All Primary / Secondary Masters Courses - Post Q's Here Please

UnLuckyAgain

I haven't done any lesson plans - wouldn't know where to start! I've just been going over the curriculum and learning my subjects etc!

mr_october

katg27 wrote: »

just sent them a list of the books the school gave me..had to contact four different publishers via e-mail or you could ring them if you want. All contact details are up on their websites! save a few pennies anyway seems we'll all be skint students soon

Hey, I emailed the publishers on Friday morning with a list but they haven't yet gotten back to me! Did they contact you to confirm receipt of your order before dispatching it? And did they send the books to your personal address or to the school? Cheers!

electoralshock

UnLuckyAgain wrote: »

I haven't done any lesson plans - wouldn't know where to start! I've just been going over the curriculum and learning my subjects etc!

same as, having knowledge of the curriculum is important and lessons plans can be easily made then!

miralheti

Hi there,
I am doing a PGDE in TCD and need 6 to 8 hours teaching I believe. I have been offered 7 classes teaching Eng and History to first years. English is my main subject as I did not retain history up till third year. This amt of hours is short of the 6 required hours (classes are 40 mins) I was wondering will this be a problem for TCD and also is there a minimum requirement of teaching hours for the teaching council. I will also be doing a module ( aweekly double class) with a transition year group but I am told that as it is not specifically English or History this wont count?
Thanks for your advice.

UnLuckyAgain

miralheti wrote: »

Hi there,
I am doing a PGDE in TCD and need 6 to 8 hours teaching I believe. I have been offered 7 classes teaching Eng and History to first years. English is my main subject as I did not retain history up till third year. This amt of hours is short of the 6 required hours (classes are 40 mins) I was wondering will this be a problem for TCD and also is there a minimum requirement of teaching hours for the teaching council. I will also be doing a module ( aweekly double class) with a transition year group but I am told that as it is not specifically English or History this wont count?
Thanks for your advice.

The TC requirement for PGDE students is 4.5 hours, so you're covered there. I would double check with TCD though as to whether or not they are strict about their requirements. They may ask you to find a new school if the school are not in a position to fulfil your needs!

katg27

mr_october wrote: »

Hey, I emailed the publishers on Friday morning with a list but they haven't yet gotten back to me! Did they contact you to confirm receipt of your order before dispatching it? And did they send the books to your personal address or to the school? Cheers!

hi i didnt receive any info back from the publishers the books just landed at my home address a few days later, once you have the school role number it should be fine, my school told me i could get all the exam papers aswell but didnt get any of those so got my own but they were only a small expense compared to what the book would have cost:)

katg27

hi all, by looking at the lesson plans and hearing from past PGDE students its impossible to do lesson plans before hand..i was told to keep a diary every day and to complete the lesson plans after each lesson so you dont fall behind! Preparation wise i want to do my lessons by powerpoint so have been getting all my slides ready and looking up additional info and ways to get the kids attention like videos etc..I really dunno what else we could be doing but i'm hoping this will save me time later but who knows!! :)

spurious

katg27 wrote: »

hi all, by looking at the lesson plans and hearing from past PGDE students its impossible to do lesson plans before hand..i was told to keep a diary every day and to complete the lesson plans after each lesson so you dont fall behind! Preparation wise i want to do my lessons by powerpoint so have been getting all my slides ready and looking up additional info and ways to get the kids attention like videos etc..I really dunno what else we could be doing but i'm hoping this will save me time later but who knows!! :)

Do you know the school you will be in has the facilities to manage powerpoint presentations in all rooms?

Familiarise yourself with the school's disciplinary hierarchy and procedures as a priority.

katg27

spurious wrote: »

Do you know the school you will be in has the facilities to manage powerpoint presentations in all rooms?

Familiarise yourself with the school's disciplinary hierarchy and procedures as a priority.

Great thank you discipline is def an area I am a bit worried about! Yeah d school has d facilities but I have my own powerpoint yolk so should be fine!

spurious

katg27 wrote: »

Great thank you discipline is def an area I am a bit worried about! Yeah d school has d facilities but I have my own powerpoint yolk so should be fine!

Even small things like saying 'the deputy head/principal' when everyone in the school says 'Mrs. Murphy' can mark you out as new to the game.

You'll be grand with the discipline though. The kids will want you to set standards/limits - the main mistake people make is failing to adhere to their own rules and forgetting to be consistent.

Make sure they make you aware of any children with special needs.

