Teacher Training what is going on !?!?
Discussion
Interested in people's comments. I'm toying with the idea of Teacher Training. Reason being I want to - but as a supply teacher as my plan is to spend time abroad so need a job I can pick up and leave when I am back in the UK. I've also been told I would be good at it.
I have been following a teaching forum. To be frank it seems to be full of pathetic girls (but they are in their twenties) panicking about passing the mandatory skills tests.
To give an idea of what these tests are like - they consist of mental arithmetic (12 questions) which are read out down headphones. You have 120 seconds to answer then the next question is read. The questions are along the lines of:
Timmy goes to the shops and buys 5 x oranges at 25p, 6 apples at 18p. He pays with a £5. How much change does he receive?
A car journey takes 1 1/2 hours. The car travels at 45mph. How far is the journey in miles?
To qualify to get into teaching you have to have passed maths at GCSE grade C or above. So, all these on the teaching forum are having hysterical meltdowns about the mental arithmetic. I posted last night that I wondered genuinely why people were getting so stressed over the tests when they had already passed their maths GCSCE to qualify for the course and it is maths you would use in your day to day life.
Boy was I wrong !
That opened the floodgates to about 70 replies of vitriol. I am aggressive for suggesting it was everyday maths. People have dyslexia, dyscalculia (?) people don't like pressure or exams. The tests should be banned anyway ?!?
I was staggered that these people (and the majority have already been accepted for PGCE) are going to be future teachers if they cannot cope with their abilities being questioned. How will these people manage if a Parent has a go or a pupil or if a child stands up and asks what is 6 x 9? (yes there a people who are asking how to learn times tables).
Is this what modern teaching is - snowflakes??
I have been following a teaching forum. To be frank it seems to be full of pathetic girls (but they are in their twenties) panicking about passing the mandatory skills tests.
To give an idea of what these tests are like - they consist of mental arithmetic (12 questions) which are read out down headphones. You have 120 seconds to answer then the next question is read. The questions are along the lines of:
Timmy goes to the shops and buys 5 x oranges at 25p, 6 apples at 18p. He pays with a £5. How much change does he receive?
A car journey takes 1 1/2 hours. The car travels at 45mph. How far is the journey in miles?
To qualify to get into teaching you have to have passed maths at GCSE grade C or above. So, all these on the teaching forum are having hysterical meltdowns about the mental arithmetic. I posted last night that I wondered genuinely why people were getting so stressed over the tests when they had already passed their maths GCSCE to qualify for the course and it is maths you would use in your day to day life.
Boy was I wrong !
That opened the floodgates to about 70 replies of vitriol. I am aggressive for suggesting it was everyday maths. People have dyslexia, dyscalculia (?) people don't like pressure or exams. The tests should be banned anyway ?!?
I was staggered that these people (and the majority have already been accepted for PGCE) are going to be future teachers if they cannot cope with their abilities being questioned. How will these people manage if a Parent has a go or a pupil or if a child stands up and asks what is 6 x 9? (yes there a people who are asking how to learn times tables).
Is this what modern teaching is - snowflakes??
That is my concern after 20 years in the private sector.
I mentioned do people not add up their shopping to make sure they are correctly charged / been given the correct change. What if they buy wallpaper and need to work out how many rolls etc. This was met with howls of 'WE HAVE R PHONES FOR CALCULATORS FOR THAT WHICH U WONT HAVE IN THE TEST !
After more name calling in my direction about I have 'no empathy so will not be any good as a teacher' the thread got locked then deleted by admin.
I am honestly shocked. One girl has no Maths A level or dDegree and has been accepted to teach secondary maths !?! She is also one of the ones complaining about the numeracy test.
I mentioned do people not add up their shopping to make sure they are correctly charged / been given the correct change. What if they buy wallpaper and need to work out how many rolls etc. This was met with howls of 'WE HAVE R PHONES FOR CALCULATORS FOR THAT WHICH U WONT HAVE IN THE TEST !
After more name calling in my direction about I have 'no empathy so will not be any good as a teacher' the thread got locked then deleted by admin.
I am honestly shocked. One girl has no Maths A level or dDegree and has been accepted to teach secondary maths !?! She is also one of the ones complaining about the numeracy test.
Edited by Vron on Wednesday 23 November 17:51
FredClogs said:
Oh go on then...
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/man-thi...
I'm calling BS anyway, I don't think you can get on a PGCE course without a degree.
