Teaching work experience

I have been thinking about how I want to follow into a career after I have finished my 3rd year in Illustration and graduate. I have always loved to work with children and have put in a lot of thought into what I want to do after my degree and I have decided that I would like to become a Primary Teacher.

Over the summer I contacted a number of of schools including two in Brightlingsea: the Infant and Junior School I attended myself. From the 16th - 20th September I went to the Junior School to do some work experience. Therefore I spent a day in year 6, 5, 4 and 3, then the last day I spent the morning in year 3 and afternoon in year 4. It was really good to see each year and how children from 7-11 are taught. I really enjoyed my whole week and learnt a lot from it. I liked the teaching of the lower years to upper so I want to do another week of work experience at an Infant school - ages 3 to 7 to see whether I would like to teach upper or lower primary.

16/09/2013: YEAR 6

• Numeracy
• Literacy
• BIG FOOT
• History

17/09/2013: YEAR 5

• Numeracy
• Literacy
• Geography - with school trip walk to the beach

18/09/2013: YEAR 4

• Handwriting
• Literacy
• BIG FOOT
• P.E

19/09/2013: Dress as a Pirate day!! YEAR 3

• Handwriting
• P.E
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• ICT

20/09/2013: YEAR 3 (AM) YEAR 4 (PM)

• Handwriting
• Spelling 
• Big writing

Throughout the week I observed the teaching the lessons and also assisted the teacher by answering questions from students and helping them with work they were doing. Powerpoint presentations and other methods of visual learning aids are key to the teaching of especially young children. To grasp their attention and educate them a way they will stay interested and focused. BIG FOOT = basic skills tests that the students over all year do ever week to see how they are progressing and what they need to be taught still. Big writing was a similar exercise but for literacy where they had to sit down and write for certain period of time. 

There are two ways I could look into getting into teaching: either a PGCE or in school training. I talked to students who were on the training course and also just qualified teachers and the in school training seems like the best way to move forward. You would have to focus on either lower or upper Primary which why I am currently arranging for work experience at an Infant School to see which I would like to pursue, and from there I can look into applying to become a primary school teacher!!