I did mine 3 years ago... but as no-one else has replied and I don't think it's changed too much... lectures def not 9-5. Think I was in 9-1 or 10-3 etc depending on the day. Placements - well you're in school. So half 8 to be in and organised and I doubt you'll leave before 4 with planning & all the tasks and crap (ahem I mean helpful educational assignments) they make you do.

Can't count... 4 years. Current students please feel free to correct me if the above has changed.

 I'm doing Modern Studies there just now, and the timetable is not too dissimilar.

 This year, we have lectures on a Monday and Wednesday morning (9am) and tutorials afterwards - usually finished by about 1.30 at the latest. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are set aside for "curricular studies" - that's when you work with your subject groups. In Geography, I think they only do Tuesdays from about 10 to 4 - we're usually in 10 - 5 and sometimes on Thursdays too, but it is up to the tutor to decide.

We also had a cross-curricular thing where all three social sciences worked together, and that had to be done outside of class time in the first Uni block before placement 1.

 However, you are warned that you need to assume that you will be available from 9 - 5 every day, and you can have extra classes added if needed. There's also an "options" topic, the timetabling of which varies depending on what you're doing. In practice, though, you're never in for a full week but the only day you can really say this is likely to be certain is a Friday.

 Placement though is a completely different kettle of fish - what you have been told is simply a lot of rubbish. You are expected to be in school from before the bell to at least hometime. However, the amount of work you have to do on placement is such that in effect you can be going from 8am to 10pm every day, including weekends, depending on what you have to do. Certainly, in those periods, forget about having any semblance of a life outside of school and school work. You said you're married, but you don't say if you have any kids or not - if you do (I have a 10 year old daughter) I'd really recommend that one of you reconsider and do it next year as I really think that this would put a real pressure on your family life.

Hi, thankfully no children yet, was planning one in the probation year then taking a year out. Just trying to work out how many hours I can work a week.  Currently do 21 over three evenings (I am a waitress in TGI's) but will be cutting this down to 14 as soon as the post grad starts.  Have to keep working to pay the mortgage!  Will probably just do Friday and Saturday evenings to make up the 14 hours so I don't have any commitments during the week to focus on uni work, and will always have Sundays off.

Bye bye life!

 You should be able to manage that, especially if it's Friday and Saturday (I usually try to keep Friday eves free, but it doesn't always work) even on placement. There are a couple of people on my course who work part time too and they seem to manage it OK even during placement.

Good luck for next year - hope it's all worth it for you!

Thanks very much for the helpful info.  Does the uni give you out a blank lesson plan or a filled in lesson plan as an example?  Or do you have to make up your own one. I've yet to write one.

 I think it depends on the tutor. There's a blank one which we all have to use (and believe me, is more detailed than it ever needs to be - almost all teachers I've shown it to think it's completely over the top!) Our tutor took us through it and gave us an example of a completed one, and there's also some guidance on what they're expecting. Don't worry too much about trying one now - there's a bit of a technique to what they want you to do and you probably need to be shown it for it to work best.

Thanks for the above chat/info guys, it's wonderful how helpful everyone is on here. Can I also ask Amysdad a question? I am starting this August also (Biology) and have a concern that some area's that I have not studied in my degree (as I presume with most students) will obviously be part of the curriculum. I have spoke to several teachers who say that 'as long as you are one step ahead of the pupils' you will be fine.!! This makes me very nervous..... Do you know well in advance what you will be teaching when you start placement? Or is is a case of 'by the way tomorrow you are teaching...'??

No problem! It's the same with all subjects - I've got stuff in Modern Studies I know nothing about (Brazil, South Africa...) and your info is right - the first time you do it you just need to keep ahead of the pupils. In fact, as I type this, I'm procrastinating over preparing a lesson plan for tomorrow afternoon on the Politics of Aid, which I've never taught or studied. The way it works with Secondary is you'll get what's called a two week "induction" placement before Placement 1 - that's when you need to be observing and that's when you'll need to speak to your teachers and get an idea of where the classes are likely to be in your topic by the time you come in on placement 1. Again, at the start of placement 1, you should still be mainly observing or teaching parts of lessons planned by the class teacher (I wasn't, but that's a whole other story) so by the time you're flying solo you should be pretty much clear about where the classes are. Don't worry too much about it - what you'll probably find is that the content comes rushing back, even if you did it 20+ years ago like me!

Thanks Amysdad! That was my plan (use my induction placement wisely to work out future topics) so hopefully it goes well... Are you expected to teach all levels in your first placement? As in S1-S6? I'm really looking forward to starting, although nervous (if I tell myself once more that I'm going to bottle it I'll scream!) I know I will enjoy it. Now stop procrastinating and get your lesson plan done!!! You posted this on the 29th of Feb and it's now the 08th of March so I'm guessing the plan is complete, taught and saved for another day :)

It all depends on your school, really. Most people seem to have had mainly S1 - S3 in placement 1, with observation of Higher - I did get an S5 Intermediate 2 class as well though. In placement 2, though, I've got one Higher class per week and one S4 Standard Grade as well as an Int 2 class. Most PTs though won't let you have complete control of a Higher class - more likely you'll be team teaching or taking individual lessons under supervision, there's just too much at risk. I haven't seen Advanced Higher at all, but then I think that the course and teaching style for that needs to be so different that it's not really worthwhile at the moment.

 Hi there

I'm doing PGDE Music at the moment, almost there, one more long essay and one short essay to go, then a wee break before the last placement :-)

Here my timetable for the year: I have university stuff on Mondays and Wednesday and Tuesdays (your subject), sometimes a Thursday. This only during uni time, when on placement you're in school 8.30am at the latest, often until 4pm. Depending on school and department obviously.

I do not much more than preparing lessons and at the moment also the second big essay, due 3 days after the end of placement 2. Thanks :-(

But this course goes so quickly ... amazing.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

scotkat

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 PGDE FULL-TIME ‘Year at a Glance’ Timetable 2011 - 2012

Week Commencing		Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
15 August 2011
22 August			Registration
29 August		Course Starts
5 September
12 September
19 September		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
26 September		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
3 October
10 October
17 October
24 October
31 October		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
7 November		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
14 November		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
21 November		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
28 November		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
5 December		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
12 December
19 December		Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday
26 December		Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday
2 January 2012		Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday
9 January
16 January
23 January
30 January
6 February		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
13 February		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
20 February		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
27 February		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
5 March		Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in
12 March		Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in	Sec out Prim in
19 March
26 March		Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in
2 April		Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday
9 April		Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday	Holiday
16 April		Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in	Prim out Sec in	Holiday
23 April		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
30 April		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
7 May		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
14 May		Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement	Placement
21 May
28 May			Course conference	Course conference	Course conference	Closing Ceremony
4 June		May holiday	Holiday Golden Jubilee

[edited by: scotkat at 17:00 (GMT 0) on 11-3-2012]

amysdad

 I think it depends on the tutor. There's a blank one which we all have to use (and believe me, is more detailed than it ever needs to be - almost all teachers I've shown it to think it's completely over the top!) Our tutor took us through it and gave us an example of a completed one, and there's also some guidance on what they're expecting. Don't worry too much about trying one now - there's a bit of a technique to what they want you to do and you probably need to be shown it for it to work best.

 

 

Don't worry about the big lesson plan.  It actually HAS to be that detailed because it's used by visiting tutors who need the WHOLE context of a lesson.  The huge amount of detail is for the tutor, not for the student, and is therefore only used rarely.

There is a shorter lesson plan to use on a day to day basis.