Energetic, enthusiastic, and eccentric! These are the three words I would use to describe myself given I am an individual who is very extroverted, loves diversity and a person where people draw to him naturally. Now on the question of why teaching? The simple answer is I love it! What I love most about teaching is our ability as teachers to literally change the lives of children, young adults, and adults by providing them with skills and values they will never loose and will change the way they think and process information about our beautiful world. This is why I genuinely believe teaching is a human service.
This belief influenced one of my number one beliefs. My belief that our ability to get an education is one of the factors of what defines us as humans. This ethos of mine developed from my love for education given attaining and education saved my life. What I mean by an education saved my life is that growing up in a low socio-economic household and an area surrounded by crime in east London prospects for such residents are not high. However, despite this I have attained two degrees and I am a successful teaching assistant. This why I believe anyone can achieve their goals if they put their mind to it and why I believe everyone should be given the opportunity to gain an education no matter what their background or where they are from.
To elaborate, I am someone who believes everyone should be given the opportunity to gain an education no matter their background or where they are from. While I am a British born national who has been given the luxury to understand the English language since birth. A great many around the world have not had this luxury. Now given that I know English is the language of science, aviation, computers, diplomacy, and tourism I know in order for individuals who don’t speak English as their first language for them an education begins with learning English, as learning this beautiful language will increase the chances of those learning the language of getting a good job within their home country or abroad thus, improving those individuals lives for the better.
Furthermore, my motivation for applying to be an ESL teacher stems from my love for teaching and helping children progress in their social and academic ability. This passion stems from my experience in working with children as a SEN (special educational needs) teaching assistant. Here I have worked alongside children with emotional, behavioral, and mental health problems aged between 4-16 years old in primary schools, secondary schools, and pupil referral units.
I have loved every single day and always look forward to going into work which I believe is essential in the field of education in order to best help inspire and motivate children to see the value in the power of education. As a teacher who loves his/ her job will always show great passion and therefore breed confidence out of his/her students. One skill which I show cased while working as a SEN teaching assistant was my ability to build strong and meaningful relationships with children very quickly.
For example, in one primary school I was working with a year 6 boy whom I worked with over 2 days over two weeks. On the first week I engaged in sports with this boy, helped motivate him to read his work out in front of the class despite him struggling to read and helped him with his general English and Math’s. On the second week when I arrived at this school the head teacher took me to the side telling me how happy the boy was that I was returning and on this particular day at the end of the school day he told me about his abusive father who left him. I informed the school of this situation, and they were already aware.
However, this situation humbled me as a child felt comfortable to open up to me over a short period of time on an extremely sensitive matter. This shows my ability to build strong relationships quickly which is essential in any classroom setting no matter where it is in the world as strong relationships with one’s teacher leads to greater engagement and student confidence in the classroom.
Furthermore, while working as a SEN teaching assistant I have dealt with a number of challenging behavioral situations. For example, in one case this boy aged 9 named Michael kicked a little girl named Dara. Upon Dara telling me I called Michael over and I asked Michael ‘is this true that you kicked Dara’ Michael replied ‘no’ I then said to Michael ‘I don’t think Dara would be crying if she was lying do you Michael’. I then went onto tell Michael ‘You’re not a bully look at the way you led the team today during lacrosse you showed great skill as a leader, now tell me is kicking someone the sign of a leader Michael’ he replied’ No’ and then he went onto apologize to Dara. My aim here was to use positive reinforcement to show Michael what he was doing was wrong, yet at the same time motivating him and reminding him of his good qualities and why bulling is not a part of his identity. Again, dealing with any form of behavioral management is essential in any classroom setting no matter where in the world as is positively reinforcing children in order to engage them with their learning and to motivate them in life.
Another example, of me positively reinforcing a child which is vital to their academic achievement and confidence in themselves would be when I marked this young girls English book. She was writing a mini story book and while this book was exceptional, it had many mistakes in spelling but given I knew she had emotional mental health problems and doesn’t respond well to criticism I first told her how wonderful her work was and how she was a great writer. I then told her there are small things she needed to work on. This approach of me going over what she done well before telling her what she done wrong is what allowed her to have confidence in her work and be willing to adjust make and her to make work even better. Again, I emphasise that such a skill is essential in teaching anything, especially the English language given many children or adults will not pick the langue up easily. Therefore, positive reinforcement will be vital to help them succeed.
The reason I have so much passion for the teaching style of positive reinforcement is because this practice is about always focusing on building children’s character up rather than telling children where they are going wrong which is essential in keeping children's confidence and showing them that they can achieve whatever they put their mind to. Additionally, I have experience in developing and planning fun interactive lessons for children in both English and Mathematics. For example, while reading to children I work with I often change my voice in order to draw and engage the students into the book. This real-life classroom experience alongside my TEFL certificate which has given me further skills in planning interactive lessons and managing behaviour I believe shows I have the qualities of what it takes to be a great ESL teacher.
In summary, the reason I chose to pursue a career in teaching abroad is because I have a passion for learning about different cultures and people given that I am an extroverted individual who loves diversity and wants to bring people together and show them our similarities as human beings not our differences. So, I thought what better way to peruse my passion for teaching and traveling than to become an ESL teacher abroad.
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