i’m not in it for the money. i’m not in it for the holidays. I’m not in it for personal gain! I’m in it to make a brighter tomorrow. A tomorrow that is full of bright, smart and curious people. i want to influence the lives of others, to help them to become the best they can be. I want to make children enjoy learning and make them have the opinion that school is not a place where dreams go to die.
I understand the amount of time and the amount of hard work that i need to put into becoming a successful ‘primary school teacher’ and i know it won’t be an easy road. i know i will have to make sacrifices along the way, a path i’m willing to take. Teaching is something that I’m good at, something that i enjoy. To be truly honest, I’m great with kids and it is second nature for me to be able to get their attention and engage them within something that others would make boring.
I never was a student that liked school. In fact i never wanted to become a teacher until my last few weeks of year 12, two and a half years ago. I felt that i was a student that was capable of anything, if i put my mind to it. one that had the brains but just didn’t try hard to get the best possible results.
I was by no means the smartest kid in my classes and the results i achieved showed which subjects i enjoyed more. Everything i thought about school was influenced by my teachers moods, views and opinions on different subject matter and everyday life. some teachers made me not want to turn up to class, while others got me excited and switched on to learn. I want to be and believe i am a teacher that can do the latter.
Currently in my second year of university study, i am starting to hit a wall. frustrated with what uni has to offer. i keep telling my self that this is the path i want to take, however i don’t like the way i will reach my destination. I would like nothing more than to be a teacher. Having already completed some practical experience in teaching, i’ve come to realise that the content of my university degree is rather boring and tends to be irrelevant to teaching altogether. In fact me and a lot of graduates and serving teachers are of the opinion that what training teachers learn about at uni can not prepare you for the classroom.
while out on prac i spoke to many teachers and received different perspectives about teacher training. in my first week of prac i was asked what courses i had done and am doing and what i thought of them. i gave an honest answer, i said that i was enjoying them and that i couldn’t wait to implement what i had learnt into the classroom. i was shocked at the responses i had from a pack staff room. what i said brought laughter to the room. i didn’t know how to react. I was asked the same questions on my last day and like the last time, i gave an honest response. i said that i found that the content of the degree i was studying could never prepare anyone for the classroom. there was no laughter this time. the teachers all knew how i could handle a class and they agreed with what i said. this really got me thinking…
It’s all well and good to be provided with a history of teaching, to have concepts such as ‘pedagogy’ thrown at you and to do courses which introduce different educational theorists. But there is very little university level course work that will teach the training teachers how to control a class of 25-30 kids who are of mixed ability. University won’t teach you how to make sure the whole class is engaged and able to learn 6 hours a day. uni won’t prepare you to do things such as set assessments or make reports. it won’t prepare you to handle situations in the play ground, it won’t even prepare you for the work load that you’ll experience when you become a full time teacher.
Instead, us training teachers attend uni to undertake ‘academic study’, which is completely irrelevant to teaching all together. it is over critical and beyond what is appropriate in a K-6 classroom. there is so much content in this degree that will not be of any use once we graduate. some course that i have studied that i feel have little to no revelence to k-6 teaching include:
‘Foundations of creative ares’ - this subject involved the students creating artworks for 6-7 weeks, learning about the theory and history of artists. then switching over and completing a music and dance component. there was no syllabus references in this course and it was largely about peoples artistic ability and not about hem having a go.
‘Educational Psychology’ - this course has been labelled as the hardest course of the degree. although i received excellent results in this i failed to see how it was relevant or how it would teach me to be able to enter a classroom and teach children.
‘Elementary Mathematics’ - simply way beyond anything that a K-6 student could accomplish. in fact most of this content would even stump year 12 students doing extension mathematics subjects.
‘Schooling, identity, society’ - while this course has the potential to be awesome. it falls short with the content within it. it introduces different concepts that teachers really don’t need and really would not benefit anyone as it is more just common sense!
there are plenty of students such as myself that know that they are and will be wonderful teachers and have a gift of being able to engage and teach children of young ages. in my opinion these types of teachers are a rare thing to come by. these teachers may not achieve the grades that others do in this discipline of university studies. however they possess qualities that the smarter training teachers do not. Some of these being personality, creativity, passion for all KLA’s and above all the ability to relate to children of all ages. I believe that i possess these traits and it is why i would excel as a teacher.
rapping up, i think that there needs to be a change in how teachers are trained. it is a profession like no other. teachers in my opinion can allow children to become something that they want to be. they can give hope to children and teach them at a very young age to follow what they believe in. not only this but teachers need to be able to engage students with creative and exciting lessons, something the current training teacher doesn’t learn in their undergraduate degree.
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