Posted on November 26th, 2006 at 12:35 am by Michelle Clark
The job of an educator is to teach students, to see the vitality in themselves.
(Joseph Campbell)
I’ve always felt the desire to teach, although at the time I didn’t feel that I had enough confidence for the role. When I was at school I never had detention, not even a class one, I always tried my hardest to impress and get good grades. However being a boff, means that you get a certain amount of stick from the rest of the year.
After several years of continual battering, I persevered and had a successful school career; driving myself with the belief I could succeed in life. Art and Design was my favourite subject, there were three teacher’s in that department that the most influence on my life. Mrs Letisha Thompson, my GCSE tutor, and Mr Richard Turner and Mrs Marjorie Vigours, my A level teachers. Each teacher made classes interesting, they made me use my creative talents and develop them to a whole new level. They always had time for you and they always were determined you could do your best, and kept your spirits up and mind focused.
After school I was always a key member of extra-curricular activities such as the choir and the orchestra. I was a very dedicated member of the Art Club, and was always proud to show my work at open days and in exhibition donating my own time to discuss my work. I entered numerous competitions and won a few. Art played a large part in my life and still does. One of my A-level pieces was based on the art of Titanic, I did a charcoal drawing of Leonardo Di Caprio; which made me extremely popular with every girl and I was known as the ‘girl that drew Leo’. This has continued to haunt me, even now, 6 years on, people still remember it.
On completion of my A-levels I did a Batchelors of Art’s degree and then returned to my secondary school to work as a welfare assistant. Working here was a very demanding job and it taught me a lot, it gave me an understanding of the knowledge and personal skills required to be in control of large groups of children; teamworking, patience, communication skills and being a good teacher.
However it also taught me that teachers feed on their own life experiences and use these to deliver the best possible education to the students. I felt that it was important for me to gain these experience, my life experience since that date has been solely dedicated to education. So although I ultimately wanted to be a teacher I needed to get a job outside of a educational establishment.
During this time I developed new skills and mastered new technologies with the hope of these benefiting future careers. Four years later I have learnt that life isn’t always rosey, and you should roll with the punches and I am now eager to use these experience’s to benefit my goal to become a teacher.
Teaching is a role of responsibilities, Teachers reach out and mould people’s lives, and have the power to help people understand the importance of learning and to enjoy going to school. I feel that my life experiences and good education will enable me to be the best teacher I can be.
Let’s see what happens,