PGCE (Physics) interview this week

Dinomania

Dinomania

Dinomania

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My 3-min presentation about introducing new KS3 topics to mixed-ability Year 8s is basically done (I've gone the route of talking through a quick example lesson, Conservation of Energy).

For the rest of it - well, I have the experience of a couple of days spent observing classes in a school, of 'problem' young people on tall ship voyages, and I have a fair amount of opinion about said young people and how I think I could help them along their way.

Can I relax, all that considered, or do I need to panic about what else might be asked of me during the interview afternoon?
 
I've got an interview on Weds Sara. I don't have to any presentations or anything, just a straight forward interview. Going to get grilled though I know it.

Deffo need to have a good think for answers to questions such as.....

"How would you conduct a lesson of a particular subject in your chosen field?"
"Why do you want to be a teacher?"
"Why have you chosen (insert subject)?"
"Taking into consideration the National Curriculum what does your chosen field offer students?"
"What experience do you have of working with young people?"
"What is the importance of inclusion in education?"

I've got a list at home of a couple more which i've jotted down some things to say about them. Other than that i've just got to hope i've got my right head on on Wedsnesday!

Good luck Sara :) Let me know how you get on.
"In your opinion what makes a good teacher?"
 
Hrm, they all sound OK.

Good luck CDj!

I'm a bit wary of trying to formulate ideal answers, or I just get caught up in them and end up stumbling over myself in an effort to 'get it right'!

What do you mean by 'inclusion'?
 
Look it up, it's quite big apparantly. Basically along the lines of having children with special needs take part in normal classes rather than being split off in their own lessons all the time.

There's partial and full inclusion. My understanding of it is partial is where they are in regular lessons for most of the day (not all) and when extra assistance is needed etc the child is taken from the lesson to be with specialists etc. Full inclusion is where the child is in regular lessons all day, every day and if further support is needed it is brought into the lesson rather than removing the child from it.

Thats what I gathered from it anyway, however I could just be talking codpoop. Have you read up on the Every Child Matters stuff?
 
TBH, I haven't done all that much reading upon strategies or policies or suchlike. Hrmm.

Every Child Matters looks largely like a government thing with the "few extra duties" for the school, which sounds like yummy paperwork!

Oh, that kind of inclusion. Well the school I observed at was really very good with students who needed assistance - physically disabled as well as those with learning-difficulties.

Most of them had an assistant who followed them class-to-class and really it was very impressive to see how well they integrated. Other students were mindful of the wheelchairs in corridors but didn't give them overblown "OMG, disabled!" space - it was more like "shove up and let Jess through, innit". Interesting stuff.
 
Haven't the foggiest CDj, that's probably one of the first things I'll ask...

...getting right nervous now, got a load of documents to cheekily photocopy at work today ¬_¬
 
Yeh i've brought some notes into work to read over, i'm going to check over all my documents tonight when I get home like my degree certificate's and my GCSE/A-Levels ones too, make sure they are all still there.
 
Mmm, they didn't ask me for A-Level certs... will bring the Physics one anyway, it's rather more glowing than my engineering degree cert...

Bleuurgghhhhhh. I'm going to be a wreck tomorrow, worrying about stupid things like where to park...
 
I'm just going to set off MEGA early, so i've given myself plenty of time as I know South Manchester is a complete pita for parking. I'm pretty nervous now and know I probs will be VERY nervous tommorow.

Just going to chill out tonight, read over some stuff, have a rough idea of what I want to say in certain situations. Then leave it to the Gods lol!

Can only try our best!
 
sara said:
philstanbridge how come? Are you in training, or NQT, or what?
Click to expand...

I have a long way to go yet, which is part of the problem. I worked in a secondary school in England for 18 months, as the ICT manager, and loved it! Although there was a lot of red tape I earnt respect from the students even though I was quite a way removed from the lessons and such like. I decided a while ago to get into the teaching aspect, and wanted a fresh break. I am half way through my open uni degree, but I am hearing so many horror stories now that it is scaring me off! I know a few teachers too, and my problem is stress. That is a very bad trigger for me. A little stress is good, but a lot and I fall to pieces. There is a fine line there I realise, but I'm just not convinced at the moment. Plus the actual fact of getting into teaching is a nightmare at the moment too. I think I have had quite a confidence knock!
 
I'm generally fine in interviews too - no separate aspect of the process is scaring me, just the whole thing as a general "OMG!" is getting to me..
 
Ah-ha! I actually came on here to update this thread!

Not too confident to be honest. They didn't ask me anything to do with what I was told we we're going to talk about so it threw me off quite a few times and I had to think up a lot of stuff which I hadn't previously considered.

However, I did answer everything they asked but I don't feel it was a strong interview at all. Oh well, I could only try my best so will see what happens but i'm 99% sure I won't have got onto the course.

The whole day was a bit of a waste to be honest as the interview was only 15 mins long, and they had bit of a presentation before, but they weren't asking people much.

Obviously the general stuff like 'Why do you want to be a teacher?', and 'Why psychology?' but I don't feel I was given enough time to sell myself in the 'What experience of schools/teaching do you have?' as they led on some further questions whilst I was talking about that and led me away from letting me talk about my experience etc.

It was all very relaxed though and I wasn't anywere as nervous as I thought I would be.

How was yours Sara?
 
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It was a little anti-climactic, tbh.

I hadn't rehearsed any ideal answers, so wasn't too upset about the questions asked - but there weren't really enough of them!

I think I did the best I could do, given that interviewers had forgotten the details of the task they set us, over-analysed the only-3-minute presentations so that we ran on by about 2-3 extra hours in all, and then only gave us a ~10 minute individual interview. There was a lot of random discussion throughout interviews and analysis though, so I think they got to know us a bit through those.

Somehow about 4 extra people had turned up on the day that they were unprepared for.

I feel cheated, tbh! Will have to just wait and see what their decision is.
 
Oh, and the interviewer's phone rang twice during my interview (because we'd all run on so he was fielding calls from family) - and he went and answered it. Twice. Grr.

Thing is, cos of the sequential nature of PGCE applications, I can't get interviewed by the second choice unless I choose to reject or get rejected by my first.
 
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