graduate teacher programme… anyone (been) on it?

[Maz]

I haven't enrolled on the GTP, but I did attend a 'teacher taster session' over a couple of days at a local college. As well as getting the opportunity to shadow a teacher for a day, we were told about the GTP and what it entailed. If you're already a governor, you could easily arrange with the staff to come in one day and observe a lesson and get a feel for teaching.

As a temporary/seasonal job, I teach English as a foreign language. I really enjoy it. Go for it - it can be most rewarding.

 

[subaqua]

i know enough, as a governor, to know that far from knowing it all, i have much to learn. i'm going the primary route as i believe that's where i can make the biggest difference, and i can add a little bit of testosterone into what has become quite a feminised curriculum over the years.

in the school in which i am a governor, we have a minor problem with boys progress in maths, which, although it picks up in later years, is a cause for concern. by way of anecdotal evidence, i recently went along as parent helper on a gifted and talented maths day for 8/9 year olds. there were two different problems set; one was working out how many passengers a plane could carry, and one was working out the unit price of shopping items and finding the best value. i perceived the boys engaging fuller with the aeroplane question (set by a man) than the shopping one (set by a woman) and vice versa, and I sometimes think that boys sometimes need to see maths in a useful context with which they are familiar (formula one and football, or for that matter, cycling, lend themselves excellently to applied maths).

still, i can't just teach boys, so finding the balance will be key…

its not the school that feminises the curriculum , you must have seen that from KS2 past papers.

 

[Monsieur]

I mentor both a GTP and a PGCE student this year, both of whom move to their second placement next week to be replaced by two new students.
Overall, the experience for both mentor and student is productive but I do find that after the first day of 'real' teaching when the teenage 'learners' are relatively quiet the students marvel at their expertise at classroom management only to come back down to earth with a rather big bang when the first stroppy teenager rears their head!
Choose your school/provider well.
Listen to the advice given

If I can offer just one tiny word in the way of advice when you start to stand in front of 35 expectant 15 year olds....Patience.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i'm going to (hopefully) teach primary, i have enough of stroppy teens (well one, when she's in the mood) at home.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

I haven't enrolled on the GTP, but I did attend a 'teacher taster session' over a couple of days at a local college. As well as getting the opportunity to shadow a teacher for a day, we were told about the GTP and what it entailed. If you're already a governor, you could easily arrange with the staff to come in one day and observe a lesson and get a feel for teaching.

As a temporary/seasonal job, I teach English as a foreign language. I really enjoy it. Go for it - it can be most rewarding.

as a governor i certainly can go and watch a lesson or two, but i'll need to get in and get my hands dirty, so to speak; helping with reading and maths etc. i have actually had a good chinwag with our head and i'm sure she'll be supportive as she can be provided it is also in the school's own best interest (and as a governor i'd expect nothing less). she has suggested that i also get some classroom experience at a different school, and i've made some preliminary enquiries there also, at the school where the g and t session was held.