Paul M.
About me
| Paul M. | |
| History | |
| History | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Goodricke | |
| 2005 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Teacher of History, Politics and Law | |
| The Downs School | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Education | |
| 2008 |
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A day in the life of a Teacher of History, Politics and Law in the United Kingdom
My career history
After York, I initially applied to do a PGCE and was rejected (was a good thing as I wasn't ready for it at that time). I got a job as a GAP student for a year (2005-2006) at a prep school in Surrey which was good fun and an excellent experience of the potential of teaching. I then ended up working for the Metropolitian Police in recruitment - this came about because I was at a dead-end after my year as a Gap student and applied for work through a temping agency. I worked at the Metropolitan Police for a year (2006-2007) which was longer than I anticipated but a worthwhile experience. During this time I applied to a PGCE and did this at York (2007-2008). I was appointed as a teacher at the Downs School, Newbury and have been there since 2008.
Courses taken since graduation
PGCE History
My advice to students considering work
I think the more things you do outside of studying, the better. Get involved in societies, employment, sport etc. The world doesn't operate on qualifications alone - having people skills and things to talk about go a long way.
My advice about working in my industry
Only go into the profession if you want to work with young people.
What I do
Difficult to summarise all the different issues and tasks that come up as a teacher. The main priority, as I see it, is to teach 5 quality lessons daily - this in itself is a challenge and gets easier with experience. Initially the big challenge is to do the planning, marking has to be done (can be quite time consuming), report writing, parents' evenings, and various meetings.
Skills I use and how I developed them
You can't be a teacher without the relevant degree and teaching qualification so they definitely had an impact! The PGCE definitely gave me the relevant skills for teaching.
Degree skills:
Hard work! I didn't work 24/7 when I was at York but when work needed doing I committed myself to it to do it properly for however long it took.
Extracurricular skills:
I think everything I did to interact with people helped me. Meeting so many different people helped. I was one of the Goodricke sports reps for a year and that involved organising teams, contributing to meetings and getting people interested in participating - a challenge in itself!
What I like most
It's very much about working with people - of all ages. I very much enjoy that daily interaction.
What I like least
I think there is too often a lot of criticism of teaching and the work that teachers put in.
Next steps...
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