From the start of my high school career, I wanted to be a PE teacher. My great aunt and uncle were both PE teachers, my cousin was studying at Uni to be a PE teacher. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. Up until around fourth year I was adamant this is what I wanted to do in life, but something changed. I didn’t want to teach PE. I wanted to do primary teaching – the ‘next generation’.
I started a placement at my primary school – Dunnikier PS in Kirkcaldy – and I began working in the classroom. I shadowed the CT and watched what she done and I learned. I then went from P2 to P7 – a big jump in ages and learning. It was in this class that I started to consolidate my ambitions.
This was the class I had to look after when I was in P7. We already had a bond, they remembered me and I remembered them. We worked hard in class and with my P5 and 6 teacher the CT, we had a bond too. Everything was in place for me to progress… and I did. It came to their Leavers’ Service and I had helped them along the way with their planning and preparation. One of the biggest cliché I’ve heard about teaching is that it’s the ‘most rewarding job in the world’ – but I felt that on that day. They were singing their songs and I felt something. I felt something inside that made me think “I know this is what I want to do”.
From then I kept going to Dunnikier every Wednesday afternoon up until my sixth year exams in May. I experienced Primaries 1, 3 and 5 in that time. I loved my time at the school so much and they loved having me in as a helper. This initiated a plan that I would go full-time in June into the same Primary 5 class. I took lessons, overseen the CT (a former UoD student) and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the classroom setting. I built relationships with the pupils and felt that they enjoyed having me there.
The teachers enjoyed having me and found that I was helpful and good to have around the school. The SLT also thought I was helpful towards the teachers and within the classrooms, so much, it was agreed that I would go back after the Summer as well before I started University. I went back to the school for the In-Service Days and for the first few weeks and helped in the two P2 classes. I was learning a lot and loved doing it – even the long hours I was doing. Working full-time at a school consolidated my urge to become a teacher. I now cant wait to qualify and have a class of my own.
Marco, what you talk about in terms of knowing that this is what you want to do with your life is something that I too experienced very early on in my teacher education programme back in 1990! It is a good feeling. That sense of professional belonging is one that can see us invest so much of ourselves in our development and in the classes that we teach.