Your Teacher Training Companion

Essential skills and knowledge for very busy trainees

Jim McGrath, Anthony Coles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781138841963
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317553434
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The second edition of Your Teacher Training Companion is your one-stop-shop for the essential knowledge and skills you need to pass your course with confidence. Guiding you through your time in school and your studies, it will ensure you develop both the practical teaching skills and academic skills required to become a successful teacher.

Written in an accessible, no-nonsense style, it succinctly covers the most important aspects of becoming a teacher, showing you how to balance the competing demands of teaching in school, your course and social life. It is illustrated throughout with the case study of a fellow trainee teacher, focusing on developing best practice and ways in which you can pass on key skills to your learners.

• Essential topics covered include:
• classroom management
• effective lesson planning
• teaching methods
• learning theory
• assessment and feedback
• delivering a highly successful lesson
• making time and space for your studies
• improving your writing skills
• writing assignments and building your teaching portfolio
• planning and delivering an effective presentation

Designed for the very busy trainee on all routes to qualified teacher status, Your Teacher Training Companion, 2ed offers you the essential knowledge and skills you need to get the most out of your time with pupils, improve your study skills, successfully achieve qualified teacher statues and manage your early career as an NQT.

Part I

Managing your placement

There are two crucial and complementary components of any teacher training course. One is the academic skills and knowledge that is delivered by universities and the other is practical experience of teaching.

This practical experience is obtained by placing each trainee in a suitable school or college where they will be given the opportunity to teach and join in the wider work of the organisation. This is essential if the trainee is going to be able to provide evidence that they have archived all the standards required for the award of QTS or qualified teacher learning and skills (QTLS).

When taking on a trainee teacher the vast majority of schools and colleges recognise the need to provide every trainee with the support and guidance they need to achieve qualification. This task usually falls to staff who have undergone mentor training. These mentors understand that to become a successful teacher the trainee must be supported, encouraged and challenged in equal measure.

How much you learn from your placement is largely down to you. You have to take responsibility and manage your placement. It’s up to you to immerse yourself in school/college life and wring from that experience every bit of learning and understanding that you can. Don’t be a ‘strategic learner’ content just to do enough work to claim the QTS/QTLS standards. Go beyond that and immerse yourself in the life of the school/college. You will learn more, develop faster as a teacher and, who knows, may be offered a job at the end of your placement.

This section provides an insight into what you can expect on your placement and offers advice on how to manage your placement and get the most out of it and your mentor.

Tutorial 1 What you need to know to survive your placement

Aim of tutorial: To help you understand the priorities of your school/college and settle in quickly.

Tutorial overview: This tutorial identifies the importance of asking questions when on placement, the need to familiarise yourself with the aims and objectives of the school/college and where you can find essential documentation when you need it. In addition it offers advice on how not to alienate colleagues.

Contents

1.1 Alex’s reflection

1.2 Don’t be afraid to ask questions or say ‘I don’t know’

1.3 School targets and budgets

1.4 School management and how to avoid alienating people

1.5 Alex’s reflection

1.6 School structure

1.7 School policies and procedures

1.8 Alex’s reflection

1.9 Record of mentor meeting

Figure 1.1 Understanding your journey from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence

Handout 1.1 Mentor and trainee roles and responsibilities

Further reading

1.1 Alex’s reflection

Well, here I am all grown up and facing my first day at school – again. I have to say I feel more nervous now than when I was five years old and attending St Augustine’s Junior and Infant School for the very first time. Still, what can they do to me? Sack me? Actually, they could. Or, to be more precise, they could terminate my placement. Which amounts to the same thing. I really hope that I don’t make a pig’s ear of it!

I was able to visit my placement last week and have a chat with my mentor, Jane Gray. She seemed friendly enough. She’s been teaching for six years and is already head of department. She’s doing an M.Ed. at the university.

The school is on the border of Gotham and Metropolis, so the kids come from a wide range of backgrounds. Some are from the leafy suburbs and their parents are earning £100 grand plus, while other parents have never had a job in their life. It’s going to be a challenge.

Jane said that during the first week I would just be shadowing her and that if all went to plan I could do a bit of team teaching with her in week 2. Depending on how that goes I can start to take some small classes of my own from week 3 or 4. So I’m not being thrown in at the deep end.

She also insisted that I must ask if I don’t understand something. She doesn’t expect me to know all the answers or to be the world’s best teacher, but she does expect me to ask questions if I have any doubts about what I am doing or have been asked to do.

1.2 Don’t be afraid to ask questions or say ‘I don’t know’

As agreed, I found Jane in her cubby-hole of an office after assembly. She pointed me in the direction of the kettle and I made us both a cup of coffee before we started.

