From Corporate to Classroom
The journey from the world of data analytics for a billion-dollar, house-hold name to the academic endeavour of becoming a secondary mathematics teacher was something that scared me more than anything. What if I had walked away from a promising career to find out that my passion for teaching maths wasn’t all I had built it up to be? What if the leap of faith into education’s greener grass was simply false advertisement? On the other hand, what if it was everything I had dreamt it would be and I had wasted the last 4 years of my life barking up the wrong vocational tree, gaining skills I’d never again need?
I am but 4 weeks into my first term and all of these worries and doubts have gone. From the moment I was warmly welcomed into my school, to greeting the new year 7 form which I was paired with, to planning and teaching my first lesson I have known that this was the best decision I could have made. Everyday, I get to be part of a child’s journey into their young adult life and am presented the opportunity to make a positive impact on their education. Better still, I get to spend time with these inspirational individuals and continuously learn from them, whilst they (hopefully!) learn to love mathematics.
So did I spend 4 years grinding it out in the world of high-flying, business analytics for nothing? Absolutely not! My mentor enlightened me to the fact that it is those four years that makes me different from the person sitting next to me in the staff room, in the same way that their passions and experience make them different from me. It’s all about how I use my individuality to positively shape the outcomes in a classroom, or my school community, that matters.
After a little looking around, I realised that although the school I work at pays for an incredible behavioural data collection system the staff have no experience in how to interpret the data it gives. I have thus completed a project to create a macro-powered excel report that lets a teacher filter to their form group and see visualisations of the relevant behaviour data in real time, empowering them to make the decisions they need to.
I’m sure there will be moments where I question my new path, it would be strange if there weren’t. However, how rewarding and welcoming the last 4 weeks have been, in addition to the opportunity to give back what I learnt in my previous profession, has been everything I hoped the transition from corporate to classroom would be and more.
By Amy Crowder - AMIMA