ijfasco replied to your post “5 teaching targets for this academic year”
I start my PGDE in a few weeks. I'm petrified! x
Hi there friend :) It’s completely natural to feel nervous, teacher training is a HUGE commitment and it always seems like everyone else you meet on the course has a little bit more experience, or has done a little bit more preparation than you! But really, everyone is just as worried about messing up their first lessons in front of the children and is just as nervous about teaching as you, believe me! Here’s some advice and tips for surviving your first few weeks:
A PGCE is definitely a marathon, not a sprint - don’t work yourself until midnight in the first few weeks (I speak from experience here...) save some energy for later placements or important observations. Start off by concentrating on passing your first assignments rather than having everything perfect. You’re still learning, so it’s natural not to get everything right straight away :)
Discussing assignments, tutors and schools with your course mates definitely helps and my course mates have definitely helped me through a few problems during my PGCE (learning French was one such challenge a linguist course mate painstakingly helped me with!)
Exchanging your specialist knowledge with others on your course is really handy, everyone has a different background and making connections early on can help you with assignments down the road!
If you’re anything like me and your maths skills are a bit rusty, in preparation for maths seminars/lessons practising some mental maths/times tables definitely helps you feel more at ease during those times!
Don’t be daunted by the amount of paperwork/ dates/ assignments/ information you get handed to you in the first couple of weeks! It looks like an awful lot, but once you start tackling it a bit at a time and organising it, it’s a lot more manageable (I sometimes think they overload you with paperwork in the first week to prepare you for being a fully qualified teacher!)
Best of luck with the course, and feel free to drop me an ask if you need anything :)
