Secondary Thinking about becoming a teacher

[Hard Ball Get]

It's more the people who make them that. We have 2 grads as team leaders because they are 'yes' people and favourites among the prin and assistant prin.

They also are the ones that get extra time release when there is a CRT floating around. My colleague who works next door (we have an open planned space) had 4 hours of time release over 3 weeks while I got none, yet she has had more time off then I have due to being unwell.

Still think it's a very poor reflection. If a school is ran well, those people are not in those positions.

 

[Breustiful]

Any graduate teachers out there?

In my first year right now. Really enjoying it - a lot of 'out of classtime' work, but we were given a heads up that before starting our careers, so it was expected. Got given Year 12s my first year out, which was a slightly daunting thought at first, but half way through the year I can say I'm glad they did, definitely finding them the most rewarding to teach.

And yet despite this, I don't reckon I'll be a long-term teacher. I'm definitely enjoying it (most days, haha) and it's definitely my plan in the short-medium term; just whether that is 2years, 5years, 15years, remains to be seen. I do have something itching away in the back of my head, something that says I'd like to "challenge myself" a little bit, by instead of teaching about certain things & ideas, actually go out and do them myself at one point. For context, I'm an english and business/commerce qualified teacher (Teaching Year 12 Business Management). I've always enjoyed Creative Writing, and wouldn't mind writing a novel one day. I also wouldn't mind challenging myself in the business world to some extent - probably not opening/running my own business, but something in economics/finance I think I'd probably enjoy. As I said, definitely enjoying teaching - but my gut feel is it won't be a 30-40year thing.

Anyway:
a) Any other graduate teachers out there, how are you going?
b) More experienced teachers, do you remember what your first year teaching was like, and do you ever have any thoughts like this?

Grad here.

Decided to do CRT for this year. Wanted to build up more behaviour management skills and work more on my student-teacher relationships. Landed a contract from Term 3 - 4 at a quite rough school but I'm loving it. The kids had a previous CRT who had just sat at the front and plugged in her headphones, so the kids got an absolute shock when I went into teaching mode!

I'm a English/Humanities teacher also. All my pracs have been in Catholic schools and to walk into a public school where 1/3 of the students in class are not interested, unprepared and just on their phone was a real eye opener. Teaching into your late-mid 60s seems unfeasible nowadays. You'd end up in an early coffin.

Sometimes, I miss my old job (adviser for a few pollies) but this is a much more rewarding career. However, I'm unsure if I could last 30 years doing it.

Hope you're still surviving - only a week after this left!

 

[Angus Young]

Not sure if it has been mentioned on here but a real perk of becoming a teacher is you can go and live anywhere in the world.

I have friends living and working in Asia and South America.

 

[ShanDog]

Finished my bachelor degree mid year as have started the master of teaching (secondary).

For all the budding teachers out there I'll tell ya one thing - studying for five years ****ing sucks. Boring as bat shit and while you can learn a lot and grow as a person by going to uni, the amount of time you see go down the drain by virtue of how drawn out the process is can be depressing.

My master's has some intensive courses starting in November. These will be the first I've done in my tertiary study. I'm keen to see how they go, because if it works well, I'll be really disappointed that you can't do far more of degrees as intensives. You could knock over a whole bloody degree in six months if they ran it like that. Not this five years of shit income and financial struggles.

I'm probably just salty.

 

[Eaglespur]

Finished my bachelor degree mid year as have started the master of teaching (secondary).

For all the budding teachers out there I'll tell ya one thing - studying for five years ******* sucks. Boring as bat shit and while you can learn a lot and grow as a person by going to uni, the amount of time you see go down the drain by virtue of how drawn out the process is can be depressing.

My master's has some intensive courses starting in November. These will be the first I've done in my tertiary study. I'm keen to see how they go, because if it works well, I'll be really disappointed that you can't do far more of degrees as intensives. You could knock over a whole bloody degree in six months if they ran it like that. Not this five years of shit income and financial struggles.

I'm probably just salty.

All about $$$$

 

[ShanDog]

All about $$$$

Would happily pay the same dollars in tuition for a faster program. Uni probably earns a lot through secondary costs by keeping people around a lot longer.

 

[Eaglespur]

Would happily pay the same dollars in tuition for a faster program. Uni probably earns a lot through secondary costs by keeping people around a lot longer.

So would i, say compress it into a more intensive 2 year program

 

[pepsi]

By allowing the course to be condensed into 3 years, you could potentially have 21 year olds teaching. Think a bit of life experience is a good thing going into full time teaching.

 

[ShanDog]

By allowing the course to be condensed into 3 years, you could potentially have 21 year olds teaching. Think a bit of life experience is a good thing going into full time teaching.

