PGCE Reflections: Day One

Hello everyone!

Today's post is a little reflection on my first day of the PGCE course at Sheffield Hallam University. It was a welcome day was separated into three main parts, and thank goodness Google Maps had all the buildings labelled or I would've ended up completely lost!

1. PGCE Secondary General Introduction:

This only lasted an hour and was to give us information about the university and where we can find help for certain things like finance, placements, mental health and other potential problems. It was a little depressing, I must admit. It made it seem as if we are all going to suffer miserably over the next year. Let's hope not!

?The funny part was being given an internet safety talk about how anyone can view your information and that you are always at risk of your profile being screen-shot and sent to others. Didn't we all learn that when we were 12? Anyway...

2. Enrollment:

It wasn't entirely clear what we needed to bring or do for this, so if you haven't had your enrollment yet (or are reading this in 2020) I'd recommend emailing someone to clarify. I brought all of my certificates, my DBS and my passport and driving license with me, as well as a 'pre-enrollment' form we had to fill out online.

I noticed many people didn't have one or two of these forms, which meant they won't be able to enroll until next week and therefore delaying their student finance.

3. PGCE Secondary English Introduction:

This was a two hour lecture that I expected to be quite boring, but thankfully it was informative and a lot of fun. Our tutors encouraged us to be extremely reflective, asking us to write a letter to our future self (teaching related, of course) and also think about our favourite books.

In case you're wondering, my favourite books are:

The Great Gatsby, Matilda, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Harry Potter series.

It was great to be able to discuss books and teaching without being made to feel like a total nerd.

I can already feel that our lecturers are going to teach us the way we could teach the students in school, giving us ideas continuously throughout the day related to gaining attention or dealing with potential problems. I really enjoy this style of teaching and it's also similar to how I was taught on the CELTA course.

Thankfully, I made two lovely friends and I also spoke to Unions, who were kindly giving out some freebies:

Wall planners, academic diaries, pens, stress balls, a travel cup and some bags!

My initial feelings after my first day?

Well, I'm absolutely overwhelmed. I'm terrified, but I'm also feeling excited.

My main concern is that the students will hate me / think I'm boring / old / weird and that I won't be able to control / help / support the students who misbehave.

We'll soon find out...

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who follows my blog, engages with me and shares my posts. I never thought I'd have much power through my words but just knowing that there are a few people reading really makes a difference!