5 tips for surviving Prac

When it's all over you will understand this feeling all too well!

I'm not saying I am an expert on how to survive prac or that I was particularly impressive myself. But...there are a few things I wish I knew before I began my prac so I thought I would pass them on.


  1. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
 I don't just mean write up a lesson plan and get all your resources together. I mean check that your class will be at school that day. Are there any upcoming excursions, incursions or school events that would mean they will miss your class or it will be shorter? Assume that all technology will fail every single time you step into a classroom. It's the only way to be prepared for the (hopefully) odd occasion that it does. This may require printing off some worksheets or simply having a copy you can quickly write up on the board yourself. Also show your MT your lesson plans ASAP so that you have enough time to make any necessary changes.

2. Get involved in school life
Volunteer to do extra tasks, help other teachers or even run your own club. Extra tasks could be marking or helping to organise a school event. I ran lunch time speaking practise classes during prac so have a think about how you could add something to school life for your students.

3. Learn from teachers in other subjects
Whenever you have spare time, unless you genuinely need to be preparing lessons, go and observe other teachers. From any discipline. All teachers have something to teach you, even if it's simply what not to do.

4. Work as little as possible.
Depending on how your Uni works, you will be doing a block or rolling prac. I guess for students undertaking a block prac it will be easier not to work but I must stress that a rolling prac can be just as much work. Therefore, it's best to cut down your hours if possible. If you still aren't sure whether to work or not check out my advice on "To Work or not to work".

5. Remember that no beginning teacher is perfect!
You are a student here too so don't be too hard on yourself. Also our MT may give you feedback that seems a little harsh but remember that they are doing it for your own good. If you are even stressed out about some seemingly negative feedback - I can assure you I received plenty! And I made it through :) We all have tough days when the students are feral, technology fails or our lesson simply doesn't go to plan. But you will survive!

On another note, if you have a particularly lovellllyy MT who doesn't give much feedback or tends to only give positive feedback then consider showing your lesson plans (discretely) to the Head Teacher or University Lecturer. You really are on prac to learn to be the best teacher you can be so you need constructive feedback. If all else fails, make sure you reflect on how your lessons went and how they could be improved.

For some more tips on Master Teachers check out my post on "Dealing with Master Teachers". For all the teachers out there, I would love to hear what other advice you have for Prac Students and how they can survive their placement.

The Overseas Teaching Experience

Many new grad teachers choose to do some amount of time abroad teaching. Usually 6-12 months and generally in the UK or possibly Asian countries teaching English. I think this is a great idea and such a fantastic way to travel as well as gently easy yourself into the world of teaching without supervision!

I taught in Spain for 6 months as part of a program through the Spanish Goverment. Anyone who is interested I will post a link below but they require basic Spanish skills although you can have any undergraduate degree. Anywhoo....

Things to consider if you are moving overseas to teach:

• Do you want to travel whilst you are there? Check that the city or town you are going to be in is easy and cheap to travel from. I was in Madrid and although this is a capital city it isn't the hot tourist destination that places like Barcelona or Malaga so the flights to other parts of Europe were actually quite expensive.
• Do you want to learn the language? My best advice for anyone wanting to learn the language would be not to go to a big city. More people speak English here and will be very excited to practise with you, especially if you look like a foreigner. For me, being blonde haired and blue eyed in Spain I stook out like a sore thumb. Also, don't hang out with all the other expats. You will just end up speaking English. Take language classes in combination with practising with native speakers too. Save up for these classes and go intensive if you can. You are only there for a short time so really want to make to most of it.
• Be very careful when finding accommodation. Save enough money to stay in a hotel for the first few weeks if you have to or try and find an English speaking real estate agent who can help you if you don't have any friends or colleagues to help you out. Depending on what you want find out what the demographics of different areas are. For example if you are wanting to meet other young people move into a student area, also good for cheap rent. If you want to practise the language then avoid these areas.
• Save, save and save some more before you go so you can make the most of all the great opportunities that arise once you are there.

A few other programs I know about for anyone wanting to do this are:

Spain 

 http://www.mecd.gob.es/australia/convocatorias/programas/auxiliares-de-conversacion-australianos.html

There is also the Endeavour Program through the DET. Asian language students can attend these once they finish uni and all others after 1 years of teaching the language. The DET pays for EVERYTHING so it's really a must-do. Plus you can do one every 5 years.

http://deewr.gov.au/endeavour-language-teacher-fellowship-practising-language-teacher-questions

Practicum Advice: To work or not to work?

Work and practicum is like work and more work with more work because you're also doing Uni work and that's just all too much work for even this sentence. My number one, ultimate, best, I wish I had been told this piece of advice for anyone about to undertake prac whilst studying full time is DON'T WORK or work as little as possible. You might end up looking like the cat above. And as much as I love cats, the sight of a povo uni student looking this stressed is never good!

I know, I know you are thinking but I won't have any money? Well my friend, let me ask you, what is more valuable: money for, well really not a whole lot because during prac you will have very little spare time to spend any money or your sanity? I made the mistake of thinking the money was more important and worked over 30 hours a week and did prac on top of full time uni (half of which was external) and I would not recommend it for the following reasons:

• You can't give any activity your best effort when focusing on so much
• There isn't enough time in each day for most of these activities to be done well
• It's stressful so you need some time to relax
• When you start working again you will appreciate whatever crappy job you have and then appreciate a teaching job even more when you get one!