UnLuckyAgain

katg27 wrote: »

hi all, by looking at the lesson plans and hearing from past PGDE students its impossible to do lesson plans before hand..i was told to keep a diary every day and to complete the lesson plans after each lesson so you dont fall behind! Preparation wise i want to do my lessons by powerpoint so have been getting all my slides ready and looking up additional info and ways to get the kids attention like videos etc..I really dunno what else we could be doing but i'm hoping this will save me time later but who knows!! :)

I've been doing some slides too because my school uses ICT in almost every classroom. I'm really conscious of not putting up purely notes for the students to take down like robots. It's difficult with business studies as there is a lot of definitions and technicalities. I'm trying to incorporate images and videos so as to invite plenty of participation from the class. Hopefully this is the way forward?!

katg27

UnLuckyAgain wrote: »

I've been doing some slides too because my school uses ICT in almost every classroom. I'm really conscious of not putting up purely notes for the students to take down like robots. It's difficult with business studies as there is a lot of definitions and technicalities. I'm trying to incorporate images and videos so as to invite plenty of participation from the class. Hopefully this is the way forward?!

yeah it is difficult trying to spice up the lessons a bit..I feel I'm lucky cause i'm doing science so i can throw in bits and bobs here and there to catch their attention..i am using the slides as a guide rather then notes for them..I am hoping to get them talking and thinking about what we are doing before giving them the notes but that might not work! i guess it will be trial and error! but put anything in that you think will be memorable in the slides and the kids can relate to! well thats what i'm trying yo do anyway :D

katg27

spurious wrote: »

Even small things like saying 'the deputy head/principal' when everyone in the school says 'Mrs. Murphy' can mark you out as new to the game.

You'll be grand with the discipline though. The kids will want you to set standards/limits - the main mistake people make is failing to adhere to their own rules and forgetting to be consistent.

Make sure they make you aware of any children with special needs.

Thank you for the advice. I guess i have to think about how i want to run my classroom and from day 1 make my rules clear and stick to that! Its comforting to hear the kids want you to set the limits!:)

ed3

hi all,
I think working on resources for your lessons is the best way to prepare for teaching practice....do not even attempt to do lesson plans at the moment.
Powerpoints are great but the students get bored half way through the class with them, if you have an interactive board you can link interactive websites into the presentations (thats what i did for a good few lessons). My subjects are Science and Biology and there are a LOT of websites out there that have interactive aspects that the students loved doing in class.

When doing powerpoint always but a "what you need to know after this lesson" slide at the start and a recap slide at the end and very importantly do a summary sheet (print out) for homework with important phrases/definitions that the students need to know and incorporate questions into the sheet for homework. I did this a lot for my 1st and 2nd year Science classes. For my Biology classes we worked through exam papers for homework.

I planned a good bit of group work in my Biology class, I found that students understood processes better when they could explain them in their own words. In particular during Photosynthesis lessons they were allowed to use anything in the class to describe the various stages of photosynthesis and they had to present their ideas in class, it really was great to see what they came up with and then in future lessons i just referred back to so and so using the light bulb or the fire extinguisher to explain something and they got it!!

Science is a great subject to have as you can make it as interesting as you want to....the students loved experiments and for each experiment they nominated Lab Leaders to run the experiments.....this gave the responsibility back to them to ensure they all had the correct equipment etc and also that the place was cleaned up after. This really allowed me to spend time going around ensuring the students understood what was happening in the experiment. Plus the students LOVED being in charge and everyone got an opportunity to do this!

If anyone has any questions about resources or the course (i did it in NUIG) just give a shout...seriously im online everyday job hunting!!!

ED

katg27

ed3 wrote: »

hi all,
I think working on resources for your lessons is the best way to prepare for teaching practice....do not even attempt to do lesson plans at the moment.
Powerpoints are great but the students get bored half way through the class with them, if you have an interactive board you can link interactive websites into the presentations (thats what i did for a good few lessons). My subjects are Science and Biology and there are a LOT of websites out there that have interactive aspects that the students loved doing in class.

When doing powerpoint always but a "what you need to know after this lesson" slide at the start and a recap slide at the end and very importantly do a summary sheet (print out) for homework with important phrases/definitions that the students need to know and incorporate questions into the sheet for homework. I did this a lot for my 1st and 2nd year Science classes. For my Biology classes we worked through exam papers for homework.

I planned a good bit of group work in my Biology class, I found that students understood processes better when they could explain them in their own words. In particular during Photosynthesis lessons they were allowed to use anything in the class to describe the various stages of photosynthesis and they had to present their ideas in class, it really was great to see what they came up with and then in future lessons i just referred back to so and so using the light bulb or the fire extinguisher to explain something and they got it!!

