Teaching - update on me.

[Lucy_Rush]

Haven't posted on here in a while, but thought i'd give an update on how things are going between me and teaching.

Well, i finally did it. I quit teaching - i withdrew from the course when everyone else had only 3 days of placement left. So close to the end, but still so far! I'd said i would quit if it started to damage my health, and ever true to my word, i did quit.

My placement was going to be extended since i had been put on a cause for concern, so i had a few weeks left, but i had been improving. In the end it came down to my main problem: communication, presence, and impact in the classroom. Everything else was there - i could plan good lessons, had started to get the hang of assessment, etc. But the main issue was my personality, and communication skill s- which are all part of my personality i guess. I felt i would be able to get there with communication perhaps. But presence was not something i felt i could change - there are some things that dont come naturally to me. Teaching i found was one of them.

I could not have put more into that course if i had tried. It had all my time, energy, everything. But it all got too much, i decided it wasnt something i could do for the rest of my life, and decided it was better to withdraw than to deal with all the stress etc and try to finish. In the end, it just felt the right decision. And i have truly gained a lot from the course

So whaats the plan now? I have a place on a masters course for september, in statistics. Plus fees-only funding. Will have to work at the same time as it to help fund myself, but not having to pay fees will make a huge difference to that. In the longer term i'm not sure where i want to go with things. Would love to perhaps do adult numeracy / skills for life teaching. Or perhaps a more mathematical job, and tutor on the side - i do want something related to teaching. But not typical mainstream settings. Will have to spend the next few months thinking up the next plan.

[Lady Fluff]

Good luck with your Masters Lucy, and congratulations on having the courage to quit - it can be hard when all those around you are continuing. My partner (also dyspraxic) quit her PGCE (secondary) just before the Christmas - if it's any reassurance to you, out of all the people we both know who qualified as teachers (about a dozen or so) only 1 is still doing it now, 5 years on!
We're both on Masters courses ourselves now, I've got funding through work (I'm a part tiem student, and the course is designed for people in full time employement so it has worked out well. She still wants to teach in some form, though probably not in a school (hasn't ruled it out completely, but has acknowledged that the time definitely was not right before). The joys of being a private tutor is that anyone can offer it, I guess the hardest part is finding clients then.

Good luck with everything and keep us posted on how you get on!