School is great, I love it, I’m having a great time but I can’t remember the last time I was so exhausted.
September 11, 2009
July 8, 2009
Why finding a job was so difficult
Considering that languages are a ’shortage subject’ and trainees are paid with this in mind, many people wonder why I struggled so much to find a job – here are a few examples (just from this weeks news) which illustrate the climate in which linguists are trying to find work:
A fifth of primary schools ‘will struggle to meet 2010 languages target’
Low numbers shut French course
Bright students ’shun languages’
In all areas of the education system, languages are being devalued and neglected. In the past schools taught languages all the way up to GCSE – this is not the case now. Schools don’t like them because it’s harder to get the illustrious A*-C grade and so don’t push them. Languages departments are shrinking rapidly, with many departments only offering one language (usually French) because that’s all they are required to offer.
If we do believe, as a society, that languages are necessary, then we need to do better.
If we dont – then why are we bothering to teach them at all?
June 19, 2009
Finally!
Right, it’s all over! I have passed my PGCE and I have a job for September. Hooray! It’s perfect, the school is great and a good fit for me, the only thing is is that the position is temporary, but that just means I’ll be job hunting again in a few months, and that seems a long way off just now. There’s also the small matter of me needing to I also need to figure out how to pay the bills until then. That’s another bridge to cross when I get to it. I’m going on holiday next week, so I’ll worry about all that when I get back home.
I think I need to change the name of this blog to ‘Diary of an NQT’ – what do you think?
June 18, 2009
Another job interview
Right – another interview! Hooray! The job market for languages is pretty depleted at the moment, and many of my colleagues are still without a job and with few prospects. Despite having actually finished the PGCE (subject to external examiners etc) I’m finding it hard to relax, as the ever present dread of having to go back into an office job after spending a whole year training to do something different is paralysing! Well, I like the look of this one, so fingers crossed.
May 21, 2009
May 12, 2009
Eek! Wish me luck.
Right, I’ve got my first teaching interview tomorrow.
Audition lesson planned. Check!
Transport arranged. Check!
Butterflies in stomach. Triple check!
I’ll let you know how it goes.
EDIT! Didn’t get it, but actually I’m not devastated. The school was nice, the kids were nice, the department was nice, but it just wasn’t quite right.
May 6, 2009
The issue of trust
A conversation going on on my friends blog got me to thinking about trust and all the issues surrounding it within education.
Parents trust schools to educate their kids. Schools trust teachers to teach kids, and to not abuse them in any way. Teachers trust parents to send their kids to school on time every day, wearing correct uniform and with the correct equipment. Teachers trust pupils to do their homework, not to cheat on exams, to show up for detention, to go to lessons on time, to do the work and to pay attention.
That’s a lot of trust.
In my humble opinion, one of the main problems with education system at the moment is that much of this trust is broken down. Many parents don’t trust schools any more, not the way they should. Reports home, phone calls home, parents evenings etc already take up a lot of time, and new suggestions regarding recording progress online for parents to read would make a teachers workload even heavier. Teachers are subject to so much paperwork and control from above that they are overworked and under pressure to be accountable to the head and the government. Parents often don’t live up to the trust we place in them. Some parents don’t give their children breakfast, they don’t send their children to school in uniform and some don’t even send them to school at all. We can’t trust pupils not to cheat, so we have to watch them like hawks. We can’t trust them to do detentions so we have to go and collect them. We can’t trust them to have the proper equipment so we have to keep a stock of pens to give out on demand. Hell, we can’t even trust them to learn the subject properly, so we hand hold them through the whole process of exams.
Here’s the thing, by not trusting we are making it so that pupils have lost all sense of responsibility for their own behaviour and their own learning. We don’t trust them to learn, so why should they when teachers will do all the work for them?
April 19, 2009
No s**t Sherlock!
I don’t know what they think language teachers do to prepare pupils for oral exams, but I can’t really believe anyone thinks this is a surprise! To be honest, I’m not sure what else teachers can do. If they were teaching pupils to speak the language then maybe it would be a problem, but we’re teaching them to pass exams, aren’t we?
Back to school….. again.
I thought it would be more of a wrench going back to school after this holiday, particularly because the last week of term was so stressful and exhausting, but actually, it’s not too bad. I feel well rested (for the first time in months I don’t feel tired all the time), the nights are longer, the sun’s out and I’ve had some time to get a little work done. My final essay is half written with two weeks until the hand in date and my lessons for tomorrow and Tuesday are planned and prepared, there’s a bank holiday weekend to look forward to and the sun is out. I’m well and truly over half way through the course and the end is in sight. It’s only 2 months until the very end, and my placement ends in 5 weeks time.
All I need to do is hang on and this ride will come to an end.
April 3, 2009
Holidays!
Well, it’s Friday, and I’m exhausted, but it’s the Easter holidays. I’m halfway through my second placement and my PGCE is nearly over. I’m still alive. That’s the main thing! There’s plenty to do over the holidays, but I could totally do with a break. So I’ll have one. Hooray!