Science is a great subject to have as you can make it as interesting as you want to....the students loved experiments and for each experiment they nominated Lab Leaders to run the experiments.....this gave the responsibility back to them to ensure they all had the correct equipment etc and also that the place was cleaned up after. This really allowed me to spend time going around ensuring the students understood what was happening in the experiment. Plus the students LOVED being in charge and everyone got an opportunity to do this!

If anyone has any questions about resources or the course (i did it in NUIG) just give a shout...seriously im online everyday job hunting!!!

ED

Thanx a million, that is exactly what i am aiming for, i want it to be as interactive as possible and to have a bit of fun with it all!! Have to look up some interactive websites? can you recommend any or is google the way to go?
Love the idea about the experiments, i really want the kids to nearly take control so they are learning as they go! I always loved science in school but was always disappointed when the teacher did the experiments for us and just threw definitions at us! Have my powerpoints done as you suggested, I'm sure they will need some tweaking here and there but i am happy with what i have so far!
How did you find the block release in NUIG, i'm worried because i wont be in the school continuously that it will be hard to implement my rules as theres no consisitency and i'll just get to know the students and i'll be gone again!
Good luck with the job hunting

ed3

google is the way to go for interactive websites....i just hyperlinked them onto the powerpoints then! there are loads and loads of them to be found.

yeah the experiments idea was great, i came from 5 years in industry myself and implemented a lot of the ideas we had there into my class during experiments. The students loved that i called myself a scientist (hahaha i told them stories of my rat killing days!!) and they really got into the experiments then as they felt they were working in a real lab. Always give them the protocol the class before and they have to read it and understand it. Day of experiment 10 mins to go through and answer any questions. Nominations for lab leader and then the experiment begins! Health and Safety was one thing i thought was shocking in the lab and i soon shared stories from work and college about accidents caused due to chatting and messing.

The students were encouraged to come up with a different way to complete the experiment and were also allowed to present ideas for experiments that they believed were relevant to what we were studying in class. This really got them motivated and the competition in the class to get their experiment "accepted, approved and performed" was unreal!!

I really enjoyed Block release in NUIG as we were really able to integrate ourselves into the school and the students could approach you anytime of the day/week if needed. I think the sequential teaching practice is something that i would not have liked to have done, but im sure it will be good in its own right! Perhaps ask the vice principle if you could set up a message forum (blackboard) where you could put up notes or students could contact you out of school if they had questions??

let todays job hunting begin!!!

katg27

Thank you so much for all the tips! I was hoping to bring my lab experience into the classroom aswell, make it exciting and relevant!! i am really looking forward to getting started now!! It'll b here before i know it !! handed in my notice at work today so no going back now!!

cheese_cake

ed3 wrote: »

hi all,
I think working on resources for your lessons is the best way to prepare for teaching practice....do not even attempt to do lesson plans at the moment.
Powerpoints are great but the students get bored half way through the class with them, if you have an interactive board you can link interactive websites into the presentations (thats what i did for a good few lessons). My subjects are Science and Biology and there are a LOT of websites out there that have interactive aspects that the students loved doing in class.

When doing powerpoint always but a "what you need to know after this lesson" slide at the start and a recap slide at the end and very importantly do a summary sheet (print out) for homework with important phrases/definitions that the students need to know and incorporate questions into the sheet for homework. I did this a lot for my 1st and 2nd year Science classes. For my Biology classes we worked through exam papers for homework.

I planned a good bit of group work in my Biology class, I found that students understood processes better when they could explain them in their own words. In particular during Photosynthesis lessons they were allowed to use anything in the class to describe the various stages of photosynthesis and they had to present their ideas in class, it really was great to see what they came up with and then in future lessons i just referred back to so and so using the light bulb or the fire extinguisher to explain something and they got it!!

Science is a great subject to have as you can make it as interesting as you want to....the students loved experiments and for each experiment they nominated Lab Leaders to run the experiments.....this gave the responsibility back to them to ensure they all had the correct equipment etc and also that the place was cleaned up after. This really allowed me to spend time going around ensuring the students understood what was happening in the experiment. Plus the students LOVED being in charge and everyone got an opportunity to do this!

If anyone has any questions about resources or the course (i did it in NUIG) just give a shout...seriously im online everyday job hunting!!!

