It’s all over…
What a crazy but amazing year!
Last Wednesday I had the last ever day on my PGCE and today I (in absentia) was conferred the masters part of the PGCE.
It’s taken a few days for it to sink in. For me to realise that I have finished, and that I have gained my PGCE and (come mid-august) QTS. To realise that, as one of the children quite affectionately put it on my placement class when they knew I had passed my last visit from my tutor, that ‘Mr Handley is a proper official teacher now’ 
It has been such a busy year and I am just about now feeling like the brakes are going on and I’m slowing down! I’ve got a lot of things to reflect on, and over the next month or so a lot of my blog posts will be focused on reflecting on the past year and looking ahead.
I have just spent some time replying to some questions from people who are about to start the PGCE at UEA in September and this made me think about my journey over the past year and how much has changed!
A year ago, I was just about preparing to give my notice in at my job as an insurance consultant in a call centre. I was looking forward to September with excitement but also with some trepidation – although I knew that I would hopefully have a great year! It was around this time that I received my pre-course information with lots of pre-course tasks in, and immediately started to panic! Looking back now, these tasks seem so small ‘in the grand scheme of things’ and were things that I would probably not think twice about doing now- but at the time they were massive!
A year ago I knew very little about how children learn. I knew nothing (apart from my observations) about how to manage a classroom. I had no idea how to even start to plan a lesson, never mind a school year. I had no idea what many of the acronyms I kept hearing were (TDA, G+T, GTCE, DfES, ECM, SIP, SEN etc!) and the thought of standing up in front of a classroom with 30 expectant faces starting at me would have petrified me (not that I wouldn’t have wanted to do it mind, just I wouldn’t have had a clue!) and if someone had mentioned that I would have my own class, 5H (!) in just over a years time I would have thought it was nothing more than a nice thought!
Flash forward a year- I now have some sort of idea about how children learn and how to effectively plan and teach so that children actually learn something! I have learnt some ways of managing a classroom. I’ve planned more lessons than I can count and I have just finished planning a whole year (more on that in another blog post!). I know relish the thought of teaching and think nothing (not in a bad way!) of being the ‘teacher’ in the classroom. I am now looking forward to getting my own class, 5H and can’t wait to get going on lots of the things we have planned! And as for the acronyms- well they still confuse me- but you can’t win at everything! 
I’ve also gone a step further and organised TeachMeet East- something again which if I’d said I’d be doing that a year ago I wouldn’t have believed it!
There is however no point on the PGCE where I can say ‘that is when I learnt how to do X’ – everything was a gradual build up of skills, knowledge and importantly experience. It is thanks to the highly skilled team of tutors at UEA, placement tutors and highly supportive staff in placement schools that this was able to happen (and they’ve got to do it all again in September!!)- so a major thank you to all involved at UEA and in my placement schools!
It is also refreshing that I’ve been able to develop into the teacher that I want to be- not into some form of ‘clone’ which some people assume teacher training institutions churn out.
The PGCE, on reflection was a great year. There were challenges and ‘down days’ but there were many more highlights, ‘YES!’ days and memorable experiences. I’ve done things on the PGCE I never thought I’d ever do (or do again- dance in PE being an example ) and have had a lot of fun doing it! I hope to reflect more on the highlights of the year in a later blog post.
What I’ve written above is not to say that I think, in any way, shape, or form that I am ‘sorted’ as a teacher. I still, undoubtedly have a lot to learn. I’m looking forward to the NQT year for this very reason, that I know it will teach me a lot and I will develop immeasurably as a teacher. There will certainly be challenges, difficult days and ‘oh no!’ moments, but hopefully these will be balanced with lots of positive experiences!
So, the first chapter of my teaching career is done. All I can say is Roll on September! [but not before I’ve had a nice wind down on a Greek beach from Friday! ]
TH
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As I’ve said above, expect more blog posts over the next few weeks. I really do apologies for the complete lack of blogging since Mid May- TeachMeet, Placement and then packing up my house took over! I’m not back and have got plenty of time to muse and reflect and I’ve got a lot to blog about!
I’m away from Friday for 2 weeks, but hopefully (if I’ve written it in time) a blog post will still appear on the blog in this period. This blog will continue into my NQT year (all be it, with a name change at some point! )
Thanks so much for reading the blog and for keeping with me during my ‘inactivity!’
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Only found your blog tonight but I too finished my PGCE today at UEA (in absentia) and I really enjoyed reading your blog post(s). It brought back alot of memories of an exhausting but rewarding year. Wish I had of found your blog during the course of the year, it might have given me a boost on the ‘down’ days. I also got inspected by OFSTED when they were in UEA … it was pretty scary but I think won me alot of brownie points with my tutor. Your post is a really nice reflection of all that the partnership schools do and the teachers that they help us become. Feel free to add me on Twitter and best of luck in your NQT!
Thanks!
Sanp with OFSTED- I was also inspected- not the most fun experience but as you say, gained a lot of brownie points!
Best of luck with your NQT year!