Advice on how to prepare for the unknown?!

Phyrea

Hello everyone,

I hope that someone here may be able to give me some help before I properly lose the nerve to do my course.

I will be starting my H.Dip this year, late August - September, I have already sorted out my placement, and accomodation etc and will primarily be teaching Biology and CSPE as a secondary subject.

My problem is this... I am 28, so its been 10 years since I was in school itself, and 5 years since I did my degree. I'm only able to return to college due to redundancy and got accepted on my place, it was something I had always wanted to do and now I have cold feet. - I do not feel confident enough in my knowledge of the material due to the massive gaps. I'm not sure where to start, I never even did CSPE in school!!

I'm being told I must teach on the very first day in the School.. How can I teach if I haven't even started lectures in college yet? I don't know how to do a lesson plan!? I don't even know where the students are in their book! I can't even pretend to make a lesson plan if I don't know what to do

Can someone, anyone please offer some advice.. What can I do to boost my confidence in this?? - I know that I will know the Biology stuff, its not that I'm concerned that I don't understand the material, its just that this all seems so daunting. I just don't see how I can possibly hope to command respect from the classroom, if I'm going to give off the impression that I don't have a clue what I'm doing!

derb12

There will be a staff meeting before classes start and you will get a chance to get a steer from your colleagues.
You are probably doing 1st year CSPE so you could go to the school's website and find out what book they are using, then browse through it in Easons. In the absence of any master plan, follow the chapter order in the book. The school will provide you with a book when you start. If you are not doing 1st year CSPE one of your colleagues will know where they are in the course. Worst case, ask the kids.
Also at www.education.ie you will find all the curriculums, syllabuses and teaching guides and these are worth going through in detail. I remember finding some really handy stuff in these towards the end of my first teaching year and really wishing I'd read them more closely early in the year.
Good luck with it and don't worry. Your extra years are a help. The students won't sniff you out as being an inexperienced student so quickly and this can only be to your advantage.

And I forgot - about the teaching plan. Just plan your first days class in detail and see how it goes. 40 or 45 minutes fly by if they are well planned. Allow a few minutes for settling them in and introducing yourself. Pick one simple topic for the first class. Try to "teach" as little as possible. Write the date and the topic on the board. Ask for informal ideas. Then give them guidance on some groupwork and let them work away for 10 - 15 minutes. Then allow 10 minutes for each group to give their findings/ideas/feedback and 5 minutes for a wrap up. Also, you should have out some thought into what you expect copy-wise. Give them homework on the first day to write 5 bullet points on what was discussed in class. Make sure you are finished before the bell goes. The topic could be something simple like designing a green school logo or motto for your school, or writing a report card for our new president, or something to do with littering or road safety ... endless topics for CSPE really.
For 5th year biology, I'd recommend starting page 1 of the book - no messing.
Are you sure you won't be taking a junior science class too?
The principal and some others will be back in the school in mid august, so just pop in confidently around then to suss out the situation.

highly1111

Great advice from above.

I was in exactly the same situation. Took voluntary redundancy at 28 and went back. Dont be worrying about the college side of it at all - the academic side of the dip is incredibly doable and to be honest - i got very little from it.

From the TP side, I was full of nerves. However you'll most probably find the teaching staff amazing. You'll probably have at least 2 meetings before you set foot in a classroom - you'll probably be given certain chapters or topics to cover - easy ones too. My school were brilliant. I also had a 13 week old baby when I did the dip and school were brilliant. The 40 minutes will fly - go in full of confidence. The seniors might guess you're a dip but if you're in a good school it shouldnt make any difference to how they treat you. The juniors probably won't have a clue. You'll hear all this rubbish like don't smile till mid term etc. It's all crap - go in open and approachable and friendly and always be consistent and be firm and fair. Don't take any rubbish from the start - but the bad students are most certaintly in the minority. You'll get such a buzz from your first class you'll be dying to get back into that classroom!!

Enjoy it - teaching is an amazing career (except for the job hunt which I'm now back on....!!)

Chris68

Depending on the school, you may have to teach first thing when school returns. I've had this before. Students could then go home early and staff meetings will be held in afternoon. Not so bad as it sounds. Normally, the students start back is staggered, say only 1st years on day 1, 2nd and 3rd on day 2, 5th and 6th day 3, everyone day 4 for example. If they are going home early on day 1 it could be that your timetable and theirs don't match up anyhow and you don't need to teach.

If the school uses a book rental scheme then don't expect the students to have books for the first week or so until things get sorted out. Try to find out which books the school uses and phone the publishers - ask for a free copy. They may ask you to fax your request on school headed paper, secretary will be well used to this.

Another thing to remember is that you are the "dipper". Ultimately someone else has responsibility for the students, they are the paid teacher. You are unpaid and could potentially walk out at any time. So that teacher has to be available to walk in and take over. So whatever your timetable you should not be alone.

drvantramp

there is quite bit already on threads - have a look- what is teaching practice really like.

your age and outside experience is a big plus, do not underestimate it.

focus on subjects curriculum - what they are supposed to learn. it is more about the students and less about YOU than you think. PMA and all that..

As others said, think about how you want your classroom to be like, you set the atmosphere - they are not adults but adults in progress - patience!

Ms.M

You might find useful resources here:

http://biology.slss.ie/

http://cspe.slss.ie/

As for lesson plans, there's a lot to know but for starters have an idea of what you want the students to know/ be able to do at the end of the class and plan your lesson from there. Don't be overly optimistic, they'll need plenty of reinforcement. Look at everything from the learner's perspective: some of the best classes can involve you doing very little. At the end of the day, they're the ones who have to learn. Think about having some talking, some listening, some reading and some writing in there somewhere. Visual cues are great too, forget about clipart, use google images instead. Make sure you have enough input (reading/ brain-storming, talk, group-work or whatever) before you get them to do a written task. Stagger your written tasks too; get them to do starter exercises like quizzes before you get them to do a composition etc. For the sake of classroom management, as a dipper I'd advise you to have plenty of these "starter exercises" with you to keep them busy. Something that's easy enough. For C.S.P.E be very strict about people putting up their hand and waiting for the teacher to give them a signal to talk. They're both handy subjects to teach though. The kids doing them will mostly enjoy them. You'll be grand! I hope you enjoy it!