My Life Goals and Teaching Aspirations
My life goals are getting a job of teaching Biology to high school students, travelling around the world while offering education to students and children belonging to schools from different countries and building a rehabilitation centre with the help of my family to serve the community. My goal of imparting education while travelling would offer me an opportunity to work in different environments and learn new aspects culture, ethnicity and backgrounds from the students (Covay Minor et al. 2016). While working as a high school teacher I will share my knowledge, motivate and inspire my students to learn about the living world (van Uden, Ritzen and Pieters 2014). The teaching goal will also help me encourage students to utilize their full potential and strive for greatness. A rehabilitation centre will assist disabled people to lead a normal life and act as productive members of the society. Some of the past goals that I achieved are raising money for people severely affected by a cyclone Marcia in Queensland in 2015 and learning of a new language. The cyclone created a financial damage of more than 590.5 million dollars and thousands of people had been severely affected. I intended to organize a fundraising program and donate it to the government authorities at the place. With help from family members and friends, we were able to create campaigns promoting support and collected 40000 dollars for the victims in a fortnight. The entire money was used to buy household items and food for the victims. I worked as a volunteer in Ipswich Opportunity Groups and Ipswich Citizens Advice Bureau Humanities Centre with the aim of helping people.
My aim of travelling around the world helped me realize the necessity of learning a foreign language that would help me expand my horizon. I got enrolled in a Japanese language course. Its successful completion helped me broaden my mind and I will use it to enrich my personal experiences. My immediate future goals are to to get enrolled for a provisional QCT registration that will make me eligible to apply for a job position at Queensland schools. The program will offer me a school based learning experience and will educate me on the effective teaching methods (Ramos 2016). It will ensure that I am well equipped to meet the challenges of a teaching career. It will allow me to utilize my expertise and knowledge to engage students in learning process. I will be able to critically plan and implement relevant syllabi and curriculum materials and will develop a personal theory of teaching (Hallman and Burdick 2014).
Importance of Learning Foreign Language
Teachers carry an incredible responsibility while shaping the future of their students. Creativity, engaging lessons and innovative teaching methods will help my students to develop their behavioral and mental faculties but also assist me in describing my ideas (Petersen and Treagust 2014). Feedback from the students will assist in my personal understanding. A school based learning degree will help me communicate my thoughts precisely and clearly. It will also remove all probabilities of self deceit. My goals will provide scope for creating a passion for academics in high school students. This profession will enable me to eagerly talk about my own childhood school memories, which will reinforce my bonding with family members and peers (Biesta, Priestley and Robinson 2015). Some of the external rewards that my career will offer are performance based financial perks which encompass a competitive salary that matches my talent and a wealth of benefits like holiday allowance and provision for pension. If I am passionate about my subject area, I can even pursue my career as head of department. While providing me the opportunity to educate students in the classroom, these career progressions will make me enjoy additional responsibilities like training new teachers or working as leading authority on my subject (Robertson-Kraft and Duckworth 2014).
Internal rewards include using my passion and subject knowledge to help children in unlocking their talents and capabilities they did not know they possessed. During organizing engaging lessons, I will be able to indulge in my personal interests and hobbies as part of my work in school club activities or trips or co-curricular activities. My role as a teacher will help me continue to learn from multiple knowledge sources throughout my career. I will have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and practice, from other students and teachers. Some of the things that I would like to avoid is lack of empathy. I would always like to put myself in the student’s shoes and imagine their needs and demands. Less empathetic nature can work as a hindrance in the process of imparting education and should be immediately avoided. It has become a common habit of teachers and educators of putting their lectures in PowerPoint and droning through slides. Such classes are a waste of time and lead to boredom. Such presentations fail to teach students the skills of effective leadership, teamwork, and conflict management. I would not promote the use on only electronic presentations but would rather promote the trait of engaging students in independent learning through interactive sessions of storytelling, board-work, multimedia, individual assignments and discussion. This would enhance the cognitive and interpersonal skills of the students.
Current and Future Goals for Teaching Career
Teaching is not just my mission, it is my professional goal and like any other career it requires some competencies, knowledge and skills. To sustain my enthusiasm and energy for the job, I will need to maintain my personal commitment to the job. I will be facing higher work demand in my professional career and family while carrying out my responsibilities as a teacher. Therefore, I would need to strike a balance between family life and my work place. Participating in both family and work roles will protect me from facing any distressed situation (Van den Bergh and Beijaard 2014). Behavior, transfer of skills and knowledge from my family life will improve my work performance. Family goals will also generate rewards, which will weaken struggles and hardships at work. Successful family life will reduce chances of job dissatisfaction. Emotional support provided by supportive family or the prevalence of a positive relationship with children and spouse will enable me to handle job pressure and work challenges in a better way. Family commitment will also create a positive effect on my career by assisting me to overcome the negative workplace experiences and will lead to higher job satisfaction. My goal of building a rehabilitation centre for the disabled in the community will also get enhanced by my career experience.
Extensive interaction with all students coming from diverse backgrounds, colleagues and administrative authorities will provide me more knowledge on the needs of the disabled people and will make me strive for a better outcome in my goal (Von Culin, Tsukayama and Duckworth 2014). The teaching experience will help me formulate a plethora of support services that can play an effective part in rehabilitation programs. It will also help me in engaging the school and the school’s community in service programs for the society. With this conceptualization, I will be able to make my students reach out beyond the walls of their classroom and extend beyond the boundary of their school. Another commitment that is of primary importance to me is the investment of extra hours with students to facilitate their learning process and help in their overall wellbeing. This would require my focus on the individual needs of each student. It would help me provide necessary assistance to the academic and emotional needs of my students. Some of my interests that will prove beneficial in my workplace are creating designs and graphic illustrations, directing an orchestra or musician group, making arts and crafts creations, building objects out of glass, clay or other materials and taking part in scout and sports activities (Jelavic and Salter 2014). These personal interests will help me engage the students as well and will bring about a holistic development of the mental, artistic, physical and cognitive abilities of the child. Life experiences do matter in creating an impact on the professional life. My academic experiences have enabled me to understand that a teacher should have strong personal standards and continue to learn throughout her life. She should always be respectful of her students and their parents and should be highly conscientious.