ED

Hi Ed,
Just wondering if the Education Dept in NUIG have good resources for us to use on TP, my main subject is Geography so I would mean wall charts/maps/posters etc..?? Also when I was teaching English in Hungary for six weeks we had to include warm up activities for the kids at the beginning of each lesson, are we expected to do this on TP? It was used as a means of engaging students but trying to think on Geography warm up activities is a lot harder than for English!!Have started preparing handouts/extra materials for my lessons but apart from that I can't think what else I could be doing, trying to find some good websites to use but none as of yet...!!

miralheti

These Science postings sound so good I wish I was in the classroom doing experiments, I missed out on Science in school. Anyway you sound like a brill teacher Ed3 and your tips are useful even to someone teaching English and History. Cheese cake can you tell me about these warm up exercises for English please? My tip is a book recommendation 'How to be a Successful Secondary Teacher' by Sue Leach which I bought second hand on Amazon UK. It is very practical and it seems like a good starting point. Thanks to everyone for this support. I think the experience of communal effort is always very rewarding! So thanks to whoever oversees this site for their hard work.

ed3

Cheese cake....resources at NUIG are not really that great! we had a resource library on the top floor of the education building however the resources were from previous student and were a collection of books prob dating back from the 80s!! some good dvds though and maybe some posters....have you thought about looking online for resources such as posters....it may be worth investing into printing out posters etc might be handy to start building up a collection

as for the warm up for each lesson......on our lesson plans we had to have an "opening" for each lesson....something to catch their attention before the teaching began so definitely start planning some of them related to topic you will be covering on your TP.

I used a lot of higher order questions to get the students thinking about the topic and also real life situations....like for one DNA Fingerprinting class we talked about CSI and also Jeremy kyle!! the students really got into the topic and we carried out a "who did it" crime scene on the interactive whiteboard (interactive gel electrophoresis) it was a great lesson and thank god one which my supervisor was present for!!

I love this section of boards as well and hung out here a lot this time last year.....I really loved doing the dip and in particular the TP side of things. It is important though to try everything during your TP as this is the time to see what works for you as a teacher. i loved doing group work with the students and always having a leader in the groups. In particular getting the students teaching each other in groups....I loved trying to distract them by talking and interupting them to let them see what it was like for me a teacher with 24 of them allllll talking at the same time....they really started to understand how hard it was to teach even just a small group and had great respect for me in the end even telling fellow classmates to be quite as they were trying to learn stuff!!!


thanks miralheti for the compliment....i just remember how I wanted my science class to be when I was a student and I try to be as interactive and fun as I can and always remember that these students will remember you, well some will, for the rest of your life and i want them to look back on me and have good memories

ok ok ok i could ramble on all day about how brilliant teaching practice was i really hope i get myself a job this sept!

cazhater

RE: Cheese Cake

Are you doing English and Geography by any chance? Sounds to me as though you are! ME too Any idea of the time table? I hear rumors that Geography is on a Saturday- could be wrong though!

katg27

fair play to you ed, you really sound like you have put your heart and soul into your teaching and it will pay off!! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us! It really is great to hear the motivation and the want to be a great teacher..I wish my teachers in school had been like you and hopefully i will be able to put my ideas into practice! I feel like i have so many ideas so am looking forward to seeing how they will work in practice (or if they dont work)
Have been looking at some interactive websites and they are great, definatly great for group work which is the direction i wanted to take! am so excited! did you have any previous teaching experience before you began the course ed??
Oh and does anybody know when the fees need to be paid?? hopin to get the grant but not holding my breath

cheese_cake

Hi guys,
I'm def a fan of this boards craic too, so nice to speak to others out there on the same boat as myself!! Ed3 you're def not rambling on, if anything your helping me and I'm sure the others out loads!!Hopefully the resource library will have some resources worthwhile...where online can you look for posters? Can you recommend any websites, I've been looking but can't come across any as of yet..:o Your ideas are def brilliant, I love the ideas of the higher order questions...!!I'm slightly freaking out about teaching practice, the college/assignments side of things will be ok having done a degree and a Masters but getting up in front of 30 students is a different story!!That's why I want to be as prepared as I possibly can...:) Miralheti, I taught English as a second language in Hungary and I think it's different to English you will be teaching in a school here, when teaching English in the way I was it was all themed lessons/grammar/pronunciation/listening activities etc. The websites I used were mostly EFL/ESL English ones, just google them but I'm not sure they would be suitable for the curriculum here unless maybe your teaching Junior Cert classes grammar. A website I used alot on my teaching practice was http://www.esl-galaxy.com/index.htm even log on and have a look, you never know what ideas you could get from it..!! Cazhater, my subjects are Geography, Economics and Business Studies...Geography is my main subject though....you? Def dont think were in on a Saturday, as far as I know we have 2/3 hours max a day, Monday to Thurs and off Fridays..I heard that from a student from last year, think our handbook is due to be published in July and timetables are given at induction..! Are you doing your teaching practice in Galway? I'm trying to get a school in Donegal to avoid paying rent the weeks we are on teaching practice but I'm having trouble securing a place so I'm a bit worried now I'll have to look in Galway, it's not a problem paying the rent but I think getting a school even in Galway will be tough at this stage...

