I believe teaching is an essential profession and that those in it, along with a school’s support staff, have a great responsibility as educators. Teaching will offer me the challenge and diversity I seek from my career. I feel I have the right abilities to make that difference in a young person’s life. I also feel I possess the skills that will enable me to make a positive contribution to teaching.I have had placements in 2 schools, Hathaway Primary School and Greenford High School. Having worked within both primary and secondary age groups I have found that I got more enjoyment dealing with the formative years. I felt more satisfaction at seeing younger children grasp the fundamentals behind a topic. For example how a particular student with encouragement and patience can come to terms with the idea of doubling and halving or how easy it was for the students in year 7 to use a search engine to find out facts in an I.T. lesson. I particularly enjoyed the results of instilling confidence and self belief in students, seeing them feel they can achieve and should try to do so. Watching the teachers at work has illustrated that children respond differently to a variety of teaching methods. I observed that a teacher’s approach to the class can have a profound effect on the learning ability of those children.
The teacher constantly changed the way she taught the class to maintain their interest and focus on activities. She encouraged and praised children who were finding activities difficult giving them confidence to try and in many cases achieve. Her positive attitude towards the children gave them belief in themselves leading to a positive learning environment. These experiences have also opened my eyes to the demands put on teachers outside the classrooms: the struggle for financing, pressures on time management and dealing with the teacher/ parent relationship. There are also clerical duties, which need to be completed whilst not taking away from the teacher effectiveness within the classroom, which is where I believe they make the greatest difference.
Providing this variety represents a huge challenge in an environment with more than thirty pupils, but I am confident that it is a challenge I will be able to meet. Through
