Maths Personal Statement Sample.
When I was at secondary school, I found maths lessons uninspiring, and it was only in later life that I came to love the subject. A few years ago I noticed that my niece’s relationship with maths lessons was very similar to my own. When she began to struggle, I began to tutor her in the subject. After achieving an A at GCSE and deciding to study further maths at A Level, she informed me that her new-found love of the subject was down to my tutoring having made the subject both fun and comprehensible to her. The sense of reward that I felt as a result gave me the initial spark of inspiration to become a teacher, and since then I have been eagerly following my Open University degree in mathematics and gaining classroom experience in preparation to become a teacher.
My love of mathematics as a discipline developed through being required to use it in my professional life, and in particular through being involved in the management side of my father’s business. The daily involvement with processing various types of figures slowly but surely piqued my curiosity. After a time I began to study mathematics more formally, and the more I learnt its secrets, quirks and applications, the more I became fascinated with it. I went on to enrol at the Open University, initially studying science, but then switching to mathematics. Although combining work and study can be arduous, I have loved each and every module that I have taken. An added bonus of the OU degree has been that, as I have become more interested in teaching, I have been able to study mathematics education courses, and these have boosted my eagerness to teach the subject.
I love working with young people because I treasure the opportunity of inspiring them to take an interest in something that will benefit them in their lives. Before I entered a classroom to teach I discovered through caring for my nephew I had a knack for building a good rapport with children without compromising my position of authority, and I was delighted that I was able to successfully transfer this to the classroom. After the experience of tutoring my niece, I began to work as a volunteer teaching assistant at a local school, where I was involved with classes of a wide range of ages. During this time one of the school’s maths teachers had to take a leave of absence, and I was invited to fill her position temporarily. Although apprehensive about the scale of the challenge, I accepted it, and greatly enjoyed the experience. I was at the school for a total of six weeks, and through both observing other teachers and taking my own classes I learnt so much about a wide series of aspects of the profession, such as effective classroom management techniques, planning a sequence of lessons and even maintaining positive relationships with parents as a result of being involved in a parents’ evening. I am looking forward to returning to the classroom in the next few weeks through another period of voluntary work at a local state school.
However, my six weeks of classroom experience taught me that there is much more to the life of a teacher than the narrow remit of teaching lessons. I came to realise that schools operate as a community, where teachers support and nurture one another, where the school has a duty to foster an inclusive learning environment for its children, and where kids develop in areas beyond academic skills. I feel that the leadership expertise that I developed as a business manager, the experiences of caring for my elderly mother and my nephew and niece and my Urdu and Punjabi language skills all equip me for playing a positive wider role within a school community, whether in the form of taking on extra leadership responsibilities, supporting colleagues or teaching children additional skills.
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