katg27

cheescake we are all in the same boat and it is so reassuring to hear that others are feeling the same way! I'm not too worried about the college side of things..i know there will be alot of work involved but we've all been to college before so i'm sure we'll be fine but like you said standing infront of a class for the first time is a scary thought but i'm sure the nerves will wear off after the first couple of times as we get into the swing of things.. i hope :D
I hope you get your tp sorted soon...if you are worried i'd get in contact with the galway schools asap, at this stage you might have to go out of the city a bit but you might get lucky! Best of luck with it anyway

ed3

katg27 wrote: »

fair play to you ed, you really sound like you have put your heart and soul into your teaching and it will pay off!! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us! It really is great to hear the motivation and the want to be a great teacher..I wish my teachers in school had been like you and hopefully i will be able to put my ideas into practice! I feel like i have so many ideas so am looking forward to seeing how they will work in practice (or if they dont work)
Have been looking at some interactive websites and they are great, definatly great for group work which is the direction i wanted to take! am so excited! did you have any previous teaching experience before you began the course ed??
Oh and does anybody know when the fees need to be paid?? hopin to get the grant but not holding my breath

thanks
All those ideas you have will really stand to you when you get out teaching! I had no experience teaching before i started, I was a trainer where i used to work so i was used to "teaching" but just one to one. I was actually extremely nervous about the TP side of things however the microteaching assignment at the start of the course really put me at ease. You are within a group that has to teach a group of primary school kids a topic of your (the groups) choice. You each get 7 mins on the topic. Its recorded and played back for critical review!! dont worry its actually grand, the first time we did it i almost fainted and drank nearly a whole bottle of rescue remedy! but it really helped to see what type of teacher you were going to be

Fees are payed in 2 instalments, 1 before end of Oct and the other is in Jan

ed3

cheesecake....have a google search for websites. Try "secondary school geography printable posters" or something along that line. Maybe even have a look in easons or a school book shop for maps and stuff, or better still first week set the students an assignment to create posters for the classroom on glaciers rivers etc etc!

cheesecake....im afraid to say that Geography was on a saturday for us last year. It was over 3 saturdays. We had 2 hours monday, 2 hours tues, 2 hours weds and then thursday we had 4 hours, but then our subject methodologies were added onto that which were around 1/2 hours each a week. It really was a grand timetable but you really need the time in the day to work on assignments, DO NOT LET THEM BUILD UP!!!

A lot of people on the course got B and Bs mon/tues/wed nights for around 20euro a night which was great cause they were close to the college and no commitment to renting for the year. I recommend looking into that before renting anywhere in galway. If you want a school in Donegal, get a list of every secondary school up there and get the phone out and start ringing. I know they give a list of approved schools however there were some people in college last year that still didnt have a school come october and had to take a place in their old school in dublin!!! dont worry about not getting a school, it will all sort itself out.

Ed

CONEO

I have just joined Boards.ie after reading some very informative threads. I am starting the PGDE in NUIG in September.:D My subjects are Business and Accounting. I really want to incorporate active learning and fun stuff into my classes. These subjects are probably a bit harder to have fun with then for example Science or Geography as there is so much theory involved. Does anyone know some good websites that might have ideas for teaching these subjects in particular? Thanks

miralheti

Do we have to print these off the web ourselves or where can we get hard copies? Thanks Cheesecake for website tips.

katg27

ed3
ha ha that defo sounds like how i am gonna be..getting a bit nervous thinking bout it already but i know it'll be fine! You have really helped me out here..I am leaving my job in a hospital lab where i did alot of one on one training to and i loved it so hopefully it'll be even better teaching a class!
Thanx for the info bout the fees!
hows the job hunting going? are you from galway? hope the job situation improves for everyone!!

katg27

CONEO wrote: »

I have just joined Boards.ie after reading some very informative threads. I am starting the PGDE in NUIG in September.:D My subjects are Business and Accounting. I really want to incorporate active learning and fun stuff into my classes. These subjects are probably a bit harder to have fun with then for example Science or Geography as there is so much theory involved. Does anyone know some good websites that might have ideas for teaching these subjects in particular? Thanks

welcome!! am starting in NUIG aswell..will be no help with your business classes but good to get chatting to people heading the same direction as me! Are you from Galway or moving over? I'm from Galway, been living in navan for five years now so have to move back but headin home to the folks so not too bad!!