New teacher's diary - October 2007

Steve Rivers (PGDE: Primary student)

It’s now the end of week 4 of the PGDE and I’ve really enjoyed adapting back to student life although it’s quite different from the first time around. There are 300 of us for a start and everyone on the course seems to be very motivated, which is necessary considering the fairly intensive workload. Lectures have been focused on getting to know the 3–5 and 5–14 guidelines and theories of child development and teaching and learning. There have been plenty of introductory workshops about the various areas of learning, geared towards helping us in our first placement in nursery.

The tutors are amazingly helpful, enthusiastic and positive. It’s been fun working in groups, sharing our ideas and experiences, getting to know each other and working on our presentation skills. This last week culminated in a 45-minute group presentation and from the point of view of myself and my group, this was a really fun and helpful way to learn about the nursery. Fears about giving presentations, which I certainly had, are much reduced after these past few weeks.

The nursery placement starts on Monday, for two weeks, and I had two introductory days in the nursery last week in order to get to know the staff and children and observe the workings of the nursery. I was a bit apprehensive, having not worked specifically with pre-school children before, and I expected the children to be apprehensive of me to some extent. This wasn’t the reality though. The children seemed quite excited (over-excited at times!) to have a new face around and I really enjoyed my intro days and I’m envisaging a great experience. Everyone has set themselves goals for the placement in conjunction with their tutor and it’s serious business now as the placement in nursery is the first assessed part of the PGDE. We’re expected to show that we can interact with children in the nursery and observe and support their learning according to the 3–5 guidelines and this is quite an involving task.

The last few weeks have been a great experience, not least getting to know some of the other 299 people on the course. I can only say my enthusiasm for getting on with the process of teaching is even greater. Fingers crossed the nursery placement will remain as positive.