How 3 Weeks At A School Made Me Want To Be A Teacher - By Harry White

Before embarking on my teacher training journey in September of this year, I only had 3 weeks experience working in a school. Obviously, I also have many years of experience as a student, but entering a school as a teacher with only 3 weeks practice under my belt seemed daunting. However, I have found that my SCITT, as well as the Maths Scholarship Team, have been incredibly welcoming to me, in spite of my limited experience. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that those 3 weeks are why I am training to be a teacher at all and are helping me to this day. 

My experience took the form of an internship. I worked for 3 weeks at a school near my home in the final weeks of the school year. The timing worked out perfectly as it was after I had finished my exams from my second year of university, but schools still had time to go. The entire teaching staff at the school were really friendly, and other interns are also friends of mine to this day; it was a fantastic opportunity.

My work in classes was mainly as an additional hand in lessons, I would be able to observe how teachers are able to explain topics so clearly and concisely and then while the students were doing work I would be able to go round and help with any problems they were struggling with. I also ran small parts of lessons, I helped with a few games and got to play laser tag during activities week, which was a fun part of my time there, and helped see students out of the classroom environment, and how the relationship works out of a classroom, as an adult with children under your care. 

Whilst on my internship, I also got to help out in wider areas of the school. I had an afternoon with the ‘on-call’ team at the school, able to see how this is crucial to the running of the school, and how important a pastoral team is to students wellbeing. I also helped out with mocks as year 10 mocks took place while I was there, I was able to help as an invigilator and reader for the exams which was an eye-opening experience, as I had never done anything like this before.

The maths department as a whole were very welcoming and were glad I was there as me and my fellow interns helped out creating power points for starts and end of topics for key stage 3. It was really beneficial to know how much planning is required for a lesson, and insightful to know how this is done, because as a student it just happened in the background.

The 3 weeks I spent at the school are what made me chose to become a teacher, seeing how other people do it, and getting to do it in small parts is what made up my mind. I have always thought about teaching since I was very young, but had heard about how hard it can be in school, so relished the opportunity to see for myself. The moment I decided I had to be a teacher was when I was helping in a year 10 lesson. I was helping in the bottom set of year 10, they were covering multiple topics in order to see what they need to for their mocks. There was a student who was not mathematically minded, had a difficult home life and needed lots of support. The teacher suggested that I help her for the whole lesson, while he circulated the others. I was teaching her how to round; it was really tough. At the start of the lesson, she had very little knowledge of rounding but had spent a couple lessons on it to no avail. But, by the end of the lesson with me, she was getting it right … some of the time. Upon speaking to the class teacher at the end of the lesson, and explaining that she hadn’t quite got it yet, but that she was now getting it right about 2 thirds of the time, he was really happy. To him, her being able to get it right 2 out of 3 times, was significant improvement in the hour, and he was really glad I was able to work with her the whole lesson. Seeing the impact, I was able to have on one student in one hour stays with me now, so when I have difficult days, and defiant students I remember why I’m here.

The main way in which my experience is helping in my current position as a trainee a few weeks into term is simple. Purpose. This purpose stays with me, and is why I am a teacher. My three weeks of experience help me enormously every day, just due to the fact that they make me want to carry on, in spite of any setbacks. My limited experience also does have its benefits in terms of small things I saw on my internship that help, minor things like how best to teach negatives to a low ability group, or how to explain simultaneous equations better than I heard it at school. All of these small things aid me in my teaching journey. I implore anyone who wants to get into teaching to get any experience they can, no matter how small, even if it is tutoring a family friend, or young cousin. Something as simple as three weeks in a school can change your life, it certainly changed mine. 

By Harry White

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