kids. Half of the kids in the school were lovely, half were scum from the local ex-council chav ghetto. Half of my timetable was good kids, half was evil kids. On one occasion a Y11 boy told me that if I didn't get out of his face he was going to deck me. I put my face right into his and said "Go on then." So I've had my fair share of shit and will continue to do so I expect.

I haven't had to deal with anything as interesting as that in my current school. So I have it comparatively easy compared to some teachers working in very tough schools, and I have ultimate respect for anyone who can go into the crappest schools and make a difference to kids lives. I know I couldn't do that.

Before I trained to be a teacher, I went and observed for a week in Holte School in Aston, Birmingham - it was a very very hard school populated by kids from the worst areas of north Birmingham - as I lived near the school and knew a girl who was working there. I was totally intimidated, yet there was this 5'2" young woman with a wonky eye holding the kids in check day-in day-out. Much respect due.

As with many things, it all depends on where you're at and how you feel about it.
____________________
SV650 - TRASHED
ZX636R C6F - SOLD
Current number of wheels: 0 (not including a bicycle).