I graduated with a PGCE from The University of Bristol in 2011. Here’s five things I wish they’d told me.
1. Just because things are shiny and new, it doesn’t mean the kids learn more.
OK. Maybe I’m slightly exaggerating here. I was never explicitly told that just by making things appear sparkly and laced with a ‘new’ piece of technology that the kids would learn more. But the PGCE class certainly seemed to think this way, me included. Perhaps what’s more disappointing is that we were never explicitly told otherwise.
To illustrate this point, I’d like to recall our PGCE ‘showcase’ session, where each student in the cohort showcased an element of their practice they felt would be interesting / valuable to others. I remember delivering a less than inspiring 20 minute session on accents and how I thought we could encourage students to write in standard English whilst maintaining their beautiful Bristolian twangs. I was…
View original post 1,012 more words
