From data analyst to teacher
At the beginning of 2017, I made the biggest career decision I have ever made. I decided to become a teacher.
For 18 years I had worked as a data analyst but had always had a love of mathematics and wanted to change to a career where I could share my knowledge and passion for the subject.
As an introvert, this was a particularly big decision for me and friends and colleagues kept telling me I was very brave. Ironically, the more people who told me how brave I was being, the more nervous I became!
I started to do some research about how to get into the profession and registered on the Get Into Teaching website. I was put in touch with an advisor who gave me a huge amount of guidance on the options available to me, answered all of my questions and recommended I attend a local Train to Teach event in Peterborough. The highlight of that event for me was a presentation given by a current trainee who told us all about her experience of becoming a teacher. I left the event more determined than ever to make the career change.
The next step I took was to visit a local secondary school for some observation days and get some real-life insight into what it would be like to be a teacher. I saw a variety of classes of different age groups and was able to speak to the teachers and get as much information as I needed.
I discovered that there were many different options for me to get into teaching but the one I chose was the SCITT route. I opted for this particular route because I had no teaching experience at all and had not even been in a classroom since I left school myself 24 years ago! This route enabled me to observe a variety of teachers in the classroom before eventually taking on the classes myself.
I learnt a huge amount from observing other teachers: what they were teaching and how they were engaging with the students and managing the behaviour of the class — not just what they said and the tone of voice they used but also their body language; where they stood or how they walked around the classroom. I tried to learn something new from every single lesson I observed and the regular meetings I had with my mentor, together with the training days, gave me a focus for my observations each week.
After observing a few lessons in each class, I started to introduce myself to the students and offer to help with their work and my confidence in the classroom really began to improve.
I started teaching by just doing 10-minute starters at the beginning of each lesson and eventually took on full lessons for a year 7 class. I was (and to some extent still am) very nervous before the first lesson. I sometimes refer to this as ‘stage fright’ because, in some ways, I feel that I am putting on a performance and trying to find my teaching persona. However, observations and regular feedback are giving me specific areas to focus on.
There have been tough times. I have doubted if I can do this. However, even after a bad lesson, I have gone home in the evening and known that this is what I want to do. Every lesson is different and by thinking about how I can improve my teaching and seeking advice from my mentors, my confidence has continued to grow.
The support I have received from both the schools I have taught in and from the partnership I am training with has been fantastic. I would have struggled to get this far without it.
It has been a very steep learning curve and the biggest career decision I have ever made, but it is also the best career choice I’ve ever made. One year on from that Train To Teach event in Peterborough I went along again, only this time it was me standing up to give a presentation about my experience of becoming a teacher!
Whether you’re a career changer like me, or looking for your first job, I would urge you to consider a career in teaching. You can’t beat the feeling of satisfaction when you help a child who is struggling and then hear them say, ‘Oh, now I get it!’
