Career Planning Self-Audit

What other careers could I have persued as a graduate? What made me eliminate those?

I could have persued a career in the Health Service which is also a caring profession, which I would have been able to relate to. However, I think that it is the actual teaching aspect which I am drawn to and the fact that by teaching a child I can help them to progress and to achieve aspirations and build on their self esteem.

Another career could have seen me develop my skills in IT further and possible followed a route into this area. However, this is not so appealing to me as a career, although I will not let my new skills in IT stop here and will continue to seek further development in this area. I like the interaction that goes with teaching and really the whole package.

What made me decide on teaching?

Previous studies allowed me to move from a pre-school setting into a primary school in the position of a teaching assistant. My reasons for this was because I had always aspired to become a teacher and I considered this to be the perfect route to take. This role allowed me to develop necessary skills and to basically see if the school setting was for me. 4 years as a teaching assistant and 18 months of those as Cover Supervisor has confirmed that my aspirations are still in place and I would love to reach qualified teacher status.

I feel very deeply about how people in general perceive themselves and about aiming to raise levels of self esteem and self worth. I believe that if a child is helped to realise their own self worth then anything is possible. I enjoy the feeling of satifaction when I teach a child something new and they 'grow' with pride in them selves. Teaching, for me, is a very demanding career but one which is extremely rewarding and continually developed through professional development. My taste for learning will not end when my degree course does and I will put all of my efforts into the next stage of my development in order to achieve qualified teacher status.

Meeting with workplace advocate - Friday 16th Dec

Met with workplace advocate and confirmed and discussed my plans now that the degree is nearly complete. Discussed my action inquiry and how it has helped me in my role in school and also in my forthcoming interview with E M Direct for the GTP. Confirmed the schedule for the next 18 months, starting with applying in early Feb, interivews in March and final decisions reached 4 weeks after the interview. It is still to be decided which class I will be teaching in for my GTP year, of course if successful in the application and interview stages. Head remarked on how my time management during my degree course will be of a great benefit for the GTP and an excellent example in the interview process.

I feel ready now for the next step and am excited to have nearly reached the end of my degree course. We discussed how my long list of interventions which I deliver in school will gradually be shifted to other teaching assistants over the next few months. Also, I will be delivering the next Further Literacy Support programme in the Spring term, this was the basis of my action inquiry. My findings from the action inquiry will have great impact on my next delivery of the programme and already in the chosen area of delivery.

I am relieved that I will be able to do my GTP at my present school because I will be able to concentrate on the job in hand without worrying about 'fitting in' and finding out where resources are stored and getting to know new children etc.

Transferability of research findings into wider population

At first I thought my findings would have no baring on the wider population but then I thought about when I eventually move on and become a teacher. I could share my knowledge from my action inquiry and this would be seen as transfering my findings to other schools etc.

I have made amendments to my Defence section and have re-posted it for feedback. Will make a start on rest of Defence section tomorrow and draw up a plan for my conclusion, after checking word count for all other sections first.

Keep Toolkit/Busy Busy

What a busy time, but then it is the same for all of us. I made it one of my aims to be able to upload all of my work, tables and all, into Keep Toolkit. I have done this previously but have used links to the work which I had uploaded, this time I have again created a title page containing the different sections and by clicking on one you are then taken straight to the whole piece of work instead of having to then take a link. I am really pleased with myself for doing this and my work looks a lot more professional because of it. My only problem is that I cannot make my quotes indented which is a requirement which I must do. I have posted a message for help, I think that html tags will be the answer but don't know which ones to use.

I have been going through my word count and it is going to be tight, the problem with Keep Toolkit is that every title and sub heading needs to be counted and this takes up a lot of word count. Better to be safe though don't want to be over the count.

Critical and Analytical Thinking

I have been reading through the workshop on Critical and Analytical Thinking for the Defence of Findings. I can see that I need to be a less descriptive and to keep on deepening my analytical skills. I am going to write down my ideas of what I think is needed and then get to work on my analytical skills. I am aiming to do the last 3 sections over the next 3 weeks and then I will be able to have a Christmas break with my family - fingers crossed that all goes ok. I am not going to rush though because I want to do the best that I can.

Conversation with SENCO

I asked the class teacher yesterday how, Child G, the boy who I identified as needing support in raising levels of self esteem in my action inquiry is doing. She informed me that he is interacting well with other children and enjoying taking more of an active roll in setting up for circle time. This information is important because it tells me that some impact has been made by my action inquiry and that changes have indeed been made. The impact from my action inquiry is do with changes and perceptions rather than impact which can be measured in figures and statistics.

Impact

I have made a start on the Implact section of this module and am finding it hard to get started. I have been searching for models of measuring impact and am not coming up with anything. I haven't got my thoughts and direction clear on this LA yet and I seem to be struggling to get started.

busy week

Can't believe how many hours I am studying at this present time, it seems to be work, study and bed at the moment. Feeling ok with things though and have had to remind myself that rushing is no good because if I don't cover the criteria I won't get the marks and that won't be of any use. Angela gave me excellent feedback on LA1 and I agree with everything she said but realise that I should have picked up on these things myself in the first place but this was my panic to make a start.

I have spent the last few nights updating my portfolio and tying everything together with my press release which I have been working on today. I am going to have a break now and spend time with family before they forget who I am and then later I will read through everything and see how it reads.

I feel so much better for making a huge impact on the start of this module I needed to do this to feel in control with everything.