A Learning Experience
Sam Gurney
I am one for which experiences in the world of work could previously never be said to engulf me or to leave me feeling submerged in an unfamiliar world. How lucky I considered myself to have never felt the pressure or stress such experiences can create. I liken the experience of further education to the experience of learning to swim. University seemed very much the shallow end of the pool, where I was pulled out of my comfort zone and required to learn some new skills to excel in a new environment. However the shallow end of the pool can never quite prepare you for the experience of leaving the shallow waters of certainty and entering a world where your feet don’t quite touch the ground. I found no better preparation for moving out into the proverbial deep end of the pool than the professional placement year I completed as part of my University course, within a local infant school. I had worked in a number of part-time jobs before University as a shop assistant, kitchen assistant and care assistant over the years. These jobs I considered valuable for the monetary support they offered my decision to continue into further education. However looking back on such jobs I realise that the label of ‘assistant’ had followed me through my successive choices of vocation. Such a label was fine however, as long as I could continue to support my rather expensive journey through further education.
The choice of volunteering within the infant school came from a desire to help people. My previous work experience had left me behind tills, washing dishes or feeding the elderly. The latter began to show me just how wonderful it is to make a difference in people’s lives. So to see the impact that education had on young children seemed like the next logical step to take. I never could have predicted how it would change my world forever.
I began as a teaching assistant (yes, there’s that assistant word again) but soon began to realise how much of a difference can be made in a child’s life by the adults who guide them. After just a few weeks I found I lacked the confidence to initially raise ideas within my working team. This I considered to be one of my greatest weaknesses. The need to present my ideas to eight other people in my team terrified me. In one instance after nervously presenting my ideas for a harvest assembly, the teacher I worked with inspired confidence in me just by saying what a good idea he thought it was. My creativity began to exert itself in the research for new stories for the children to enact during their assembly and creating props left me smeared in paint and with a smile on my face. I believe my initial nervousness came from feeling that I was just a student. I had never been in a circumstance where research and ideas I had written down could transform from words on a page to a wonderful show before me that the children could perform for their parents. From that point on I begun to consciously contribute during meetings and was no longer held back by the thought that my lack of work experience in education would detract from my ability to make worthwhile contributions to the school.
The ability to form interpersonal relationships with all members of staff came easily to me. I enjoyed working with everyone and found myself being able to differentiate my communicative behaviour between my adult team members and the children within the class. I began to unravel the intricate workings of a child’s mind and the fantastic perspectives they can bring to their own learning. This enabled me to teach concepts ever so more effectively, a skill that academic research could not have aided me in. Seeing the children grasp a mathematical concept I had taught them and then perform it independently, was magical. Observations I made of techniques to mediate difficult behaviour, enforcement of school rules, the reward systems available to children and the many ways in which different teachers taught their class left me with an extremely rich perspective. Not only was I learning the crucial skills that many students learn as part of a teaching degree but I was able to evaluate and integrate different teachers styles to form a style of my very own.
Despite volunteering I treated every job with the utmost importance and attempted to excel myself in what ever I was asked to do. I believe my willingness to do whatever was asked of me and the efficiency and enthusiasm I brought to my work was the reason the school offered me paid work in my forth month with them. From this I was given my own class for an hour and a half once a week in which I had the opportunity to help them develop their writing. Again, I had been shifted from my assistant position and handed down a great responsibility. The difficulties in managing a class independently, preparing much needed resources and planning techniques to engage the children were all experiences working as a classroom assistant would never have placed upon me. The submersion in yet another new environment began to further enrich my knowledge.
The days of reading academic materials to greater enhance my knowledge seemed far behind me. The richness of experience in the world of work began to replace the dusty books on the library shelves. My learning became through action, what worked and what did not, observations of my peers and the chance to experience many different aspects of working within the school.
I believed my short sabbatical from University would lead to the attrition of the brain cells I had been so dependent on during the two previous years. I began the final year of my undergraduate degree and to my delight was able to keep working two days a week at the school around my lecturing timetable. I found the submersion back into University akin to finding your feet in the shallow end of the pool and being able to take a breath. However the interaction between my practical learning and my theoretical knowledge of psychology began to occur. The modules I began to study reflected in my practical work. Lectures regarding special educational needs began to uncover the complexities of dyslexia and maths disabilities and led to adaptations in the way I would teach in the classroom. My new found knowledge of the development of children’s drawings allowed me a window into the children’s emotions and alerted me to signs in drawings that conveyed how they were feeling. Revision left me creating real life examples in my head that eased the ability to remember key points I wanted to raise in my exam answers.
So to say that the submersion into the world of teaching wasn’t a shock would not be true. However the same can be said for any new job. The integration of the academic world and the working world helps to nullify that shock. Facing your own weaknesses and pushing yourself to improve on them is a very difficult task but one of great importance. The impact that theory and practice have on learning is one of richness, where the rewards of your efforts are easily reaped. A new world need not be avoided and a new experience need not be approached with fear. Often we find ourselves better equipped than we could have imagined.
My future now seems clearer as I begin preparation for my graduate teaching programme to commence later this year. It’s so important that such an overwhelming experience is not feared but approached with determination. As each new experience gradually becomes our familiar, shallow end of the pool, we must push forward towards the deep. For knowledge can never be finite and I believe submersion into new working experiences is the best way to learn. We can be safe in the knowledge that eventually we all find our feet in the deep end.
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