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

Turquoise Lagoon

Mia A wrote: »

Hi, I've found a school that will take me for placement; do I need to get the principal to write a letter confirming this so I can send it to the college

I have been trying to find this out as well. I have a verbal agreement with a principal but I don't know whether I inform the college about the school and they confirm it. Or if I should go ahead and ask the principal to write a letter acknowledging it.

I know I'm probably fussing over nothing but I just like to be organised

Newbie teach

Hello! I'm also doing the PME in UCD. I just filled out the subject form, scanned it and sent it by email. Think that's what you're supposed to do. I've been accepted into a school for teaching practice but still have a load of questions. I was told I'll be teaching from day one. Just wondering how are you supposed to prepare for classes.. I've no teaching experience so don't really know what I'm getting myself in for! I'm starting in the school a week before we even start college in September. Help!

Sara3305

Newbie teach wrote: »

Hello! I'm also doing the PME in UCD. I just filled out the subject form, scanned it and sent it by email. Think that's what you're supposed to do. I've been accepted into a school for teaching practice but still have a load of questions. I was told I'll be teaching from day one. Just wondering how are you supposed to prepare for classes.. I've no teaching experience so don't really know what I'm getting myself in for! I'm starting in the school a week before we even start college in September. Help!

hi!
what are your subjects?
When you got accepted for placement did you have to negotiate your hours or did they just tell you what you'd be doing?
teaching from day one sounds terrifying! kind of defeats the point of needing a masters if we're supposed to be capable before we even start?!
Does the schools classes actually start before we start in the college? I'm supposed to be away the last week of August so I'll have to change flights if I've to start then!

spurious

Sara3305 wrote: »

hi!
what are your subjects?
When you got accepted for placement did you have to negotiate your hours or did they just tell you what you'd be doing?
teaching from day one sounds terrifying! kind of defeats the point of needing a masters if we're supposed to be capable before we even start?!
Does the schools classes actually start before we start in the college? I'm supposed to be away the last week of August so I'll have to change flights if I've to start then!

Schools will mostly be back August 25th or so - some maybe even the previous week.

ledgebag1

spurious wrote: »

Schools will mostly be back August 25th or so - some maybe even the previous week.

classes wont start until September. You will shadow a teacher for the first few weeks in any school, they wont let you take or teach a class until you are familiar with the setting, curriculum and having a little teaching knowledge under your belt.

spurious

ledgebag1 wrote: »

classes wont start until September. You will shadow a teacher for the first few weeks in any school, they wont let you take or teach a class until you are familiar with the setting, curriculum and having a little teaching knowledge under your belt.

Classes will definitely start in August. The student teachers may not have to take them, but we've been teaching in August for years now.

ledgebag1

Yeah I meant for the student teacher, but thanks for clearing that up

Corkgirl18

ledgebag1 wrote: »

classes wont start until September. You will shadow a teacher for the first few weeks in any school, they wont let you take or teach a class until you are familiar with the setting, curriculum and having a little teaching knowledge under your belt.

The PDE people will be starting classes from the first day back in August but PME's may be different.

ledgebag1

Corkgirl18 wrote: »

The PDE people will be starting classes from the first day back in August but PME's may be different.

Definitely different from the PME in DCU from the info I have received so far, I might add

Sara3305

Sorry I'm confused, are people saying that student teachers are likely to be starting in the schools (not necessarily teaching but there nonetheless) the last week of August, the week before that, or the first week of September?

Newbie teach

Sara3305,
My subjects are history and geography, yours? I was told by my school that I'd have my own first year history and geography class from day one. And I'm starting 25th of August. I was told that it totally depends on the school when they want you to start. I don't think I'll be shadowing a teacher (why I'm so nervous! I haven't the first idea) but each school is different I suppose. I haven't fully sorted out how many hours I'm teaching a week yet, I have to go back into the school at end of May to meet teachers and that so I'm hoping to find out a lot more after that!

Sara3305

Newbie teach wrote: »

Sara3305,
My subjects are history and geography, yours? I was told by my school that I'd have my own first year history and geography class from day one. And I'm starting 25th of August. I was told that it totally depends on the school when they want you to start. I don't think I'll be shadowing a teacher (why I'm so nervous! I haven't the first idea) but each school is different I suppose. I haven't fully sorted out how many hours I'm teaching a week yet, I have to go back into the school at end of May to meet teachers and that so I'm hoping to find out a lot more after that!

mine are classics and religion. I haven't got my placement sorted yet, I've booked a couple of days off work next week to go around the schools. is that what you did? Or did you call/email?

Newbie teach

Sara3305 wrote: »

mine are classics and religion. I haven't got my placement sorted yet, I've booked a couple of days off work next week to go around the schools. is that what you did? Or did you call/email?