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/man-thi...
I'm calling BS anyway, I don't think you can get on a PGCE course without a degree.
Somebody has just said they want to withdraw their application. This is one of the replies cut and pasted:
All I can suggest is to contact the pgce admin team, specifically pgce admin team of your chosen providers, explain ur situation and tell them if you can email it to them directly. Most of these guys are really helpful,if u sob story to go with that it's even better
So yes that's right. Send your potential employer a sob story to make everything OK. Then go and look at pictures of kittens.. Jeez !!
Tampon said:
Lots of opinions here on teachers, teaching and training for it.
As someone who is now a teacher and in their NQT year you can ask questions and will try and answer them.
I am 36, ran my own upholstery business since I was 20, went back to Uni to study history at the age of 30 to become a teacher (had a epiphany and wanted to do something better with my life), then starting working and training in a school once finished. Now qualified and working as a Teacher in a special needs and behavioural school in South London.
Tamps.
P.S. the Maths and English exams you have to sit aren't just basic everyday maths, some of the questions are simple, but they have a very wide range of topics, you might be good at mental arithmetic but working out 36% discount of a purchase of a wardrobe at £215 and a bed at £340 with a timer in front of you counting down from 20 secs that beeps as it goes down, in your head, might be a touch more pressure), they are timed and there is the pressure of if you don't pass them by 2nd or third attempt you can't sit them again for a year. Maths I was fine on, I did sweat the English one a touch beforehand but passed first time. Is one of the things you worry about as sometimes they are hard to book depending on your centre and you need to pass the before you start training.
? you have two minutes to answer each question not 20 seconds. You get three attempts then can't re-sit for two years. I sat the tests last week and without exception all the maths questions were easy in that the percentages were 5% or 10%. One question was 'what is 75% as a fraction in its lowest possible terms'. Fractions were 1/4 3/4 (of numbers divisible by 4) Frankly if you have 'passed' your maths GCSE at grade C then fail these tests three times I think it is only correct that they bar you for two years. As someone who is now a teacher and in their NQT year you can ask questions and will try and answer them.
I am 36, ran my own upholstery business since I was 20, went back to Uni to study history at the age of 30 to become a teacher (had a epiphany and wanted to do something better with my life), then starting working and training in a school once finished. Now qualified and working as a Teacher in a special needs and behavioural school in South London.
Tamps.
P.S. the Maths and English exams you have to sit aren't just basic everyday maths, some of the questions are simple, but they have a very wide range of topics, you might be good at mental arithmetic but working out 36% discount of a purchase of a wardrobe at £215 and a bed at £340 with a timer in front of you counting down from 20 secs that beeps as it goes down, in your head, might be a touch more pressure), they are timed and there is the pressure of if you don't pass them by 2nd or third attempt you can't sit them again for a year. Maths I was fine on, I did sweat the English one a touch beforehand but passed first time. Is one of the things you worry about as sometimes they are hard to book depending on your centre and you need to pass the before you start training.
The pass mark for these tests is 18 out of 28. 12 of which are the mental arithmetic. The multiple choice section was simple and a couple of the answers could be eliminated just by looking how far out they were before any working out was needed - and you could use a calculator for the multiple choice.
Somebody has posted about he has been offered two places blah blah he has a 2.1 in Biology and as he has £24K debt from his studies so far his parents are 'going to borrow him the money'. Wonder if he will pass the literacy test.
Sheepshanks said:
Tampon said:
Some of the guys I trained with were young but they worked silly hours and were really good at putting the time in outside of the class. Some were wet blankets and are now qualified, god help where they go.
One guy was ex army, he was struggling with the workload, he was doing 11hrs a day in school, then marking at home in the evening, and working 8hrs on a saturday and 5 on a sunday just to tread water. Depends on the school you work in and what they expect. His was a horrible school and nearly cost him his marriage. Moved schools now and is much happier.
The drop-out rate overall is immense, and it's worst for older trainees. One guy was ex army, he was struggling with the workload, he was doing 11hrs a day in school, then marking at home in the evening, and working 8hrs on a saturday and 5 on a sunday just to tread water. Depends on the school you work in and what they expect. His was a horrible school and nearly cost him his marriage. Moved schools now and is much happier.
My daughter teaches and she said it's not uncommon for older entrants turn up for a few weeks placement during their teacher training year and even at that stage still think it's 9 to 3.30 job.
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