A year has passed since I completed my Degree and gained QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). I often come back to this blog and look back through the posts fondly, and reflect on what a delightful whirlwind the whole experience was. This year, I have just been a teacher completing the NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) program. I use the word ‘just’ as I do feel that it is quite a step down from the pressures and progress made last year. None the less, teaching is not easy, and when thrust into the absolute thick of it with no other distractions, it is rather daunting! Anyway, all is well and I continuously reflect back to last year and think I will always see it as being one of my life’s greatest achievements.
I have to confess, as much as I enjoyed my degree and all that I gained from it, there was always a greater goal. A three year journey now comes to a complete close with the above certificate. I never shared the fact that I was doing my GTP (Graduate Teacher Program) with my fellow cohort for fear of counting my chickens before they had hatched. I undertook my GTP in January of this year once I was as close enough to a graduate within the academic year and embarked on six months of absolute epic amounts of work and stress from holding a full time teaching position (as I had done all throughout my degree), undertaking my GTP training (2x 3000 assignments, three school placements, three hours of lectures a week, collection of 100 pieces of evidence against the 33 QTS standards and 20 formal lesson observations) and of course finishing my degree (10,000 word dissertation and 6,000 word supplementary module).
Now at the end of it, I am a qualified ICT teacher, something I have aimed for every single day for the last three years. Any school in the country (and in fact most of the world) is now available to me and I have already had two job offers. I will be staying put for now, but never loosing my drive throughout this process, the next mile stone is not that far away.
It’s almost a week since it all came to the most anti-climatic of conclusions, and I find myself with time in the evenings, something I have not known in some time. It is so nice to be able to pull up on the drive, open the front door and know that that is the end of the working day. I do, however, wonder how long this will last…
So here I am, three years from the crisis that was my dilemma about higher education and I am now at the end of a very successful degree course of study. I have submitted over 70,000 words (or equivalent with alternative medias) and very likley to graduate with Upper second-class Honours this Autumn.
It has been one of the best journeys of my life and I have probably learnt more about myself and my own capabilities than the course content itself. That is not to say I have not learnt much, its just the personal gains have been so great, I feel that I could conquer the world! It may be about 30 working days until I get my marks back, but I remain confident – one such attribute I have developed in this course.
From here, it is onwards to a career in teaching, knowing full well that I have the transferable skills needed to do anything I set my mind to.
P.S, My gift to those still on the course and fellow students joining me in crossing the finishing line, a spreadsheet programmed to work out your final grade, given the weighting of the modules and so on: Mark Calculator(This spreadsheet has nothing to do with Anglia Ruskin University, I made it myself and I cannot guarantee its accuracy. Use as a guide only)
The Work Based Major Project is coming along and is almost complete. I daren’t post it here in full until it is marked and when it is, you will be able to see it here.
What I can do though is to pass it through Wordle and the result is above. Looks like the themes of the project are clear from this simple analysis! (Click the image for a better look)
So, the first of the dashes went well. The Work Based Major Project is indeed 90% complete and the supplementary module is almost there too. I was very pleased how the ‘two week dash‘ went with objectives set out for myself at the beginning and seeing them met at the end was a good feeling.
Only to do now is making sure the behemoth that is the Work Based Major Project is hitting the mark criteria!
Another two week dash on my hands now before the submission date of the 3rd of May.
Not quite the Easter holidays as my School has strange yearly timetables, but it is still two weeks off none the less. Two weeks I have with nothing socially significant planned where I basically aim to finish off the majority of the semester. The extended possibility is to have it all finished, in draft form at least, by the end of the two weeks. More realistically, however, is to have the Work Based Major Project 90% complete and Impact Review and Career Progression almost there too.
That is the aspirational target however, other members of the cohort have commented that about 40% of the work gets done in the last two weeks of the semester, we shall see just how true that turns out to be this time!
Like the fanboy that I am, last night I queued for just over 2 hours to pick up a shiny new iPad 2, 32 GB, Wi-Fi model. I had never owned an iPad before and the feature bumps and quicker processor in the second incarnation of the device managed to persuade me to part with my cash.
So why am I putting this rather un-interesting news on a degree blog? Well, many people are calling the iPad a post-pc device, inferring that the device is like the next version of the personal computer to be used by the masses. Being an ICT teacher by trade, I obviously am wanting to get in on the action and see the devices application in the workplace / classroom. What I am proposing to do is to spend as much time on the iPad as I can and detach from my laptop. Is this possible with the current feature set and notable limitations of the device? That’s what I want to find out. Are the limitations of the device actually a new framework for using a device like this? These are all things I want to look into.
Now, I might be absolutely mad doing this now at the stage where there is only about a month to go until the work based major project is handed in, but that fits in nicely with the experiment, can I finish my work based major project on an iPad? That will be something to tell the grandkids…
The experiment has already begun, I am writing this post on the aforementioned device and I have already noticed how quickly I can type and also just how few mistakes I make on this keyboard!
So here we go, into the unknown, but the very exciting!
I am now at the stage of refining and expanding my Work Based Major Project (dissertation) in line with exactly what is required. This process has been heavily facilitated by a supervisory meeting with my project supervisor. This was a 7:30am start over Skype that got a few key points down. The key things raised were that of both Research and Evidence themes throughout the project. These were two key points that came up most, allowing me to understand the underpinning premises of the project and what the aim really is.
Another key phrase that came up was “Not that the dog is walking on its hind legs, its how well its doing it.” This means basically that its not just the fact thaqt you are doing something good, its that you are doing something good that is fit for purpose.
Woah, almost let February slip by without posting here!
So where am I now? I have successfully (I think) completed my Action Inquiry for my Work Based Major Project and I am now going through my Dissemination schedule. Not quite as it was planned exactly, but expect to see the on-line stage of that dissemination on here soon.
There are a whole 68 days to go and although that seems a fair way off, past experiences have shown that it creeps round fast! Left to do is basically write the whole thing up in a way that makes sense and demonstrates that all important graduate skill. There is a supplementary module going on at the moment named ‘Impact Review and Career Progression’ This offers a great opportunity to look at the next steps after graduation, and although I am sitting pretty with a permanent contract, it never hurts to think of other possibilities and of course the next steps…
Posted by Toby 
Toby's BA 