‘So, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest, how nervous are you about starting your placement?’ she asked.

‘Eleven,’ I replied.

‘Well, at least you’re honest,’ she said laughing. ‘I remember my first day – I was petrified. It took a full week for me to relax.’

‘Only a week?’ I said, surprised.

‘Less, actually. I started to relax once I realised that no one expected me to know all the answers. That was very liberating.’

‘I know you said I should ask questions if I didn’t understand something, but what about in the classroom. Won’t the learners expect me to know all the answers?’

‘Surprisingly, no. They are perfectly happy if you say “I don’t know. But I’ll find out”. What they don’t like is if you try to fob them off with an incorrect or partial answer. They can smell farmyard manure at a thousand metres. So always be open with them. They’ll respect you for it.’

I nodded in agreement and waited for her to continue.

‘The same openness needs to be used with your colleagues. They know you are a trainee struggling to find your feet. They will be only too happy to answer your questions, so use them. Like all trainee teachers you are currently unconsciously incompetent, soon you’ll become consciously incompetent, later you will become consciously competent, and by the end of your training you will be unconsciously competent.’ (See Figure 1.1.)

‘I hope so,’ I said uncertainly.

1.3 School targets and budgets

‘Have you had any work experience?’

‘Yes, but nothing really relevant to teaching. I worked on the market on a Saturday when I was at school, and at college I had a part-time job at a call centre. I hated it. After that I worked in an office for a few years before applying for teacher training.’

‘I imagine a call centre can be tough. But it could prove very useful to you. You have been exposed to line management and the need to meet targets. If you are to understand what is going on in a school you have to have some idea of how the school operates. So, before you sit in on your first lesson I want to talk a little bit about the importance of meeting the school’s targets.’

‘OK,’ I said, not at all sure where Jane was going with this.

‘Schools and colleges are increasingly judged on how well they perform against a range of targets and objectives that have been set by the government. For example, secondary schools are largely judged on how many learners gain five GCSEs, including maths and English, and primary schools on their SAT results. This means that schools and teachers are under enormous pressure to achieve their particular target. Similarly, all schools and colleges are concerned with how well they do in Ofsted inspections.’

‘Because Ofsted reports are public documents and can be used by parents and students when deciding the best place to send their children or study.’

‘Exactly. A poor report can cause many problems for a school or college. In theory, schools and colleges don’t have to follow Ofsted’s recommendations/advice, but it is a high-risk strategy. Many a head has lost their job after their school was placed in special measures following inspection. Heads can go it alone, but to survive they have to be successful in terms of exam results and student/parent satisfaction. Otherwise they are very exposed.’

‘So what are this school’s key targets and objectives?’

‘Like most schools, we are obsessed with our place in the league tables, so test results dominate our thinking. Any teacher who can improve the school’s test results is likely to go far.’

‘Does that mean that we are only interested in teaching learners how to do well in SATs and exams?’

‘I wouldn’t say that. It’s possible to give learners an education and show them how to pass exams and tests. It’s a balance. As you just said if our test results are poor, parents may send their children to another school and we will end up with fewer strong learners and worse results. This spiral of decline can make it difficult to attract good teachers and, before you know it, the school is in special measures or closed – which definitely doesn’t help the local kids.’

‘And what other targets and objectives do I need to look out for?’

‘Take a look at the school’s annual action plan and budget. The action plan lists all the things that the senior management team wants to achieve in the coming year and usually names the person responsible for making each action happen. Many of the items listed will have come from or been inspired by the school’s latest self-evaluation form (SEF) or Ofsted report. Some schools and all colleges will also have a strategic plan, which is concerned with targets and objectives for the next three years.’

‘Do all staff get a copy of the annual action plan?’

‘So...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Brief Contents
• Contents
• Figures
• Handouts
• About The Authors
• Whom is this book for?
• How to get the most out of this book
• This book is different from any textbook you've ever read before What you can expect to find in this book
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Managing your placement
• Tutorial 1 What you need to know to survive your placement
• Tutorial 2 What you need to know about classroom management
• Tutorial 3 What you need to know about effective lesson planning
• Tutorial 4 What you need to know about teaching methods
• Tutorial 5 What you need to know about learning theory
• Tutorial 6 What you need to know about assessment and feedback
• Tutorial 7 How to deliver a highly successful lesson
• Part II Managing your studies
• Tutorial 8 How to make time and space for your studies
• Tutorial 9 How to find and read the literature you need
• Tutorial 10 How to improve your writing skills
• Tutorial 11 How to write your assignments
• Tutorial 12 How to build your teaching portfolio
• Tutorial 13 How to plan and deliver an effective presentation
• Tutorial 14 How to find your first job
• Glossary of terms
• Bibliography
• Index