What I’ve learned from my PGCE

Lockdown has been a wild time. First we had the toilet paper crisis of 2020, then we went through the virtual pub quiz phase; the only form of human contact we had for a solid 4 months.

It was a long lockdown, exacerbated by the lack of clarity for when we might see the light at the end of the tunnel (little did we know in May, 2020 was that we’d have another two lockdown’s on the way…). For me, I was coming up to the end of my Masters at Leeds University, and with no end in sight for the severe restrictions of Covid-19, I had a big decision to make.

While I genuinely believe that starting my Masters in September 2019 was absolutely the right decision, I had come to learn that even with the extra degree, no one was willing to pay for budding journalists straight out of the gate. Paired with the unending anxiety of Coronavirus and the quick sacking my part time job gave me in March, I was starting to worry about my future.

“There came a time where I had to genuinely think about the future I wanted for myself: one where I chased my dream but was always worrying about money, or financial stability in education.”

In June, I made a call. I would apply for a PGCE and buy myself an extra year. I had been on job seekers since I lost my job as the country headed into lockdown, and it was due to run out in September. No one knew how long lockdown would go on for, and while marketing firms were letting go of 40% of their staff, I was worried about my financial situation dearly.

It was a tough decision to make. There came a time where I had to genuinely think about the future I wanted for myself: one where I chased my dream but was always worrying about money, or financial stability in education. I chose financial stability.

By July, I had been offered a placement within a Leeds based education provider; GORSE SCITT. I’d be teaching key stage 3-5 English Literature, Language and Media Studies. I was guaranteed a £12,000 grant and a £10,000 maintenance loan to see me through the year. I was both relieved and regretful; as though the last year’s pressures and stress were not going to get me my dream job as a journalist.

Despite that, I decided to throw myself into my work. Who knows, teaching might actually end up being my dream job? This degree gave me the opportunity to move out of an apartment that was falling apart, and the relief of knowing that I’d have a salary and a purpose for the next year, which was more than could be said for others.

We did all of our initial training online with our provider, and the other student teachers clearly thought they knew it all (we quickly learned that even qualified teachers don’t know everything). It was a long month, but the anxiety of knowing that we would be in front of a class of 14 year olds and convince them that Shakespeare is a fun read kept us all very motivated.

Lesson one: you will never become an expert.

The biggest fear that I had on day one was that a student would ask me a question and I wouldn’t know the answer. Turns out, that happens A LOT.

I tried my hardest to prepare and read the texts I would be teaching, but as my background is in journalism and not literature, that was an awfully long list. There was no way I would have been able to read 8 books in 2 months and be able to retain any sense of sanity, yet here I was teaching all of them in one go.

“If I were given the opportunity to redo my Masters dissertation, knowing what I know now, I’d have easily gotten a Distinction.”

I learned quickly that some students will idolise you, and treat you like an expert. This lead to some severe Imposter Syndrome, and I really struggled to understand if I was actually smart, or could just fake my way through life (it’s likely a bit of both).

Despite that, I took this as an opporutiy to keep learning and bettering myself, rather than stressing about the results. If I were given the opportunity to redo my Masters dissertation, knowing what I know now, I’d have easily gotten a Distinction. I reminded myself daily that I didn’t need to be an expert in anything: simply confident enough to admit when I don’t know something, then strive to learn the answer myself.

Teachers were quick to reassure me that if you don’t know the answer, you should reflect it back onto the student and buy yourself some time.

“Oh that’s such an interesting question! I’d love to hear your thoughts, or what information you could find on the topic!”

That day I learned that teachers talk a load of bollocks all the damn time.

Lesson two: be savvy with your time management.

Teachers would endlessly warn you of the dangers of poor time management whilst ignoring their own advice. The same is true for the student teachers. No one is able to manage their time effectively in teaching. I’d have other student teachers telling me that lesson plans were taking them 4 hours to do a 1 hour lesson. There was no way I was going to get in that bad habit.

Initially, I set myself the goal of 3 hours to plan a 1 hour lesson. By December, I wanted that cut down to 2 hours. If I had a busy timetable, I’d be teaching 5 hours a day, and assuming that each lesson took me 2 hours to create, I’d end up working over 15 hours a day and teaching online, leaving your social life out in the cold.

I also learned that to some, working 18 hour days is considered impressive and desirable, giving the teacher endless bragging rights and winning the staff room chit chat. Don’t be this person.

Lesson three: if you think you’d make a good teacher, odds are you won’t.

Alternatively, if you think you want to teach because you love kids, this doesn’t mean you’ll be a good teacher either. The best teachers were often those who’s life didn’t revolve around their jobs, but instead respected the profession and students enough to give themselves space to reflect on their work. The worst, were the ones who’s entire personalities revolved around their power complex, or those who couldn’t talk about anything but Pride and Prejudice, and how “its just the best book on the planet and if you disagree… well, you’re just not a good English teacher…”

“I learned that endurance was everything, and committing to something I hated doing was great for my soul... ”

Doing my PGCE, I found the lesson’s that I cared about the least were the ones where I performed the best. I tried to include real world examples where possible and expand on my students natural curiosity and their love for scandal and gossip. Over the course of the year, I found my writing improved and I learned the importance of critical thinking, reading for pleasure, and the fact that English is about more than just poetry and punctuation.

Great teachers throw themselves into their work and ooze passion in every single aspect of their lessons. They inspire their kids, spread their joy of learning and encourage independent thinking at all times. The not to great teachers, would focus more on the texts they had to teach than the skills and lessons their students wouldn’t learn from them. The brightest students and the most successful classrooms were ones where the kids knew the texts may not be useful for their future, but they knew the skills they were learning and how they would help them in all aspects of their life: present and future.

The best teachers were ones that only cared about their students learning and encouraged their kids to revel in their lessons learned. They also know when to take a break from teaching and to not take themselves too seriously. My advice to you is simple. Go into teaching only if you love learning.

One year on….

One year on, I found myself interested in a whole host of new topics. I reignited my love of learning, but more importantly where my passion was.

I underwent one harrowing interview in the school that I did my first placement in, and despite being told that they loved me and would want to give me a job, they decided to go with someone who had 2 years more experience than me. That day, I knew that I didn’t care about teaching enough to go through the heartbreaking rejection from another school.

I don’t know what I expected to get our of my year as a teacher, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to realise if this was the career for me. I learned that endurance was everything, and committing to something I hated doing was great for my soul in the long run. It was wonderfully reassuring that my interest for journalism had not subsided one bit, which gave me the confidence to go for my dream job.

Exactly one year on, I now live in London. I work for a PR agency doing an exciting role that primarily involves networking with the journalists that I looked up to when I was studying my Masters. I have some exciting personal challenges coming up that may even get me one step closer to the career I now know for sure I will love doing. I might have been able to get here on my own, but while the whole world stopped, I’m grateful I took the opportunity to really push myself.

I don’t regret a single thing that happened in this crazy year, but I’m not half glad that its over.