My name is Chloe Hunter and I am studying at the University of Dundee studying for an MA Hons in Education.
I arrived at the University of Dundee after finishing my 6th year at high school. As my offer was conditional I had to work extremely hard in my last year at school in order to meet my conditions so I can become a qualified teacher.
All the way through primary school I struggled academically because I was a lot slower at picking things up than other children in my class and I also felt stupid and embarrassed to ask for help as everyone else seemed to understand easily. It wasn’t until primary 6 when our class got a probationary teacher for the year. Miss Duncan took the time to sit down with me and explain things in a way that I understood and didn’t make me feel stupid and on reflection I believe that she was partly an influence on why I decided to peruse a career in teaching.
When I was in my 3rd year of high school I went on a weeks placement in a primary school and absolutely fell in love with the profession. I loved the way I could influence a child’s learning with a simple phrase as ‘well done’ or ‘keep trying’ made me realise what I wanted to do with my life. I want to be the person who influences a child for the better and gives them the best opportunity in life. In 5th year I mainly focused on my studies as I wanted to give myself the best chance possible for getting into University. I was focused, hard working and determined to get the grades in order to be able to get into Primary Education.
In 6th year I started volunteering in as many different stages of teaching as possible to show Universities that I was flexible and versatile. Through out 6th year I volunteered in a nursery, primary school and a 2nd year class in my high school. I realised how every stage of a child’s education is crucial in their development. When volunteering in the nursery, the very first stage of a child’s education, I realised that playing games and drawing pictures is not all they do in nursery and I was amazed at how the nursery nurse was able to incorporate learning into play. Then when volunteering once a week in a primary 1 class and even though it was only a years difference I was amazed at how much development had taken place. I was surprised to see how much difference there was in ability at such a young age. For example, one pupil was barely able to write their own name whereas another was able to do some times tables already. This truly opened my eyes to how varied children can be depending on what kind of background they come from or what kind of ability they have.
However, I found my experience in a high school setting teaching a lot different from my experience in a primary school. Even though at the time I was in high school at the time I did not realise how difficult it would be to teach a class of 12 and 13 year old. As at this age many of them were very hormonal it was sometimes to engage the class as some of them just weren’t interested. This made me realise how much I wanted to teach in a younger setting rather than secondary school. However, the teacher I was helping the class was also a huge inspiration as when she was given a difficult class to teach she rose to the occasion and managed to engage with the pupils and get them interested in learning. This made me determined to learn about behavioural management as there is a high chance that you will have a pupil in your class that will be difficult to manage.
In reflection, I think my experience helped me massively as it made me realise how much I wanted to be a primary school teacher and this only motivated me to work hard in school to enable me to become a primary school teacher.
After being in University for around 2 months I have now realised that this is a new chapter in my learning journey of becoming a primary school teacher. Being an under graduate means hard work, perseverance and optimism. University has been a massive jump from high school as even though there are less classes there is a lot more work to be done and a lot of it is reflective and personal. From this course I hope to complete my degree in the 4 years and reach my ultimate ambition; to be the best teacher I can be and influence children’s lives everyday.
