At Edusites English it is our mission to provide you with insightful and relevant English CPD to drive your team expertise and results strategy. Click below to read about GCSE English Language and Literature AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas and OCR, and IGCSE Language and Literature Edexcel and CIE.
Throughout my life I have always struggled with my high functioning anxiety, and when I went to university this hit an all time high to the point where I couldn’t bring myself to get on public transport, so my attendance at university really suffered. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about this and I guess, this is actually the first time I am openly discussing this and I think learning to become a teacher has really gave me the strength to not only discuss it, but to embrace it and take control of it.
When I started my training year I was beyond nervous, my anxiety had kept me up most nights and I just couldn’t seem to stop all the negative thoughts whizzing through my brain. It felt like I was a young girl and my anxiety was a colossal pit bull barking at me with full vicious teeth showing ready to tear my throat out at any moment. I was petrified of letting others see me fail or getting something wrong as I thought this reflected me as a person and then I would be ostracized, forever known as that girl who did X, Y and Z.
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For me, teaching was always the plan. Go to school, college, university then become a teacher. I even signed this in my year 6 leavers book. During my rough childhood, books allowed me to escape reality and my teachers made me feel loved and wanted, which I craved. I thought, what better job to have than one that inspires people and cares for them at the same?
As I walked through the school gates on the first day of placement I was nervous beyond belief. Every step I took gave me more anxiety. Am I walking like a teacher? Am I dressed correctly? Did I pack my highlighters? Will they think I am unprofessional for not having a sharpener? Multiple questions were running through my brain as I tried to gather my thoughts. As I entered the school, I started to look for what I had been told about: lazy reception staff, children fighting and arguing but there was none. Everyone was calm and the environment was peaceful, something I hadn’t prepared myself for. It is true when they say you can over prepare yourself!
There is frequent mention of a range of commands: see Edusites English Glossary of Frequently Used English GCSE Terms in Associated Resources but ‘evaluate’ needs clear definition here. The OED gives us ‘appraise’ ‘assess’. In turn we get to ‘estimate the worth of’ and ‘estimate the quality of’. So as far as we are concerned it means to make qualitative judgements about what has been read: with the constant proviso that these are supported by evidence from and reference to the text.
Edusites English expert Component 1 series to improve exam outcomes using precision tools to diagnose and develop skills. Practice Eduqas Component 1 exam paper with indicative content and student self-marking slides.
With each theme, this section looks at how the extract materials could be used in the classroom with one example for each theme developed further into a set of exam questions based on the exam paper, with some indicative content. The skills descriptors for each level for each question can be found at the back of the anthology with supporting detail.
Presented at both The Team English Conference and the ResearchEd National Conference this series of resources combine the latest research to improve creative writing. Directed towards improvements for the GCSE English Language Paper this resource can be used in conjunction with any qualification which includes a Creative Writing element.
I imagine I am not alone in finding myself nervous as I prepare the second cohort of students for the ‘new’ Edexcel IGCSE specification for English Language. ‘One down: learn from it and move onwards’ goes the dictum. But it is not that easy.
