A day in the life of a PLN Teacher
My experience working as a PLN teacher
Let’s start by introducing myself. I’m Lisa and I have been a teacher for Primary Languages Network for just over five years now and I love it! I started teaching just a couple of afternoons a week in two schools and now have a full timetable working four and a half days across three different schools. I work in each school for a full day or half a day; however, some teachers might work in one school in the morning and one school in the afternoon. I get to teach Spanish to lots of wonderful children and hearing those voices in the school corridor saying "Hola Señorita" makes the job so rewarding.
As a teacher going into different schools alone, PLN has made sure that we do not feel isolated, there is a supportive online staffroom in the form of a PLN teacher WhatsApp group as well as online staff meeting every half term. The WhatsApp group is such a great space where teachers can share ideas and ask any questions or advice! Sharing work is also encouraged to show what has worked well and to celebrate examples of work.
My typical day
On an average day in a school, lessons usually start at 9am and finish at around 3 - 3:15pm. I teach between six and eight lessons in a day, this includes teaching all KS2 and sometimes KS1 depending on the size of the school. Lessons vary from school to school and can range from 30 to 60 minutes. An example of a PLN timetable might look something like this although it does vary between schools:
09:00 – 09:40 Lesson 1
09:40 – 10:15 Lesson 2
Break
10:30 – 11:15 Lesson 3
11:15 – 12:00 Lesson 4
Lunch
1:00 – 1:30 Lesson 5
1:30 – 2:00 Lesson 6
2:00 – 2:30 Lesson 7
2:30 – 3:00 Lesson 8
I have a timetable which I follow weekly in each school. Having said that, it is important to be flexible, as at times there could be last minute changes to my timetable with short notice. This could be due to an assembly, or classes being out of school for a trip. I have a number of my favourite lessons and resources up my sleeve to use but the Click to Teach (C2T) scheme means that there is always a lesson there ready to pick up and go in case of a last-minute timetable change.
My lessons always begin with a greeting song ‘hola, hola’ which ensures a familiar routine and sets a good tone for the start of the lesson. Each lesson there will be a ‘Language Detective certificate’ given out at the end, so I always start by telling the children what skills they need to demonstrate during the lesson to receive the award. These skills could range from being a confident speaker, an excellent listener, making links with English and home language by finding cognates and even joining in with songs and games. At PLN we feel it is so important to train our young learners to become good language detectives.
Schemes of work and lesson planning.
The great thing about being a PLN teacher is the easy access to so many quality ready to use resources. The scheme of work and medium-term plans on the website are so easy to navigate, which reduces planning time. They ensure that all four language skills are covered including reading, writing, listening and speaking. In addition to the schemes of work there is also a vast number of extra resources from cross curricular lessons and seasonal special lessons to help celebrate special days throughout the year! As a specialist teacher, I use these schemes of work as a foundation for my lessons and as the lessons are editable, I often add games or activities that I know work well with my classes and the children enjoy. The schemes make planning so easy and quick whilst ensuring quality is maintained and progress is shown.
The PLN scheme of work provides flexible lesson plans which are incredibly useful when lesson lengths vary.
The C2T scheme is just a click away as the name suggests. With a premium plus membership the teachers in schools can also have access to the lessons in this scheme, for example, in the case of teacher absence or even to teach a lesson as part of teacher CPD.
Developing language explorers in KS1.
Not forgetting the learners in KS1, there is a brand-new language explorers scheme which follows the same principle of click to teach. This scheme is made up of two sections; let’s begin and let’s explore and lessons are planned for 15-30 minutes. It is age appropriate and the resources are based on themes which spark an interest for this age group, including dinosaurs, mini beasts, playground games and stories like the plant pot story and how to grow a plant. Songs, stories and games are a big part of our lessons in KS1.
A different type of lesson.
As a specialist teacher, I love to occasionally step away from the scheme of work and take the opportunity to celebrate culture. There are many special days and celebrations throughout the year that we can celebrate with our young learners in school. There is a seasonal special section on the website which contains ready-made lessons for these special days. I have taught lessons to celebrate World book day, Mother’s Day, Father’s day, Day of the dead and many more!
I would like to finish this blog with one of my favourite resource areas, which is cross curricular learning. This section is there to dip in and out of throughout the year and includes some of my favourite resources like mindfulness videos and Spanish tongue twisters. There are so many resources, so you never have to worry about spending hours planning lessons from scratch! There is something for every type of learner and teacher.
