@abbxee_
3rd year trainee
Nottingham Trent university
Primary education
5-11 strand
Best bits of training
Always the placement during the year! Placement provides you with a hands on approach to learning about being a class teacher and the different teaching approaches and behaviour management strategies. Seminars and lectures are helpful but being on placement, in the classroom, experimenting with new lessons is where I feel like I develop the most! You can refine your own teaching style and put ideas and theories into practice.
Challenges
Travelling and time management. Depending on your provider, you could be placed in schools up to 90 minutes away from your term-time address. During my first placement I was placed over an hours drive away and did, at times, struggle as it added at least 2 hours onto my day. To overcome this stress, I think it’s important to be honest with your mentor and explain your situation to enable clarity and a better understanding. I think it’s also important that if you are placed far away you use your time effectively to make up for lost time travelling, eg have a daily to do list or brain dump and make the most of your allocated PPA time. On time management, I think it’s easy to spend all hours of the day working on assignments, planning and evidencing TS however you MUST have time for yourself. This is only something I’m learning to do now. However strategies to ensure a good balance of work and self-care is blocking out time in your diary eg booking onto a gym class so you definitely know you’re busy and will be away from studies.
Advice
Before your training try and get as much experience as you can volunteering or working with children to provide you with a head start when you begin placements. This time forming connections and gaining experience is invaluable. During studies stick to the 15 minute rule. If you can do a job or task in 15 minutes do it there and then and don’t put it off. This stops your to do list getting huge and stress piling up. If you can do it in 15 minutes, do it straight away after being given it or being set, eg replying to an email or reading a briefing. This also helps you to build boundaries and use your time more wisely. ❤️
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