| This year, my second year, I decided it was time to do QTS. I have a good salary, so no motivation that way to rush it, but I figured if I wanted to find a new position at any point, it'd be good to have my qualification finished (although I know a woman who is in her 4th year here and just doing hers, AND she switched jobs, taking a Head of Department WITHOUT qts, so it's not necessarily needed to change jobs).
I went to the OTTP Conference at the end of October, started the work in November, and they want me done next week (March 10th). The evaluator/assessor is returning then to watch a couple more lessons, scrutinise my portfolio, and that should be that. Yesterday I finished it (2 a.m.!), and now I just need to plan the 2 lessons he'll observe.
I'm not sure I'd recommend this method; it was quite a time crunch. In addition to all the new tasks at work which I didn't have last year (no year 11's, no sixth form, so all that teaching and mock-exam marking is new to me), I had to fit in lots of observations and time to work on my portfolio. But I've gotten through it (hopefully!) and it'll be over next week.
There are two ways to do it, and the evaluator decides when he/she visits with you the first time: You can either do Q-standards one year with an induction year to follow (and C-Standards then), or if you seem to know what you're doing (experienced), they'll combine the two. That's the route I was given. But shortening mine up to just a few months did make it a bit of a crunch. And there are 41 Standards, and the school insists on 3 or more pieces of evidence per Standard, so that's a LOT of gathering! Also, I had to cram in the TDA Skills Tests with no room for make-up if I failed -- they're very over-booked at this time of year. Fortunately, I passed them all first time -- not difficult at all.
Anyway, it's about over . . . Feels FANTASTIC! Need to celebrate next week!
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| Congratulations English Teacher on achieving QTS. |
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Congrats, English Teacher. It's a long road but you'll reap so much from it!
Cindy |
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| Thank you both, and congrats to you, too, Meli. |
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Finally, officially, done! Had the last observation today (crossed the last 't', dotted the final 'i').
It's OVER!
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