Teaching

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Hiya, just wondering if there's any teachers out there? I've just applied for the Graduate Teaching Programme (learning on the job) for next year and I'm really nervous about the interview!

Not a teacher yet, but I'm going through a D.A. program and just starting to get some time in front of a class, myself.

Good luck! How are you finding it? I've only taken a whole class once and found it really scary at first, but once I got into the lesson, it was OK. The bit I found hardest was knowing when the children were getting bored of a particular activity, and when to move on. I also found it hard to look at the whole class and focussed just on the children in front of me without meaning to, so I need to work on that. I also didn't know how to end the lesson. But apart from that, it went better than I thought it would . I'm really nervous about the teaching interview though.

I'm teaching at the university level and the biggest criticism I'm getting so far is that I'm teaching to too high a level for the class. I try bringing things down a bit but then I feel embarassed about insulting the intelligence of my class. I think it will take me a while to find the "happy place" where I teaching at a level that is challenging to the students but not so challenging that they turn off.

When I was a grad assistant, I substitute taught a few times when the professor was away...I spoke in front of 250 students!

I signed up to be a substitute teacher back in August, but they've never called me

I guess that's not much in the way of teaching experience, but hey it's something.

I've done kids' clubs and Brownies/Scouts before, and that's been OK, I think because it's not as 'formal' and doesn't have the same expectations/responsibility. The thing that scares me about teaching is knowing that there's 30 children in front of me and I'm expected to achieve a certain goal by the end of the lesson...the structure of the lesson (intro/activity/plenary) really helps but it's knowing what the children want/need that I find harder. Hopefully it'll come with practice...

I teach adult literacy and numeracy at a computer-based college. I used to teach 16-19 in a classroom, but didn't like it. I could never teach anyone younger than that.

Just graduated as a primary (elementary) school teacher. I find dealing with children in the 8-12 age bracket much easier than adults. Dealing with students with Asperger's syndrome is, of course, one of my biggest strengths.

I'm brand new here, in fact, I sought out this community because of a recent problem I've been having. I've been dealing with being an Aspie on my own my entire life, although it seems to be getting much more difficult lately.
I've always wanted to be a teacher, and have started Teacher's College this year. I have a rather unfortunate placement in a highschool class filled with troubled (and troublesome) 16-year-old students, and a teacher who expects limited behavioural control from the students. I have taught for five days, and I'm feeling like I get worse every day.
I'm great at planning (I've got unit plans and lesson plans, and find it fun and easy to put together slideshows, and handouts, and activities), and I'm passionate about my subject matter, but I am more overwhelmed teaching a single class than I ever would have imagined. There are so many things going on at once, I don't know what to do with myself. When I'm in front of the students, I am awkward, and worry about how to stand, where to put my hands, how to speak... and I wind up thinking of all of these things when I'm supposed to be teaching. Behaviours that don't worry their regular teacher truly bother me to the point where it's all I can think about. I've even started panicking before class (which is after lunch) to the extent that I can't eat. I need help. I'm feeling useless, and incapable, which I know I'm not.

I have 15 more days of teaching over the next three weeks until I am finished with this placement. I am in desperate need of suggestions for how to make it through this... I don't want to give up on my dream of being a teacher, but I am afraid that if I don't stop feeling like this, I won't be able to do it.

Explain the context of the class thoroughly in the lesson plan when you get observed. Plus, the bad behaviour is currently the teacher's responsibility, and not yours. I think observers will understand this. Also, just be yourself. I used to get told in observations that I was trying to control myself too much. Even if you are a bit awkward, in some ways, if the students are focusing on how eccentric the teacher is, they're not sat around doing their hair and texting on their phone. Though it can be horrible feeling like you have to provide a kind of degrading spectacle to a bunch of unappreciative teens all the time. Just think of the good it's doing them behind the scenes. They're learning something, and they haven't really learned much in a long time.

Once you graduate, you have several options:
1. Work for a distance learning/e-learning company.
2. Be a private tutor.
3. Work in a special school.
4. If you want to stay in a place like you're in now, find somewhere that has supportive colleagues who will observe you and give you tips. Don't work as a substitute teacher or for an agency - try and get a permanent job, because then the school will invest in you more.

option 5. Get a regular teaching situation, and not an unnecessarily difficult teaching situation.