Teaching without the H Dip

Esmereldina

Dionysus wrote: »

It went well.

On the first morning, last Thursday, the deputy principal was absolutely brilliant. She knew I never taught in secondary school before and gave me what turned out to be great advice. Be serious, like you've been teaching forever. Don't smile much. The kids will want to find your weak point and exploit it. But also gems like do not tell them to keep quiet from the top of the room but rather walk down to the student and say it right next to them- and then move on quickly before he/she has the chance to make a scene out of it and entertain the entire class! Now, that was excellent advice.

There was some adult in one of the classes on the first day, but she never introduced herself. She did know the students' names and I overheard her telling one of them to behave. But I'm not sure why she didn't just introduce herself. I never mentioned it to the deputy principal anyway, and she didn't mention it to me. The deputy stuck her head in the door and gave me a few more students and said later she was impressed that I kept them under control so well.

But I thought they were actually noisy. It was only when the bell rang that I realised how quiet they had actually been. But I really am not sure about how noisy a classroom should be. And I was really only supervising, not teaching. So that is important to note. I did help kids in one class with their CSPE homework and I loved that as it's one of my subjects. Most of the kids were great and all I had to do was keep walking around asking them to be quiet. One kid said 'I'm dying' and I responded 'Then die quietly' and walked on quickly to which the lads laughed in shock. Another kid said he didn't care about the Christmas exams and I smiled and said 'And do you think I care? I've passed them all; you haven't'. "I can't argue with that" came his reply.

They kept asking what were my subjects and what was my name and again under advice I didn't tell them anything and just said that they are here to study. Apparently if I gave them my surname they'd start making genealogical links, townland links, village links, GAA links etc just to waste time. I was so green until this board and that great chat with the deputy principal.

Anyway, the deputy principal asked me to come in again on Friday and said she was looking forward to my being able to teach any of my subjects in class, but for the moment the missing teachers had set work for the classes. I got another 6 classes on Friday including teaching an autistic student in a specialised prefab- which was a very new experience for me. It was simply timing that I got those two days as I dropped my CV into the school the day before she needed a substitute teacher, and I'm sure she had plenty of cvs already on file.

Thanks to you all here. You were very helpful.

Hi all,

Following on from Dionysus' experiences (MODS: If you feel this should be in a separate thread then please move it), I have a more general question to ask: how easy is it generally to get substitute teaching work at second level without a HDip or secondary school teaching experience? I have plenty of teaching experience at third level, which is where I want to stay... once I get a full time job :rolleyes: so I would be looking to get a few more part time hours here and there in my subject really. Is this a realistic prospect and if so how should one go about doing it? I check educationposts.ie but my subject combination never comes up... would sending CVs into schools achieve a better result? I would have thought that there was no change really of getting any teaching work without a HDip or prior experience, but this is what Dionysus seems to be suggesting he has done, if I'm not mistaken.

Tom Dunne

I think this is best discussed in it's own thread.

Esmereldina

Any thoughts on this, teaching people? As I said before, I'm looking to get a few part time hours here and there in my subjects rather than a full time job. I don't have a HDip but plenty of experience teaching third level and TEFL. Is there any point sending CVs around to schools or are there any other ways to look for work? The seems to be some kind of placement service on the ASTI website but I imagine one has to be a member of the union and possibly also a qualified teacher... anyone have any experience of this either?
Thanks in advance!

An Bradán Feasa

What are your subjects?

Esmereldina

History, Italian and English to Junior Cert (ie, studied in 1st yr arts)

321654

Is it just me or should people not be teaching our kids unless they are fully qualified to teach them.

What if a doctor came into hospital and said thats ok i got 40% in my exams. I passed.

Sir Humphrey

321654 wrote: »

Is it just me or should people not be teaching our kids unless they are fully qualified to teach them.

What if a doctor came into hospital and said thats ok i got 40% in my exams. I passed.

Ideally not, but if suitably qualified personnel cannot be got quickly presumably less than fully qualified people must be settled for, unless you have some practical and sensible solution for activities for the groups affected by an teacher's absense on a given day.

Though you would wonder how if there are indeed gazillions of teachers of qualified teachers floating around why unqualified people are needed at all.

And come to think of it, I have never been told by any Doctor what his marks in college were.

Toto Wolfcastle

Esmereldina wrote: »

History, Italian and English to Junior Cert (ie, studied in 1st yr arts)

You're only unofficially allowed to teach this to Junior Cert because of the Teaching Council. It's not really allowed any more but is at the discretion of the principal I think.

Although as you are unqualified anyway it probably wont matter. Just something to think about if you do qualify as a teacher.

dory

Esmereldina wrote: »

History, Italian and English to Junior Cert (ie, studied in 1st yr arts)

What did you do your BA in then? That's usually what principals are more interested in than what you did in your first year.

Skyuser

Years ago they never needed dips and h dips and they even got to hit the kids. Times have changed...im not old btw

Esmereldina

dory wrote: »

What did you do your BA in then? That's usually what principals are more interested in than what you did in your first year.

Sorry, BA in History and Italian (English in first year)

gaeilgegrinds

To be honest I'd only say what you did your degree in as some principals get sticky on that kind of thing, shows you're more up to date with the system in my opinion.

implausible

I'd disagree there. If you get talking to a principal, mention the English too. You may not be recognised to teach according to the Teaching Council, but we all know that you can end up teaching anything in a secondary school.

Besides, English, is a far more 'teachable' subject and tbh, your subject combination is not great for the majority of post-primary schools