Rewards and Challenges of Teaching
I had learnt from my student life that induction is important for all teachers and students, especially the international students to create a good environment for them in the school. There was an incident my school years where a certain teacher disapproved the presence of an immigrant student in her class on the pretext of racism. She always used to hurl abuses at the student, make fun of him and bully him. This came as a culture shock to my classmate and his parents and they were forced to make him change his school because the incident severely affected him (Banks 2015). We could do little to help him as we were not aware of the humiliation. Few years later, when another student belonging to a different race took admission in our class, I wanted to help her in all possible ways to avoid such untoward incidents which had occurred in the past. I gradually began to strike a rapport with her by discussing about our cultures, the customs, the language and practices. This helped to prevent any form of language or academic shock and she became accustomed to the school environment. I utilized my intellectual capacity to adapt, think, reason and create an environment which was conducible for my classmate to study.
Teachers need a variety of skills to become career proficient. I have excellent communication skills that will help me explain the material in the student’s curriculum in different ways to my students and get adapted to their learning styles. My students will also require interpersonal skills. I am patient and have the ability to remain calm in stressful conditions. My collaborative skills will enable me to work productively with my colleagues. When I will plan my lessons to motivate my students and create their interests in classroom activities, my presentation and creativity skills will function accordingly. I am adept at preparing audio-visual presentations. This technological skill will help me trigger technological advancements in my students. I also have the habit of taking risks in any situation for a sense of adventure and to create new learning opportunities (Divan and Mason 2016). I will engage myself in formulating experimentations, create new curriculum for students that will make them utilize their skills in a more proficient way, discuss the intended changes with my colleagues and seek approval from the school authorities and the parents before implementing such risks in a classroom setup. Some of my strengths which are most relevant to my career interests are a sound understanding of the subject Biology, my friendliness and congeniality, my understanding of classroom curriculum standards and my character of being a good listener.
Balancing Family Life and Work Commitments
My strength of being an active listener is demonstrated by the fact that I always maintain eye contact with the speaker and face him during a conversation and keep an open mind during such interactions. Not jumping to conclusions will help my students to represent their feelings and thoughts (Weger Jr et al. 2014). My knowledge of the subject and education standards will help me select from an effective and flexible repertoire of teaching strategies that will suit the social, physical and intellectual characteristic and development of the students. My strength will help me revise and evaluate teaching and learning programs, by utilizing my knowledge and experience. It will assist me in meeting the needs of my students who hail from diverse cultural, linguistic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. I will be able to use my friendliness and congeniality to lead my colleagues to develop learning programs by using their comprehensive curriculum knowledge, assessment and reporting requirements. I will also be able to lead and initiate review of the school policies to support the full participation and engagement of students suffering from disability and to ensure their compliance with legislative policies (Cameron and Cook 2013).
References
Banks, J.A., 2015. Cultural diversity and education. Routledge.
Biesta, G., Priestley, M. and Robinson, S., 2015. The role of beliefs in teacher agency. Teachers and Teaching, 21(6), pp.624-640.
Cameron, D.L. and Cook, B.G., 2013. General education teachers’ goals and expectations for their included students with mild and severe disabilities. Education and training in autism and developmental disabilities, pp.18-30.
Covay Minor, E., Desimone, L., Caines Lee, J. and Hochberg, E.D., 2016. Insights on how to shape teacher learning policy: The role of teacher content knowledge in explaining differential effects of professional development. Education Policy Analysis Archives/Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas, 24.
Divan, A. and Mason, S., 2016. A programme-wide training framework to facilitate scientific communication skills development amongst biological sciences Masters students. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 40(4), pp.543-567.
Hallman, H. and Burdick, M., 2014. Service learning and the role of “teacher.”. Service-learning in literacy education: Possibilities for teaching and learning, pp.117-130.
Jelavic, M. and Salter, D., 2014. Managing Facilitation in Cross-Cultural Contexts: The Application of National Cultural Dimensions to Groups in Learning Organisations. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 7(1).
Petersen, J.E. and Treagust, D.F., 2014. School and University Partnerships: The Role of Teacher Education Institutions and Primary Schools in the Development of Preservice Teachers’ Science Teaching Efficacy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(9), p.n9.
Ramos, R.C., 2016. Considerations on the role of teacher autonomy. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, (8), pp.183-202.
Robertson-Kraft, C. and Duckworth, A.L., 2014. True grit: Trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals predicts effectiveness and retention among novice teachers. Teachers College record (1970), 116(3).
Van den Bergh, L., Ros, A. and Beijaard, D., 2014. Improving teacher feedback during active learning: Effects of a professional development program. American educational research journal, 51(4), pp.772-809.
van Uden, J.M., Ritzen, H. and Pieters, J.M., 2014. Engaging students: The role of teacher beliefs and interpersonal teacher behavior in fostering student engagement in vocational education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 37, pp.21-32.
Von Culin, K.R., Tsukayama, E. and Duckworth, A.L., 2014. Unpacking grit: Motivational correlates of perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(4), pp.306-312.
Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E.M. and Robinson, M.C., 2014. The relative effectiveness of active listening in initial interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28(1), pp.13-31.
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