I cannot really pinpoint the moment when I wanted to become a teacher. I had amazing teachers in primary and secondary school that supported me and showed me how much a teacher can help a pupil outwith their usual teaching. This inspired me to want to help, teach and support children the way they had helped me.
I have always enjoyed teaching in a way. Before my little brother went to school, I use to sit with him and work through children’s workbooks filled with maths and writing exercises. When he started school I continued these workbooks with him for as long as he would let me. After this I would coerce him and his friends into playing school based games where I was the teacher and they were the pupils. In these games I always made up lesson plans and exercise sheets for them to complete. After these two events I always enjoyed helping and “teaching” anybody that I could. Even in school I would try and help my peers if they did not understand what we were doing.
I realised teaching was what I wanted to do when I went to a primary school for a placement. I loved every single day, from teaching the basic alphabet to the P1’s to taking P4 reading groups and teaching the P7’s fractions. The way the children listen to you and take in the knowledge that you are passing on to them is one of the main reasons I enjoy teaching.
Currently, I do not know what kind of teacher I want to be. I have worked with lots of different teachers throughout my placements and they have all been very different kinds of teachers with differing teaching styles. I would like to be the kind of teacher that takes on some of these aspects. I think I will discover what kind of teacher I want to be once I start my placements. I will develop my own style of teaching and see which way that I teach and what works best for me.
Hi, I really enjoyed reading your post. I understand where you are coming from, I also loved playing teachers with my family and friends and spent hours creating lessons and tests for them to complete and for me to mark. I found it interesting to hear about your experiences helping out in classes and liked being able to read another perspective on becoming a teacher.
Hey Abi, I found your post really relatable! I was the exact same when I was younger constantly wanting to play teachers and pupils. I think you made a really interesting point at the end about how you can’t specifically say what kind of teacher you want to be – I guess we can all have ideas but everyone is in the same situation as we still have so much to learn. What we learn over the course of the next 4 years will probably shape what type of teachers we want to be. It was really nice to read your experiences and views on why you chose teaching!