Also, I should mention that Youth Allowance or NewStart Allowance may be an option for some people and although it's not a lot it might at least pay the bills whilst you are on prac. Definitely worth considering!!! I know the majority of the people in my class were receiving Youth Allowance during prac. Contact Centrelink for more info.

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/youth-allowance

Practicum Advice: Dealing with Master Teachers

That leads me to dealing with Master Teachers. I had experience with some fantastic, innovative Master Teachers who challenged me and provided me with every opportunity to become the best possible teacher. For teachers like this I would advise taking on every task they offer you. These kinds of teachers won't ask you to do their photocopying but instead might ask you to transcribe an entire class worth of Spanish HSC trial spoken responses. This may seem worse for some, but they only ask you to do things that they know you will learn from. And I did learn from transcribing all those spoken responses - I now know the common errors HSC Beginner Spanish students make and the structure of HSC spoken exam. 

Now that I'm out in the workforce I'm so thankful for all these challenges because they have really given me an edge over other candidates. Gracia Dios for teachers like this!

I also trained with a fantastic, vetran Spanish Teacher whose rapport with the students astounds me even to this day. He really did make teaching look so easy! But he has been doing it for over 40 years so that should give us all some hope. After that long it will be second nature. Only 38.5 years to go then.....

Collaboration with other teachers is invaluable. As I trained in languages, my department was never one in it's own. I mean to say the language department was combined with another. At my first school with the music department. Observe these teachers too! They may cal you for casual days once you finish if you have shown a keen interest in their subjects. Plus they often have great advice about teaching and are more than willing to share it with you. I found that behaviour management skills can be learnt from a variety of subject areas. 

If you are unfortunate enough to be dealing with a difficult MT then I advise you to try and keep them happy as much as you can - as they will be writing your prac report. It is always a shame to work with a poor MT as you don't get to learn as much and it can be quite disheartening to see how unenthusiastic some teachers have become.Depending on what subject you are teaching, it may be possible to discuss a change of placement with your University if it is really that bad. My University was very understanding when I spoke to the Unit Convener about the issues but at the end of the day it was so difficult for me to get a placement (as I was teaching German) that it was deemed best for me to remain at the school. I also spoke with the Head Teacher because the majority of my issues were that the MT was disrupting the class herself (often walking around talking during class or handing out notes during my lessons). Therefore making my job much more strenuous as the class was particularly disruptive to begin with. In this case it can be better to do what the Head Teacher advises. For example my Master Teacher would tell me not to bother giving the misbehaving student detention as they would not bother coming so there was no point. However, the Head Teacher said this was an acceptable behaviour management strategy with this class and furthermore advised me on how to structure the detention to make it more meaningful. His suggestions included making sure the students had something to do during detention so it wasn't just sitting there. EG writing out school rules or completing class work. 

The Head Teacher was also receptive to my suggestion to discuss with the students what they themselves thought would help them to work better in class. This also actually produced some surprising and enlightening responses from the students. They asked not to sit with their friends! Something my MT then refused to do and reprimanded them for suggesting. So as you can tell, all teachers have varying ideas about how to deal with disruptive students. We don't just learn what to do on prac, but also what not to do. 

So in summary, to effectively deal with Master Teachers:

• Communicate - ask what they want you to prepare, ask what you can to do help them out (marking ect)., talk to Head Teachers and Uni Lecturers about any problems
• Play nice - be polite and professional as they will be writing your prac report
• Appreciate that they have taken you on - Master Teachers are very busy themselves especially around HSC and report time.And don't forget to say thank you!
• Get to know teachers in other subjects and observe their lessons. 

Practicum advice: Block or rolling prac?

So it's been nearly a year since I finished my practicum!! I remember feeling like I would never get through it and I don't think I have ever been as stressed in my life as I was during the 10 odd months I did my prac over.

My uni runs a rolling prac rather than block prac sessions as part of the Diploma of Education. I found this to be a good thing and a bad thing.

Pros:

• More authentic experience of what you will most likely be doing once you finish - casual teaching
• You get to know the school, teachers and students better
• Expose to a range of activities within the school - the most useful for me was HSC and HSC trials. If you aren't in the school during these times you simply don't get the exposure to it. I was lucky enough to help write and mark HSC papers which I think is an invaluable skill.
• Improves your time management skills

Cons:

• You may only be there a few days a week so it's even more difficult in terms of behaviour management as the students have different teachers for the same class and can be confused as to what exactly the boundaries are.
• You are stuck with the same Master Teacher for a long time (not so bad if your MT is awesome!)
• It is very difficult to manage full time study and work on top of prac. I would advise against working all together if possible but I know this is almost impossible for the majority of us.

Overall, I think the running prac is a better albeit more challenging method of running a practicum placement. It can be very stressful not just for you as the student teacher but your Master Teacher as well. Often they are juggling HSC or Naplan for primary on top of dealing with a student teacher.