I started off my ringing a few schools and they all just told me to email in my cv and cover letter. Luckily I wasn't waiting too long for a reply. I was called in for an informal interview and was pretty much accepted there and then. You'll deform get somewhere so don't worry too much. It wouldn't be any harm calling around a few schools in person I'd say. Did you get the list of schools they sent out?

tippy25

Anybody doing the dip in DCU in Sept got any idea how it's going to work RE starting placement. DO we start from the off or do we have any microteaching etc to do first?

Also anybody who has done the DCU dip, what's the standard of inspections like? are they strict/thorough? I see from the email we got a while back that they only expect us to teach 1-2 classes per week in semester one? not exactly asking a lot are they?

TheBody

tippy25 wrote: »

Anybody doing the dip in DCU in Sept got any idea how it's going to work RE starting placement. DO we start from the off or do we have any microteaching etc to do first?

Also anybody who has done the DCU dip, what's the standard of inspections like? are they strict/thorough? I see from the email we got a while back that they only expect us to teach 1-2 classes per week in semester one? not exactly asking a lot are they?

They inspectors don't seem to be consistent at all. Some inspectors didn't care about the lessons plans, others went throught them with a fine tooth comb. Some were really pedantic about the most minor thing, others didn't look for a whole lot.

tippy25

doesnt sound too encouraging, thanks for the heads up? could the same be said for other dip courses though?

JFitzgerald

tippy25 wrote: »

doesnt sound too encouraging, thanks for the heads up? could the same be said for other dip courses though?

I'm just finishing up this year's dip at UCC. There were an absolutely vast amount of inconsistencies across the board at UCC.
Some tutors were very demanding about things such as lesson plans, reading the literature (as if we had time) and schemes. My tutor, while very nice, had us doing lesson plans that were impossibly wordy, essays really, which had to incorporate the literature from books on teaching as well as all the theory for every single part of the lesson. My lesson plans had to be detailed down to the point of writing ridiculous things such as "students will take out their pens and copybooks", sometimes running to 6 pages and taking me up to 2 hours to write each one. It was insane, massively time consuming and really upset and stressed me out. I think my tutor really lost the run of himself. Yet my friend had a different tutor who was happy with a nice little handy grid layout of a lesson plan that was only 2 pages, which had no theory or literature and which took her only 15 minutes write up. I was fuming when I realised what our tutor had us doing, which seemed so unnecessary and time-consuming.
The inspections were also extremely inconsistent. One of my friends just had an external inspection and the 2 inspectors spent over 90 minutes going through her teaching practice folder page by page, word by word, letter by letter, full stop by full stop. Yet, another had an inspection where they barely glanced at her folder.
Back in January, I had the same crossover inspector as my friend. the inspector picked up on the sheer length and intricacy of my lesson plans and asked me "is all this your idea?" and i said "no, our tutor makes us do all this and it's doing my head in because they're taking me hours each night" and then she said nothing. She clearly thought they were too long but wasn't going to go against my tutor. My friend who was doing much shorter two-page lesson plans got better and more positive feedback than i did. i was left scratching my head wondering why i was up till all hours each night writing essay-length lesson plans.
A tough year - glad it's over. I feel like I've just been released from prison.

Sara3305

Newbie teach wrote: »

I started off my ringing a few schools and they all just told me to email in my cv and cover letter. Luckily I wasn't waiting too long for a reply. I was called in for an informal interview and was pretty much accepted there and then. You'll deform get somewhere so don't worry too much. It wouldn't be any harm calling around a few schools in person I'd say. Did you get the list of schools they sent out?

yeah I did! I posted a letter and cv to the schools that teach my subjects. so far I've only heard from one of them and it was a no gonna give it til Monday then maybe phone them - I don't want to pester them but I'm afraid of leaving it too late as well!

gavwaldo

JFitzgerald wrote: »

I'm just finishing up this year's dip at UCC. There were an absolutely vast amount of inconsistencies across the board at UCC.
Some tutors were very demanding about things such as lesson plans, reading the literature (as if we had time) and schemes. My tutor, while very nice, had us doing lesson plans that were impossibly wordy, essays really, which had to incorporate the literature from books on teaching as well as all the theory for every single part of the lesson. My lesson plans had to be detailed down to the point of writing ridiculous things such as "students will take out their pens and copybooks", sometimes running to 6 pages and taking me up to 2 hours to write each one. It was insane, massively time consuming and really upset and stressed me out. I think my tutor really lost the run of himself. Yet my friend had a different tutor who was happy with a nice little handy grid layout of a lesson plan that was only 2 pages, which had no theory or literature and which took her only 15 minutes write up. I was fuming when I realised what our tutor had us doing, which seemed so unnecessary and time-consuming.
The inspections were also extremely inconsistent. One of my friends just had an external inspection and the 2 inspectors spent over 90 minutes going through her teaching practice folder page by page, word by word, letter by letter, full stop by full stop. Yet, another had an inspection where they barely glanced at her folder.
Back in January, I had the same crossover inspector as my friend. the inspector picked up on the sheer length and intricacy of my lesson plans and asked me "is all this your idea?" and i said "no, our tutor makes us do all this and it's doing my head in because they're taking me hours each night" and then she said nothing. She clearly thought they were too long but wasn't going to go against my tutor. My friend who was doing much shorter two-page lesson plans got better and more positive feedback than i did. i was left scratching my head wondering why i was up till all hours each night writing essay-length lesson plans.
A tough year - glad it's over. I feel like I've just been released from prison.

