E-Book Overview
If you are interested in a career in teaching but not sure where to start, this book is the perfect guide. Written for anybody considering taking an initial teacher training course, this down-to-earth book is a straightforward and very helpful manual which will take you through all the stages of choosing a course, preparing for training and completing the course itself. It is a comprehensive and supportive guide to help you decide whether teaching is the career for you, and to what you can expect in the job. Chapters include: o What is a teacher? o The good news about teaching - working with children o Routes to qualified teacher status and how to choose the right one for you o Help with study skills, including essay writing, organisation and record-keeping o How to survive your teaching placements o Developing your professionalism o Coping with the bad news - teacher workload, bureaucracy and stress o How to get your first job Written in an engaging and humorous - but above all, supportive - style, the book is essential pre-course reading for prospective student teachers.
E-Book Content
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So You Want to be a Teacher?
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So You Want to be a Teacher? Fred Sedgwick
Los Angeles • London • New Delhi • Singapore
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© Fred Sedgwick 2008 First published 2008 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B1/I1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road New Delhi 110 044 SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02–01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007936693 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN-978-1-4129-4507-3 ISBN-978-1-4129-4508-0 (pbk) Typeset by Pantek Arts Ltd, Maidstone, Kent Printed in India by Replika Press Printed on paper from sustainable resources
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for Daniel, again ‘By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.’ (Latin proverb, quoted in Grey, 2003) ‘I touch the future. I teach.’ (Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian in space)
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my friends for their comments: Rosa Aers, Emma Bayliss, John Fisher, Seamus Fox, Carly Gulliver, Jill Haine, David Hampson, Dorothy Hampson, Terri Morgan, Emily Roeves, Colin Sedgwick, Daniel Sedgwick and Nina Sedgwick. And especially, Helen Fairlie of SAGE. None of them is, of course, responsible for any crudities that remain.
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Contents
Abbreviations Preface: A back-pocket book
ix xi
Chapter 1 ‘Teaching is the profession that creates all others’ The teachers’ world Voices from the non-teaching world Teaching – a vocation? Choosing a career – or a job? The saloon bar and the classroom Four groups of readers What is a teacher? Schooling isn’t what it’s about So what is