Teaching

[becky1986]

i was wondering if any one on here has actually manged to get them selves in to the teaching proffesion ive just been diagnosed with both dispraxia and dislexia which is going to effect my future of course but ive spent the last 3 years training as a teacher and only have about 7 months before i graduate but no one will give me a direct answer to weather any one will actuall hire me at the end of all this

[Liz944]

At least you will be able to understand and identify the problems that your students face with having dyspraxia and dyslexia. From experienece quite a few teachers don't have a clue.....

On the job front, nothing is ever certain. Just keep applying for jobs and see what happens.

Good luck...

[Lithium_joe]

Am training for 5-11 year olds at the moment - it is REALLY tough only insofar I find as just having to be organised to the nth degree.

If the job were just teaching - it's be eas(ier)

If the job was just planning it'd be eas(ier)

If the plan were just reflecting and being academic about how to teach effectively - it'd be easier, but it's all those things and more.

[Lithium_joe]

oh bugger - answer the question next time LJ! - I'd second Liz, because we find things harder we have insights and often determination that other people can lack. Make it into a positive. you've come this far not knowing know you know you can benefit from this knowledge in X many ways....

[Where did I put that?]

I work as a lecturer in an FE/HE college and I have done this for the past 2 years. The job seemed managable until I had to start my teaching diploma, then I just got really confused. It's a very harsh learning curve for me and involves levels of organisation that I just am not capable of. I would say that if you can get through the teaching qualification then you will be alright.

Do you have to have a work placement for your teaching cert anyway? We had to have at least 75 hours of teaching a year to do the diploma and I think we have to be observed 4 times a year. That's the bit that scares me the most.

[pomo]

Hi Everyone,

I'm in my NQT year as a dyspraxic Secondary Education Teacher in believe it or not Mathematics and PE teaching. The NQT year, is a year probation which either allows you or stops you from teaching in mainstream schools.

That means that I have my degree and qualified teacher status behind me. However, I have through this job realised how difficult it is to overcome. I am looking for advice really myself, as despite some of the strengths we dyspraxics have, ultimately our typical weaknesses make it unsustainable as a realistic career. Of course, I have given it my all, but the whole experience has been so damaging.

If anyone wants more detail I am happy to elaborate, but the advice I have can be summarised below.

1. Ensure at uni that your assessment for support is looked at properly and not generally. Personally, organisation is my biggest down fall and a very able support worker helped me work closer to my true potential. Obviously, that is not an easy thing for us to do alone....and to get my support worker I had to really illustrate what difficulties I was having.

2. If you get assessed or discovered at uni as I was for the first time, make sure the advice looks at the praticality of teaching say 41 hours a fortnight in a large establishment. The practicality of planning these lessons and being responsible for managing your own work load is an extra time restraint on top of these lessons.

3. I was savy enough to contact access to work when getting a post, but they are not expects in getting the correct support, nor are occupational health unless you explain your own particular difficulties. They can get a specialist to do a work placed assessment....sugest it if they do not.

4. If you still want to do this incredibly difficult job, although teachers work with dyspraxic children they can never really appreciate your needs. Especially as they are soo busy themselves and barely keeping their head above water at the best of times. You must ensure that as far as possible you have prepared the school for your arrival.

5. PART TIME! If I did part time...I imagine that life would be far easier. The fact that time is such an issue means that this is the most sensible option. It is the only way we could work near to best.


Finally, we do not get differentiated outcomes to become teachers...the time frame is the same. It is as if you are taking a test without the required time to read and write the questions.

I am really sorry if this is a career anyone wants to do or is studying for, but the difference between training and reality for me in my current situation means that I have personally spent the best 5 years of my life going down an unsuitable career path.

Good luck to you all!

Pompom

[pomo]

Also advice for becky:

Use the time at uni preparing yourself for the reality of teaching. Given your extra dyslexic difficulties, you will need very specific support. Such as a worker employed by the school you work with to help with admin.

It may not seem necessary now...but believe me from experience, if the support is not correct from the start, your downfall will catch up with you and happen very quickly.

Sorry if the is disheartening!

Just feel I need to warn others!

Good luck!

Luke

[Lithium_joe]

The above two posts about sum up my experience.

I am almost at the end of my PGCE, and I've worked my socks off to pass but all to no avail. I failed my final placement. So I will graduate with a PGCE but no QTS and no Induction year.

The organisational issues that swirl around inside my head were just too much to deal with and claimed my career.

I thought I could manage this; but I could not.

And for all the sympathetic help the university tried to provide, and for which I am duely and truly grateful, it was not the help I needed.

Back in my box, I go...

[Lucy_Rush]

i'm due to start my pgce in september, for secondary maths.

i have been worried as to whether i am going to manage the course, and weather teaching is even for me anyway. I have come to the decisiont hough, that i am going to at least try it. It is something i at one point really wanted to do, else i wouldnt have applied, and at the end of the day, its only 1 year. Could turn out to be the worst year of my life, or i could enjoy it. Either way, if its not realistic, theres nothing to say i must teach at the end of it, and i have a plan B lined up already, should this be the case. (As well as having a plan C sorted in my head should plan A and B fail!!)

In the meantime, i want to try and be as prepared as i can for the course:
- Theres 2 short placements in "alternative settings" we have to have done before the easter of the course, with an assignment to write on each. I'm getting them done before i start in september, so i dont have to try and sort that out whilst on the course. (Already done 1 placement, the other starts monday).
- Had my needs assessment, waiting for the lea to confirm it or something, for all the usual technical type equipment, as well as a set number of hrs with a person to help with whatever.
- Got some precourse reading they've sent me to do which i've not started, but will make sure i get done over the summer.
- Applied for a place on a "maths booster course" for the 2 weeks before my course starts. I know i just finished a maths degree, but the course revises a-level stuff, which is completely different from degree stuff, and i've forgotten it all. Also need to revise gcse stuff so its fresher in my head.

