This is the first post on my new blog. I am new to the Instagram Teacher community and I am enjoying it loads. I will definitely be taking inspiration from many many teachers on there and so thought I need to contribute to this lovely community via my own blog as well as my insta page @teachingmrsallen
I am just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates. I welcome any suggestions on topics you would like me to write about.
P.S I imagine this blog getting more interesting once I start my SCITT!
I have bought a few books to read before I start my PGCE SCITT programme in September. When I say read, I mean flick through. Many of them are quite chunky and I am sure they will be more useful for research purposes as while I am doing my course.
I thought I should just do a short blog post on the books I have done so far. Also, just to mention in order to remain transparent, I have included the affiliate links below too. These are literally my first ever affiliate links, I thought I might try them out and see what happens.
I have genuinely bought the below books, they were actually recommended by my university course as a starting point to build my knowledge before the course starts.
Click on any to be taken to Amazon UK for the details on each book. I have read most of the PGCE Survival Guide book as this was based on the use of Twitter with #PGCEtips which I found interesting and it encouraged me to try to use Twitter more. I still prefer instagram though – I think i’m addicted!
Books I have on my wish list are below (with affiliate links) I want these purely because they are recommended by my fellow teachers on instagram.
Everybody seems to be raving about The (Un)official Teacher’s Manual at the moment so I can’t wait to get my hands on this. If you choose to buy this, let me know what you think.
And I think the National Curriculum Handbook will definitely come in handy – I love a good handbook.
Please let me know of any suggestions you have on further reading to help me get through my PGCE and NQT year.
Some of my lovely instagram followers have asked me to share what I have been doing to prepare myself before I start my teacher training in September.
I am excited and eager to get started but I don’t want to go overboard as I know the course will be full on and I will be provided with what I need to be focusing on.
In the run up to my induction day on 12th July they have set me some tasks to do and to bring with me to discuss. It’s nothing too difficult but I guess it’s just something for me to think about.
I’ve been able to prepare my workspace at home, this has been fun as my spare room was a blank canvas and is now full of Ikea furniture.
As you might have noticed in the picture, I have some folders at the top. They are all labelled with the subjects in the curriculum as I thought that I will add ideas of activities. But I’m rethinking this idea now, I might use Microsoft OneNote to digitally collect my ideas instead. Once I figure this out I will blog about it.
I’ve tried to think what else I could do to prepare, I’ve bought some books off amazon which were recommended by my Uni. I didn’t buy all suggested reads as some were too expensive, I basically bought the ones I could get cheap, second hand for less than a fiver.
I bought the following books:
“Children, their World, their Education” by Robin Alexander
“Learning to Teach in the Primary School” by James Arthur, Teresa Grainger and David Wray
“The trainee teachers’ survival Guide” by Hazel Bennett
And
“PGCE survival guide incorporating #pgcetips” by Tim Handley
But in all honestly, I have flicked through them but not properly read any. Maybe they will come in handy when I am actually doing my course.
Another thing I have done in preparation is get myself a gorgeous Academic 19/20 Diary from Paperchase. I have filled it in with important dates such as the first day of my PGCE and the last. I have also put in the half terms and school holidays using dotty stickers, which my diary came with.
My diary from Paperchase
Using inspiration from my fellow Instagram teacher family I have put together my pencil case, I have kept it simple with just essentials in there. I totally recommend the erasable ink pens. I have the Pilot Frixion ball pens, I love them!
A trainee Teachers pencil case
I did attempt at starting a folder with beautifully designed pages for each of the Teachers’ Standards, but again, I just don’t know how necessary this is, and I don’t know how they will want me to evidence them so I think I will refrain from this until I need to.
So all in all, I haven’t really prepared in terms of building any kind of knowledge or any kind of documents/ folders. I might look into printing a quick guide of the National Curriculum off Twinkl, but even this seems a bit daunting as I wont know what year group I will be placed with and it would be a bit much to revise all from Year 1 to Year 6. I am specialising Early Years as this is where my existing experience is from so I don’t feel the need to overly prepare for that either.
If anyone could give me ideas on what they think I should do to further prepare, I would appreciate that.
I had the chance to visit the SCITT base at Keele University a few weeks ago. It was my first ever visit to Keele, let alone the University and it was a good chance to do a “reccy” so I knew the route and time it takes to get there etc.
It’s a good 30-40minute drive from where I live which is fine. When I arrived at the campus I was impressed by how huge the place was. I ended up getting hopelessly lost driving around the campus looking for somewhere I can park, and then only because I had looked on google street map at home that I knew what the building I needed looked like. However, I did manage to get there on time, just.
I didn’t know what to expect from the welcome meeting. I was a bit nervous but excited at the same time to meet some of the other people starting my course in September 2019.
There was a mixture of people there, some were still doing their degree and some were career changers like me. They all seemed nice and probably just as nervous as I felt.
The meeting was hosted by two enthusiastic SCITT educators who had planned a couple of activities for us to do in groups as a way of an ice breaker. The first activity was a list of Shakespearian words cut out on slips of paper and a list of modern words we all know on slips of paper. We had to match the meanings of the Shakespearian words to the modern day word. It was fun and interesting at the same time, the activity allowed us some time for a giggle and chat to get to know each other.
The second activity was with clay! we had to make a sturdy 3D shape of any kind. My group made a cube by making our 6 sides individually (sat together whilst chatting) then we put it together. We came across some issues but worked together to solve them. The two SCITT educators occasionally came over to talk about what we were doing etc and gave us some pointers. Each group then presented their creation and discussed the process they went through to create it.
The main thing we got out of the welcome meeting was a bit of fun and a chance to see some of the faces we will potentially be working with in September.
It wasn’t mandatory that I went, but I am glad I did. My next thing is the Induction day on 12th July. I will keep you posted about that…
This post is to catch you up on where I am at so far …
I have never really wanted to be a teacher before, I did consider it when I was thinking about future careers in high school (as you do) but dismissed it as it was of no interest, despite my mum being a primary school teacher at the time. It was not until I had my son in 2013 that my interest in child development started to grow. Also, my confidence of how to be around children was realised from having my son, as I had just never grown up around young children, I think my son might have been the first new baby I had ever held!
I later decided I wanted to make some steps towards changing my career, so In 2016 I did a Level 3 Early Years Educator course part time, alongside my full time job at the council, which was completely unrelated to children or education. I really enjoyed the course as it involved some work experience which I did with a local childminder.
Following the childcare course, I started to look into what jobs I could go into with this new qualification. It seemed my options were a nursery practitioner or a teaching assistant, which I know I would have loved, but they just did not pay enough compared to where I was working already.
Jumping to October 2018, I decided to bite the bullet and apply to do a PGCE with a SCITT approach – I had a couple of interviews which were very nerve wracking (more on them later). In January 2019 I was offered a place at Keele University. Go Me!
My offer, of course, was on condition that I pass the Numeracy and Literacy Skills test at an official test centre. I just wanted to get this out of the way as it was the only thing potentially getting in between my new future career. I put lots of practice into my numeracy skills as I was least confidence with this one, I did very little revision on my literacy. I took both tests on the same day in Birmingham and thankfully! I passed both! Go Me! again.
Since fully securing my place on the course, I have had some info sent through from Keele University about a Welcome meeting and an induction day prior to the course starting on 29th August.
So this is where I am upto so far. I will post more soon about my welcome meeting, and make sure you click to follow my blog to keep an eye out for a post on my induction day which will be on 12th July 2019.
Teaching Mrs Allen 