ah jaysus, there's no need for all that padantatic pat stuff, my tutor (lovely history tutor) was more like your buddies and even gave us a 5 step plan of teaching that we should use till christmas till we were more confident and could start freestyling. still go back to the 5 point plan when i feel like i need a bit of rebooting. what module was your guy lecturing? feck sake it's the worst year of your like as it is without all the pointless falaffle

JFitzgerald

gavwaldo wrote: »

ah jaysus, there's no need for all that padantatic pat stuff, my tutor (lovely history tutor) was more like your buddies and even gave us a 5 step plan of teaching that we should use till christmas till we were more confident and could start freestyling. still go back to the 5 point plan when i feel like i need a bit of rebooting. what module was your guy lecturing? feck sake it's the worst year of your like as it is without all the pointless falaffle

He tutored but he didn't do any lectures. Just to reiterate - he was really nice but he just would not listen when some of us said that we felt the lesson plans were too involved. one of the other students who argued most with him in our tutorial ended up getting an external inspection and in hindsight i think these two things were linked. I thought about making a formal complaint but i let it go. just as well, as it turned out. if you are at UCC this year, you may have heard about another tutorial group who complained about their tutor and 5 out of the 7 in that group then wound up with externals.

Sara3305

gavwaldo wrote: »

my tutor (lovely history tutor) was more like your buddies and even gave us a 5 step plan of teaching that we should use till christmas till we were more confident and could start freestyling. still go back to the 5 point plan when i feel like i need a bit of rebooting.

would you mind sharing the 5 point plan? I'm starting in September but will start teaching before college begins so as you can imagine I'm pretty terrified! it would be a massive help!

donaghcl

Hi I received a second round offer for the PME in UCD on Friday and I am anxious I am a month later than everyone else applying to schools for placement. Does anyone have the list of recommended schools from UCD as I am afraid I will be away on holidays when the letter comes in the post.

ledgebag1

anybody else get information on lecture times from DCU today?

Chopper12

ledgebag1 wrote: »

anybody else get information on lecture times from DCU today?

Yes I got the email to, 4 to 7 on Tuesday and Wednesday with the odd Thursday.

They never mentioned that they were thinking of changing the hours so I hope this does not affect my placement.

It would also be nice to have a timetable for the year.

Does anyone know what weeks there are no lectures?

Chopper12

tippy25 wrote: »

Anybody doing the dip in DCU in Sept got any idea how it's going to work RE starting placement. DO we start from the off or do we have any microteaching etc to do first?

Also anybody who has done the DCU dip, what's the standard of inspections like? are they strict/thorough? I see from the email we got a while back that they only expect us to teach 1-2 classes per week in semester one? not exactly asking a lot are they?

I think I got that email but I don't remember the bit about them only expecting us to teach 1-2 classes per week in semester one.

The placement form states the following:

"The placement must be spread equally across all semesters of the PME programme i.e.
minimum of 4 hours teaching per week plus additional hours for observation planning
etc".

Can you clarify this? I think I have six classes a week.

ledgebag1

yeah they sent out another email about 1-2 classes per week in semester one? Last month or just before it.

The changing of the lecture hours seems like a simple enough thing, but when you are working it is a disaster? I hope they considered that when deciding to change it. Even though their website still says lectures 5-8.

Chopper12

ledgebag1 wrote: »

yeah they sent out another email about 1-2 classes per week in semester one? Last month or just before it.

The changing of the lecture hours seems like a simple enough thing, but when you are working it is a disaster? I hope they considered that when deciding to change it. Even though their website still says lectures 5-8.

Ya it is not suitable if you are working and doing your placement outside of Dublin.

I will try and find that email but I have already organised the six classes per week so cannot really go back and as the school to change it.

They are very unorganised.

I would also be good to know when we are supposed to start the placement. I assume the school expects you straight away?

DylanII

Chopper12 wrote: »

Ya it is not suitable if you are working and doing your placement outside of Dublin.

I will try and find that email but I have already organised the six classes per week so cannot really go back and as the school to change it.

They are very unorganised.

I would also be good to know when we are supposed to start the placement. I assume the school expects you straight away?

They said its between us and the school as to when we start our placement... I havnt really had any contact with my school since they agreed to take me on.

Has anyone else?

Dr Crippen

Mine rang me last week, they have been great really.checking to see when the course starts etc

This adjustment of lecture times is terrible considering the organisation that goes into getting time off work. A huge setback really for people in that position

ImOnTheDart

If anyone is still looking for placement, CBS Westland Row are looking for maths teachers.