What made me want to be a teacher? I cant say there was one single defining moment that made me think that this profession was for me; I would say I had many. Being the eldest of five siblings and many cousins I have grown up since the age of six with children around me and have always loved helping out with them where I could. The first time I considered that teaching could be for me was when my brother, Ewan, was given a white board at the age of three. My dad suggested I help him write his name and so for the next half hour or so that is exactly what I did. Despite the slight frustration when he couldn’t replicate the letters without dot to dot aid, we got there. Seeing the joy in his face when he realized what he had accomplished was priceless and gave me a buzz I had never experienced before. I didn’t start to seriously consider that teaching was for me till I was sitting my exams in 4th year. After discovering I had nearly three weeks off for study leave once exams had finished I decided to take that time to explore further and go work in schools. It was during this time that I received what I believe to be my confirmation that this was what I was meant to do. I was working with a group of children who were in need of extra support doing comprehensive skills. It was coming to the end of the session and I was still working with one boy. Despite getting through a decent chunk of his work he hadn’t completed it and I was worried his teacher would be displeased I hadn’t been able to help him finish it all. I couldn’t have been more wrong. On going up to the teacher to present his work she was stunned. Even though he had only finished 7/12 pages I was told this was double the amount of work the boy was usually doing and she couldn’t believe I had been able to get him to that stage in the time given. The buzz I received was amazing. I had such an immense feeling of pride that I had helped this child to push himself to his full potential and exceed his teachers expectations of him. It was at that point I knew I had to pursue this further.

It was through working in a range of different schools that I realized the kind of teacher I want to be. The school I went to, St John’s RC Academy, was a campus school which had nursery through to secondary within it and so made it really easy for me to access work experience within the primary classroom environment. During my 5th year study leave I had been sitting in the lunch hall revising when the primary had been sent out for their lunch break. Sitting at the edge of the hall I was able to take in all that was going on around me when I noticed a young boy being excluded. He had been sent to sit on his own as punishment for misbehaving in the queue and was being questioned by a classroom assistant as to why he thought his behavior would’ve of been acceptable? She asked him if he thought that, as he was a primary 6, did he think that he could continue this sort of behavior as he continued to go up in the school as an example to the younger pupils? His answer stunned me. ‘I don’t care. I’m just going to the jail anyway. That’s what my dad done, so, so what if I don’t do well here?’ What got to me most was that he believed that he was a product of his parents mistakes and so had to follow in their footsteps. I believe that despite where you come from or what circumstances you live in, its down to you to write your own future. I want to be the kind of teacher who shows boys like him that you aren’t your parents. I want the be the kind of teacher that shows children that despite whatever barriers life throws at you if you want something you can get there. I want to be the kind of teacher that fills children with hope about their future and helps them see that they can be someone. I hope by the end of my four years at Dundee University that I can keep this dream alive and put it into practice.