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Just remembered this thread and had a look - the recent discussion about PSTs is pretty interesting and I've just finished by first placement.
Quick recap for those playing at home: have been military for 15 years now (last 4 as part-time to do this career change to be a teacher, working around .6 equivalent around uni), did a three year BArts in History and English and now one year of the two-year Master of Teaching (Secondary) is complete.
The placement I just did was at a category 2 school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Had about 1300 kids from reception (prep) to year 12. I found the experience to be excellent. The mentor teacher I had was very good, and despite a little disorganisation between the uni and school (and myself) in the initial phase, everything went really well.
This placement is the first of two for my degree and is five weeks long. The requirement is to build up to a 50% teaching load equivalent by the halfway mark of the placement, but I found that to be a kinda shit way to do things. So instead, I used the first week to observe and plan two units of work that I would teach entirely for the next four weeks, including a co-teaching thing with the mentor for another class. Everything went really well and I got a lot out of it. The mentor teacher gave some really great pointers and advice, giving feedback each double-lesson I taught. He had a really good attitude and was someone who genuinely cared about teaching, so I lucked out there.
One year of this shit left to go and I can actually get paid to teach lol. Probably the biggest positive after the placement is that I can say I am more certain I've chosen the right career path.
Quick recap for those playing at home: have been military for 15 years now (last 4 as part-time to do this career change to be a teacher, working around .6 equivalent around uni), did a three year BArts in History and English and now one year of the two-year Master of Teaching (Secondary) is complete.
The placement I just did was at a category 2 school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Had about 1300 kids from reception (prep) to year 12. I found the experience to be excellent. The mentor teacher I had was very good, and despite a little disorganisation between the uni and school (and myself) in the initial phase, everything went really well.
This placement is the first of two for my degree and is five weeks long. The requirement is to build up to a 50% teaching load equivalent by the halfway mark of the placement, but I found that to be a kinda shit way to do things. So instead, I used the first week to observe and plan two units of work that I would teach entirely for the next four weeks, including a co-teaching thing with the mentor for another class. Everything went really well and I got a lot out of it. The mentor teacher gave some really great pointers and advice, giving feedback each double-lesson I taught. He had a really good attitude and was someone who genuinely cared about teaching, so I lucked out there.
One year of this shit left to go and I can actually get paid to teach lol. Probably the biggest positive after the placement is that I can say I am more certain I've chosen the right career path.