Am just trying to do as much as i can before the course starts really. Although theres not much i can do. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. (I think LJ you gave some advice quite a while ago on another thread, just going to go and find it).

lucy

[Lithium_joe]

some thoughts:

print off this forum and show it to them - maybe we collectively have the evidence between us of how dyspraxia can impact on a teaching course.

What are plans B and C if you don't mind my asking? I pinned all on this working so am currently at a complete loss on where I go now.

[Lucy_Rush]

My plan B has always been to do a social work course. With the intention of looking towards a job such as an Educational Welfare Officer.

In fact, i have considered applying this time for september 2009 entry. With the view that if the pgce tells me i dont want to be a teacher, then i will have the social work course, and the pgce will be of use anyway for the particular type of social work i would want to go into.

But alternatively, if the pgce went well, i could quite easily defer the social work course, do my nqt year, and then re-evaluate. If i realise during the nqt year that teachings really not where i want to be, the place will still be open if i wish to do the social work. if i want to stay in teaching, i can cancel the place.

Not sure if it is ok to take days off during the pgce to attend interviews though, but the only two things i've ever really wanted to do are teaching and social work. I went for the teaching as i thought i had no chance of getting on the social work course, (due to a maths+stats degree). But after some research, i have found whilst some uni's specify a related degree, lots don't mind what you're degree is in, and i should have plenty enough care-related experience as well to get on. Theres also a bursary and grant you can apply for to cover fees etc.

I like having a clear plan in my mind, and knowing exactly what i'm going to do if something doesnt work out.

My plan C, should all of the above plans fail, is to apply for an MSc Medical Statistics. Apart from teaching and social work, this is the only other thing that interests me. I did a module in medical stats this year, which i found very interesting, and got a high result in. The lecturer also offered me a good reference should i ever want to apply for the med stats masters. Theres also scholarships and funding available for it, and i think i'd have a high chance of getting a place. Hence the lack of a need for any further back-up plans.

Those are all the plans i have anyway. A nice little flow chart of options, so hopefully i will find something i enjoy doing somewhere along the way. Its just pretty difficult to know if you're going to be able to do something you've never done before.

At the end of the day, my current plan is to go into the pgce and do my best, but have in the back of my mind that if it doesnt work out, its just a year, and its not the end of the world. I'll just have to admit defeat and go onto plan B, which is the other thing i've always wanted to do anyway.

[Meg]

I@m not teaching, but I work wiht h children with specil needs in a special needs playgroup, but I qualified last June after doing my diploma in Childcare and Education. The course was two years, prior to that i'd worked for two years in a day nursery and one of my tutors from college said i wouldn't be able to do the Diploma in Chldcare and Education as i'd never cope wit hte obsevations, but I proved her wrong and did it.

Luv Meg
Xxxx

[pomo]

Hi

Lucy_Rush, you have done very well for yourself thus far in your own education, but the education of others is so different!

Honestly, this statement worries me:
At the end of the day, my current plan is to go into the pgce and do my best, but have in the back of my mind that if it doesnt work out, its just a year, and its not the end of the world. I'll just have to admit defeat and go onto plan B, which is the other thing i've always wanted to do anyway.


It will be the end of the world if you do have problems, the stress will cuse untold damage if things do not go to plan A, regardless if you have back-ups. My advice is that if you have any sort of passion for high end maths in particular, you ain't gonna get it in secondary school! Fact most kids, even those that are able hate maths!

Sorry to go on about this, but I can not stress enough what a damging exercise this could prove to be for you!

I'm happy to talk on the phone to try and help any further!

Best regards

pompom

[Lucy_Rush]

Hi pom

Thanks for the words of warning. Its good to hear a bit of reality from someone who's on the other side.

What i meant by the bit you highlighted in red is that i will go into the pgce, and do all i can at it. But at the end of the day, being realistic to the chance that teaching may not be the right thing for me, and that it may not be something i can cope with. I know this is a possibility. But at the same time i know i definitely don't want to give up at teaching before i've even begun. I know that people who are on the other side, and experienced at it might have good reason to think its a really bad idea, but as someone who's not had that experience yet, i know how much stress and work is going to be involved. (I've been warned of that many times!) And i know of the possibilities of not suceeding, but i do still want to teach, even after knowing all that.

Although my friend did say this to me the other day. "You've got a 1st in maths. you could do anything at all. but you still want to teach? you must be crazy". Maybe she's right - i probably am crazy lol!


It will be the end of the world if you do have problems, the stress will cuse untold damage if things do not go to plan A, regardless if you have back-ups.

I'm not sure that i agree here. I think that because i am already open to the possibilty of teaching not being 'for me', it will not be the end of the world if i have problems. In fact i think i've already accepted there will be problems. I wouldn't expect there not to be. If i can overcome the problems then great, but if i really can't, then i really don't think it will be the end of the world. If i was someone going into the pgce thinking that teaching was the only thing they've ever wanted to do, and someone who couldnt imagine themselves doing anything else, and who was expecting to sail through the course with no problems, then i think yes it may be the end of the world for that person. But i'm not that person.

And if the stress is so much that its causing me damage, then i don't think i would carry on. It wouldn't be worth damaging my health! However i hope i wouldn't let it get to that stage before having a serious reality check of whether i could really pass the course or not. But, even after all that, i still don't want to give up on something i would really like to do before i've started!

Lucy

[Liz944]

Its better to try and do the course you really want to do, than give up on it before you even start.... otherwise it will bug you afterwards.... thinking what if.....