What did you think of the PGDE year?

Dionysus · 16-07-2010 04:15PM #1

Just thought I'd get all your views now, after the year is over.

For years before I had heard how stressful it was, and I knew at least one person well who went through a terribly stressful time during it.

However, I found it to be far less stressful than all the stories. Admittedly if my supervisor had asked me for my lesson plan on one of the occasions when I hadn't got one, or asked to view my incomplete number of lesson plans, my entire view of the year would almost certainly be very different. Fortunately for me, they didn't and I found it to overall be a productive year. I can easily see how a bad supervisor could have made my year terrible and I sympathise with any of us who ended up in that position.

Was it as bad, worse or better than you had expected in terms of stress and so forth?

Also, what did you think of the university aspect of the PGDE, the quality of lecturers, the relevancy of the lectures and so on?

In UCD I thought the teacher quality was very good with one exception, who I can't mention again on this board (ahem!) The subject methodology classes could have been much more helpful and interesting.

Anyway, onwards we all go!

Miss Lockhart · 16-07-2010 06:16PM

I thought that people had greatly exagerated how bad the year is.

I found it fine and even enjoyable at times. Academically it was not difficult. There was a constant workload from Christmas onwards in terms of assignmets, but nothing unmanageable. I would say it was "easier" (in terms of difficulty, workload, stress etc) than my degree.

Teaching Practice was grand really. My supervisor had poor people skills in that she was very short with people and at times seemed rude. However, she was very fair and offered good advice and I found her generally supportive and realistic. I had already taught in this school for 2 years and knew most of my classes so that probably helped a lot.

I didn't find the year particularly stressful - just busy.

I thought the lecturers in NUIM were mostly fine. One was pretty bad. I also thought the subject methodology lectures could have been much better. Also, I think subjects such as SEN and Classroom Management should have been changed to a workshop type setup rather than lectures, once we had covered the basics. For me, the greatest waste of time was having to produce a 10 minute video of my progression in teaching, as most of the time was spent working on technical aspects rather than learning from the footage - and it was worth almost nothing despite the amount of time and effort required.

Rosita · 16-07-2010 07:21PM

Dionysus wrote: »

I found it to be far less stressful than all the stories. Admittedly if my supervisor had asked me for my lesson plan on one of the occasions when I hadn't got one, or asked to view my incomplete number of lesson plans, my entire view of the year would almost certainly be very different. Fortunately for me, they didn't and I found it to overall be a productive year. I can easily see how a bad supervisor could have made my year terrible and I sympathise with any of us who ended up in that position.

I would agree entirely with this especially the less than complete lesson plan collection which fortuneately was never inspected! Also thankful to have a lovely supervisor.

The year was much less stressful than I had been led to believe but I suppose stress is a subjective thing. The classroom is not a pleasant place if you are stressed out I would think.

tangerinepuppet · 16-07-2010 07:59PM

I thought the year in UCD was fine, but like most people I had heard awful things about it and went in with the benefit of low expectations. It could only get better.

I really enjoyed Educational Psychology and English Methods but I dreaded the methodology lectures for my second subject. A lot of the teaching, including tutorials, could have been better organised. The Man With No Name could definitely have been more professional and less patronising, but IMO John Fahy and Bernard McGettrick made up for all the tact and knowledge he lacked.

I loved my school. The students I taught and the co-operating teachers I worked with were great. My supervisor had high standards and I valued all the advice she gave me. I had much more respect for her than for my tutor. Teaching was definitely the highlight of the whole experience for me.

The positive aspects outweighed the negative for me. (60/40 I'd say!)

Lord TSC · 17-07-2010 11:31AM

For me, the greatest waste of time was having to produce a 10 minute video of my progression in teaching, as most of the time was spent working on technical aspects rather than learning from the footage - and it was worth almost nothing despite the amount of time and effort required.

RAGE!

That bloody Diviate project still gives me nightmares. My biggest annoyance was, as you said, the fact you had to spend so much time on the technical aspect of the project. When my team met, I found the recordings were actually a good idea since you got feedback and critiques from people. But having to turn it into a DVD was horrible and added so much stress at a time when we were already so busy.