That's an entrance issue though, not a study one. As it is, people can do four year teaching courses and be ready to walk back into schools as a teacher at age 22 depending on their birthday. Far from ideal for the vast majority IMHO.

 

[Hard Ball Get]

There are 2 year "masters of teaching" courses which are a complete joke. 90% of people who come out of them aren't anywhere near ready to teach.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Weren't there like 19 or 20 year old teachers at one stage?

 

[Eaglespur]

By allowing the course to be condensed into 3 years, you could potentially have 21 year olds teaching. Think a bit of life experience is a good thing going into full time teaching.

Younger, you crazy east coasters finish later than us. My birthday is in December and we finish high school in WA at 17 (or did just a few years ago) So i was 16 when year 12 school year ended and 17 start of uni. My mrs finished her degree 3 months before she turned 20

 

[Jack Richards]

Wow. Just found out that more than half the classroom jobs at a school I applied for went to 1st year grads.

My wife went on their website and said not one teacher looked over 30.

 

[Jack Richards]

Anyone else sick of the government placing so much emphasis on NAPLAN and formal testing?

 

[gaskin]

I'm not even a grad yet and I'm already sick of hearing about NAPLAN.

 

[pepsi]

Anyone else sick of the government placing so much emphasis on NAPLAN and formal testing?

NAPLAN, data and numeracy/literacy are the big focus and have been for a few years now.

Yet no improvement in our international rankings and results.

 

[Jack Richards]

We are compared to other cultures and countries like Korea who have a different view and approach to education.

At a school I worked at once, where it was a high population of asian students, academics were high but PE was low because the families held sport as a luxury. It wasn't uncommon to see the students walking to sport with books in front if them.

As educators we cannot win it seems.

 

[Jack Richards]

NAPLAN, data and numeracy/literacy are the big focus and have been for a few years now.

Yet no improvement in our international rankings and results.

We can only do so much as teachers.

Now they want to implement standardised tests/assessments in year 1.

 

[wadistance]

There are 2 year "masters of teaching" courses which are a complete joke. 90% of people who come out of them aren't anywhere near ready to teach.

I did this, and yeah, I can probably attest to this. Whilst I had 60 hours of teaching prac, I basically started day 1 as a grad teacher and was like WOW.

I also did start at a really progressive school that treated its students more like university students. Not a whole lot of support - every teacher did their job and thats it. I didn't really have a head teacher to help me through, and I'm lucky I only had a term contract.

My next school my HT drove me into the ground, but it made me a much better teacher. I'm back at the first school that I started at now, and I'm really enjoying the freedom to teach how I want. But it wasn't the place to start

 

[hufus]

Teacher training really should be 1 year uni, then 2 days placement/2 subjects uni every week for 3 years with a few blocks thrown in. Way more time in schools, way less in uni.

 

[wadistance]

Teacher training really should be 1 year uni, then 2 days placement/2 subjects uni every week for 3 years with a few blocks thrown in. Way more time in schools, way less in uni.

I tend to agree - but I think that for whatever hours you spend in the classroom, there should be some form of remuneration, similar to an apprenticeship

 

[hufus]

I tend to agree - but I think that for whatever hours you spend in the classroom, there should be some form of remuneration, similar to an apprenticeship

Maybe enough to cover transport would be good, anyway, but ideally something like an apprenticeship would be great - or for it to count as a full load of uni subjects for centrelink at least.

 

[Hard Ball Get]

Teacher training really should be 1 year uni, then 2 days placement/2 subjects uni every week for 3 years with a few blocks thrown in. Way more time in schools, way less in uni.

Disagree. 2 days is useless. Blocks is where you learn. 3rd and 4th year students should be having whole term blocks.

 

[gaskin]

Maybe enough to cover transport would be good, anyway, but ideally something like an apprenticeship would be great - or for it to count as a full load of uni subjects for centrelink at least.

It does doesn't it? I was getting youth allowance on my first 2 pracs and I'll be able to get assistance on my ATP next semester.

 

[Breustiful]

Teacher training really should be 1 year uni, then 2 days placement/2 subjects uni every week for 3 years with a few blocks thrown in. Way more time in schools, way less in uni.

I did my Dip Ed in Perth - course went for one year. WA is phasing out the Dip Ed this year and I can see why. I did two pracs at the one school. One was a 2 week internship and another was 10 weeks. Received my Dip Ed and I felt as if I had absolutely learnt nothing and was not ready to educate. This wasn't fair on my potential future students, so I took this entire year off to CRT and learn hands on.

Universities need to seriously focus more on practicums and getting their students into classes.

Anyway, Term 4 starts next week. Expecting a tonne of jobs to be posted.