| So i am just wondering...how different is it teaching in the Uk then the US? |
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Well...
It's not exactly a "block schedule" over here but that's the closest thing I can think of in the States. At the begining of the year, I saw 11 different groups of kids, all studying different topics, and coming at different times of the day. For instance, 11Q4 (that's the name designation for one of my classes) were year 11's who on week A came Mon 1st, Tues 4th, and Friday 2nd then on week B came Mon 2nd and Fri 5th. 7L was a group of year 7s I saw only week B Monday 4th as they had 3 different teachers. I had three year 11 groups, 1 year 10 group, 1 year 9 group, 2 year 8 groups, and 4 year 7 groups. None of the year 7 groups were scheduled to study the same topic at the same time, which makes lesson planning a bit of a struggle at times. I was also alotted only one PPA (planning period) per week originally, but that turns out to have been a scheduling mistake and once it was caught they quickly gave me 1 more per week.
Discipline is also a bit more of a struggle as you can't just hit the intercom and send them to the office with a referral. If you want to remove them due to disruption, you actually have to leave the room and either take the kid to another classroom designated to handle disruptive kids or go to a telephone and call for an On-call teacher to come and collect the kid.
Kids aren't graded and aren't "held back" or
"failed" here. Instead you predict there levels of attainment as the kids move from year to year. They are then tested in year 9 to see if the school is properly progressing them and then again in year 11 to see what qualifications they are leaving high school with.
Otherwise, teaching is the same here.....oh and there may be jargon differences in the specific subjects. (fun, fun, fun...)
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I'm with Meli -- it's a bit challenging with so many preps. When they told me on the interview that it was a 5 period day (well, 6 counting tutor time), I was thrilled! I thought, even if I teach all five, heck, I taught 6 out of 7 in the States. This had to be better! Au contraire . . .
This year (the one ending in ONE WEEK!!) I taught 15 different classes: 3 Yr-9 English classes, 3 Yr-10 English, 2 Yr-11 English, 4 different General Studies classes, a Yr-9 citizenship, a Yr-10 PSHE . . . who am I forgetting? (That's 14, so there's one more, but it'll come to me later.)
Anyway, in the States I had (depending on the year and schedule) anywhere from 3-5 preps, total. Here, you don't have that repeating schedule, seeing the same kids in the same sequence every day, and you don't 'specialise' as we do there (I'd do the 9th and 11th grade comp, a colleague would do their lit, someone else 10th and 12th comp, another 10th and 12th lit . . . Oh no, not here. That would make life too easy, I suppose? It's a LOT of preps, a LOT of hours that I always feel could be better spent on something else.
Hope that helps answer it? There are other posts on the topic (I think one to the right, also, like the Pay Scale post).
BEST ADVICE: read, read, read (on the boards here). Fore-warned is fore-armed, as they say. Know what you're going into.
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| that sounds very confusing..maybe it would make sense when i do it. thank you for your help! |
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| Best advice I can give you is to bring your favorate teaching materials with you because there really is no where near enough time to prepare for classes during the time the school gives to you. You'll be VERY tired a lot of the time and you will NEED something easy and familiar to fall back on from time to time. It's definately worth the expense to bring teaching support materials with you. |
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