Overall I didn't find the course too stressful. There was a lot of work but I enjoy essay writing and research, so I didn't mind that. It could have been a bit more spread out, mind; I felt we didn't do much pre-Xmas and then suddenly had 5 or 6 assignments all due the same time. For the most part, the lecturers were fine (with the exception of one dreadful one who, if we taught the way she did, we would have been failed on the spot). I also felt at times as if we were being told to teach in one way while watching our lecturers teach in another, making me feel like they were being very hypocritical sometimes. And don't even get me started on the attendence issues.

(EDIT: Also, we did some classes which, while fun, were pointless to becoming a teacher in the long term, while our methodologies could have done with a lot more time, as well as some dedicated to actually going over the stuff we would have to teach, as opposed to just some fun games to play while teaching. I had to rely heavily on the teachers in my school to inform me of what we would be teaching).

Really, I've got to admit that my overall feelings of my time in Maynooth this year had more negatives than positives. What saved the year for me was the fact I was in a very nice school who couldn't have helped me more, and with the exception of a handful of students, they classes were amazing to teach.

Shame I'm probably going to be unemployed for the forseeable future though

sitstill · 17-07-2010 12:18PM

tangerinepuppet wrote: »

I
I really enjoyed Educational Psychology and English Methods but I dreaded the methodology lectures for my second subject. A lot of the teaching, including tutorials, could have been better organised. The Man With No Name could definitely have been more professional and less patronising, but IMO John Fahy and Bernard McGettrick made up for all the tact and knowledge he lacked.

It's a few years since I did my HDip in UCD but I largely agree with this comment. I think English Methods was definitely my favourite. Can I just ask though, "the man with no name" - does he have the initials C and G? :-)

tangerinepuppet · 17-07-2010 01:06PM

sitstill wrote: »

It's a few years since I did my HDip in UCD but I largely agree with this comment. I think English Methods was definitely my favourite. Can I just ask though, "the man with no name" - does he have the initials C and G? :-)

Yeah ... I think we've been through this before? He was also known as The Man Who Counted Down on His Fingers to Make us all Shut Up. :P

sitstill · 17-07-2010 01:41PM

tangerinepuppet wrote: »

Yeah ... I think we've been through this before? He was also known as The Man Who Counted Down on His Fingers to Make us all Shut Up. :P

Oh I must not have seen that thread. But yes, I remember him well. It's funny that he obviously never changes his style.

maynooth_rules · 17-07-2010 07:44PM

Detested it if I am being completely honest. Did it in UCD and feel that my supervisor was completely unfair to me. Example of this was when she said the only reason that I had conducted such a good class was because there was so few students there. 15 of the 23 students were in the class so you can imagine how it felt to be told that afterwards. My tutor was a very old women who was simply out of touch completly with present day class situations. She was no help whatsoever. While most of the lectures were useful, I have to say that I felt spending time learning about the History of Education was a little pointless and of no use to you in the classroom. Detested the Psychology of Education lectures too. Enjoyed my school and had 2 lovely teachers that were there always to help me. Unlike the OP I found it extremly stressful. Most days I would completly wrecked from travelling and teachers by the time I had got to my 2 o clock lectures. I was simply too tired to concentrate in many of my lectures.

tangerinepuppet · 17-07-2010 08:00PM

maynooth_rules wrote: »

Did it in UCD and feel that my supervisor was completely unfair to me. Example of this was when she said the only reason that I had conducted such a good class was because there was so few students there. 15 of the 23 students were in the class so you can imagine how it felt to be told that afterwards.

I heard that story this year too so things like that are still happening. I really feel for people who weren't lucky enough to get understanding supervisors. I hope it didn't have too much of an impact on your grade. The fact that one fallible person decides the mark students get for 35 out of 60 credits has to be the most unfair thing about the PGDE in UCD.

spurious · 17-07-2010 08:38PM

Sometimes I'd love if some of these supervisors would like to come and deal with, oh let's say about eight of my clients. Let's see how easy they find it then when there's 'only a few' in the class.

Considering most schools make sure to give PGDE people fairly OK classes, behaviour-wise, I don't know if some of these supervisors have any clue what really goes on in some classes.

Toto Wolfcastle · 17-07-2010 11:34PM

I didn't particularly enjoy it. The stand out moment for me was when I realised that my supervisor didn't actually have much Irish despite the fact that I was teaching all my classes through Irish. :rolleyes:

Jane98 · 21-07-2010 09:55PM

Anyone aware of any feedback on the UCC course. I'm starting this in September and am starting to get anxious about the possible workload involved.

What did you think of the PGDE year?

Was the PGDE year as bad as you had thought? 9 votes

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