Practical Tips for PGCEs
Okay, so the alliteration is completely coincidental, but I’ll take it.
I understand it may be a little bit late for this, but I thought I might compile some useful tips I learnt across my PGCE, and hopefully help someone else. These are tips that should apply to any subject, not just English.
It’s not a good idea to do all your printing at home, especially when most schools give you some money for printing. However, by printing one copy of your resource, so you only need to photocopy at school, you save time and avoid the dreaded “the wifi is down…” moment. While on the topic of printing, remember to always print a copy for yourself - very helpful when you’re trying to guide kids through what they should be doing. And you’ll probably want it in your teaching file. Whenever possible, print a few more than you need. Somehow, classes always manage to multiply their numbers when you’ve printed just the right amount of handouts - and a few will have lost it by next lesson.
Cutting and sticking takes about ten times longer than you expect it to. Even if it’s not a cutting and sticking task, I often found that younger years (7, 8 and 9) didn’t care that I had trimmed the handout to fit in their books - they wanted to cut a 5mm border round the words to save that extra one line in their exercise books.
Until sixth form, students generally want a title and date. They will ask you what the title is, even if you have it on the interactive whiteboard and the normal whiteboard. Try to establish a routine where they check there, and check with a friend before asking you.
I hate writing learning objectives. What cracked it (I think…) for me, is linking them explicitly to the AOs at GCSE. Yes, as young as Year 8 and 9. After all, that is what the people observing you will want to see.
I could tell you not to make resources, but you will. To be honest, I’m grateful for the resources I made - I’m able to use them in some lessons, and send them round to my colleagues, which makes me feel so much better about the amazing resources and schemes of work they’re giving me.
Do whatever you can to have a free day at the weekend. Seriously. I’m currently free for most of my weekend because I stay in school to plan every evening (if I go home, I generally get sit down on my bed…which turns into lying down…which turns into falling asleep for four hours), and try to get stuff done in my frees. On that note…
Sometimes your frees need to be you having a cup of coffee, taking some deep breaths and reading a book. Sometimes a lesson goes terribly, and you need to put it to the side, and do whatever else you have to do that day. It’s easier if you take a break with some time for yourself.
Do not depend on the internet working. It can sense your fear, and will turn on you. Return to your youthful days of downloading youtube videos, and insert them into your presentation. Maybe the legality is slightly questionable, but you will thank yourself when your laptop/computer fails to connect.
Unless you desperately want to, don’t bother with the interactive whiteboard. Kids who have had iPads since they were four are not impressed by pretty animations, and you can do most of the same things on Powerpoint - which you will probably get for free through your university.
This one is a personal choice, but just before I started my course, I splashed out on a lightweight laptop (yeah, it’s a MacBook). This meant I never had to suffer school computers or laptops (except sometimes for printing), as they are notoriously slow. It also makes it practical for me to take it with me everywhere, as it doesn’t weigh 15kg. For example, I’m writing this post while one of my Year 10 classes do an assessment…
Now, I’m by no means claiming to be an authority, or that this is a definitive list (I may do similar posts later), but these are things that I think would have helped me, so I hope they might help someone else!