English Assistant Review

I thought the experience was very good; I was able to take control of lesson plans and deliver these to students of varying ages and abilities. This was very challenging but also very rewarding. The students were very engaged and I was provided with valuable feeback about my performances throughout by both teachers and pupils.

I felt that I received praise and very valued by a lot of the teachers. However, my mentor wasn't very useful and did not really steer me in anyway, nor did she appear to value the input that I was providing at the school. Overall though, my work was valued over the month.

I received very little support from my mentor. This led to confusion about what I should be doing and so this was quite worrying. However, the other teachers were very supportive and I received a lot of guidance from these people to help me achieve a lot of output and lesson time to the children.

I believe that the skills that I developed didn't really assist me in my degree studies (English); although it gave me a very useful insight into the world of teaching and the skills needed to develop to become competent in this profession. I learned a lot about this career and it was therefore very useful.

The placement wasn't really that structured, and was based upon how I performed in the first week with my lesson plan and delivery (I was asked to do this for a portion of a lesson). However, as time went on and my confidence did, they structured it for me so I would be delivering full lessons.

The atmosphere was pleasant overall, with the teacher being supportive and encouraging. I feel as though they wanted me to do my best. However, I was a bit letdown by my mentor as she provided very little input and there seemed to be a bit of a cold atmosphere coming from her.

They initially threw me into the deep end, as I was not aware that I would even be delivering lessons, even partially, to the pupils. However, once this happened and I overcame my nerves, they helped me to develop this into longer lessons and sessions, which was really useful to me.

The insight that I got did help me to establish a good feel of a day to day life in a high school acting as a teacher, which I feel can be transferred to any schools across the country. It was only useful for teaching English though, as I imagine other subjects would be different.

I learned a lot about teaching life, including the workload, and the necessity to learn behaviour management to control the classes. It was also interesting to see the different methods applied to children of different learning abilities. Overall, it was good to see how teachers balance their day to day life in a school.

I learned that although I do want to teach, I feel as though I don't want it to be in a high school environment. However, I am thankful for the experience as I learned it wasn't for me, yet my passion for teaching in some capacity still remains (likely to older learners).

I got money for transport expenses.

I got to interact and network with people that were higher up in the school, and I built up a rapport with the head of the department. She wrote a great report about my time in the school, which is useful for any future teaching ventures that I may choose to pursue.

Other than interacting with the teachers across the school, there were no real social event opportunities. The only exception was at break times in the staff room, where I got to mingle with the staff in an informal manner and learn more about their lives in and out of the classroom.

I did not find out about any activities that the teachers can get involved in outside of work sadly. I did however learn about what they get up to through informal chat. This included their plans for the weekend, how they like to relax, and what work they take home.

I would recommend this opportunity to a friend, or anybody that wants experience in working within a school to discover whether it is the right career choice for them. Even if it isn't at the end of the placement, a lot of useful skills will be gained and it is a worthwhile investment of time.