Personal Statement:Teaching 7

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Teaching Personal Statement

Even when I was younger, I have always said I would be a teacher

Playing 'classroom' with my brothers was always my favourite game and I constantly played the teacher. This aspiration has firmly remained as I now see university as the first step to becoming a teacher. My experiences of school life have reinforced this ambition as throughout my school life, motivating teachers have inspired me through their dedication, enthusiasm and ability to make learning engaging. I feel that the impression a teacher leaves on a young student is critical to the beginning of their development, and the good influence my primary teachers had on me has led me to want to continue learning throughout my life with teaching as my career. My A- Level subjects were chosen with teaching in mind. English and History, being part of the national curriculum and therefore fundamental for teaching, and Psychology in order to help me develop an understanding of the human mind, in particular, children. English has been additionally beneficial as I learnt about the acquisition of language for children including the development of reading and writing, which would help me adjust to teaching children of differing abilities. History helped me to further my investigative ability independently for my individual study composition. Studying psychology has been very relevant to teaching, for instance, I have learnt that information is better committed to memory (particularly in young children) when visual

Knowing this would help me to think of innovative ways to ensure my students gain the most out of my lessons. I enjoyed studying Sociology at AS-level, gaining an understanding of interaction between people and the effect of their personal environments. All of my subjects involve a great deal of written work so throughout the courses I have developed my analytical and evaluation skills. I feel these combined with the ways in which I have been taught to convey my ideas will be helpful to a teaching role

My various experiences of working with children have strengthened my desire to be a teacher. My most recent is two weeks of volunteering at a school for severely disabled children. I found this quite demanding but very fulfilling as I gradually gained more responsibility for the group and I was a personal carer for one individual child needed extra motivation. I became familiar with his patterns and preferred routines, which I incorporated with my own ideas, finding new ways to present familiar ideas to make the activities more fun. I also spent a week at a primary school as a classroom assistant, trying to gain as much experience as possible to reinforce my certainty that I would be well suited as a teacher. I found myself motivated by the teacher I spent time with as she was approachable and friendly, encouraging the children to realise their potential and further their knowledge. I further improved my ability to relate to children on their level in a sociable and open-minded way

I have maintained my interest in extra curricular activities in my spare time, which include regular swimming, tennis and trampolining and writing to my pen pal in Australia. I have been a Millennium Volunteer for a year and have also helped with Bournemouth and Poole Youth Inclusion Team as part of their Confidence Through Skills scheme to help prevent potential youth offenders aged 11-14. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this although it was challenging and I look forward to being involved in setting up a youth club for the children shortly

Recently, I have become a volunteer for NCH at Poole Children's Fund for a participation and development project for teenagers. Through my volunteering I have become much more confident in planning and presenting my own ideas to others and leading my own groups of children. I have also enjoyed meeting many new and different people throughout the projects

I balance theses activities with my part-time job in a pub-restaurant. I have worked there for two years and have become great friends with my colleagues. I work in the small team of kitchen staff serving customers and the larger group of bar staff dealing with orders and accounts. At times, I am left in charge having to use my own iniative to solve any problems I feel I have many personal skills that would make me a valuable contribution to school life as a teacher and at university. I have high personal standards, always seeking to complete tasks to the best of my ability. I also remain dedicated to my projects, seeing obstacles as challenges to overcome. I am outgoing, friendly, communicative, and able to relate to different people well

Satisfaction for me comes in knowing that I have done my best and in teaching that would be helping children get a head start in education and seeing them progress. I believe I would thrive as a teacher because of these personal skills coupled with my own enthusiasm and persistence for my subjects. I feel that I will develop personally through the university experience and look forward to being part of the socially active community. I am also keen to meet people from all different backgrounds as I will in the role of teaching.

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