Example Teaching Personal Statement
In the last few years, I have gained a wealth of experience teaching food technology and textiles to pupils of different abilities and backgrounds. My experience has instilled in me a love of teaching and convinced me that I wish to become a full-time food technology and textiles teacher with the ultimate ambition of becoming head of department at a major secondary school.
My teaching experience has prepared me well for the position. In my first teaching job, I was a teaching assistant at Caterham High School, a school well-known for its superb student-teacher relations and its academic excellence. Consequently, teaching standards were very demanding and I learned how to teach to the highest standard through watching and learning from the top teachers at the school. My relentless hard work was noted and I received teaching work from a number of other schools of high academic reputation, including Valentine’s High School, Brentwood High, Little Heath School and Woodford County School for Girls.
From these experiences, I learned how to administer the curriculum, plan for AFL and apply teaching strategies I had learned from the PCGE. Observing best practice, I also learnt how to stretch the top pupils while attending to the well-being of all students. I taught classes of all ages from Key Stages 3 and 4, from which I learned how to adapt my teaching style depending on the age group.
To develop my ability to adapt still further, I decided to work at a few schools that have been deemed ‘challenging’. I learned how to deal with unruly pupils, instilling discipline in the class to ensure a structured and disciplined learning environment, which I think is crucial if the students are to be academically successful. I learned that it is essential to deal with bad behavior early on before it worsens and affects the whole class. But I know it is also important to be warm and enthusiastic in teaching and I was able to engage and motivate pupils who had initially been reluctant to apply themselves. The work was indeed ‘challenging’ but despite setbacks, in the end incredibly rewarding, especially when I would see the proud smiles of students who had achieved more than they had expected. As a result of my determination, I was highly praised for my classroom management by the school authorities.
My teaching experience therefore makes me confident that I am fully prepared for the challenges of a full-time teaching job. My education, on the hand, shows that I have the academic knowledge to teach the curriculum well to pupils of all ages and abilities. I gained a PCGE in Food Technology and Textiles, having previously completed a degree in Early Childhood Studies. My degree helps me to understand young people’s psychology and has been useful when I have had to think about how to motivate young students. My earlier career in fashion design was surprisingly very good preparation for the PCGE, which equipped me with all the requisite knowledge of my chosen subjects for the purpose of teaching any school-age student.
I love to continue working with pupils outside of classroom hours and in many of my teaching positions, I have organized lunchtime cooking sessions so that pupils could learn how to cook and take something healthy home with them. The projects have greatly improved my ability to relate to pupils on a human level and have helped promote healthy living in the schools. I also think it important that pupils engage with the local community and realise that they have duties to others as well as rights. I have helped organize local fund-raising events with pupils for the school, including a fashion show for which I was able to make use of my background in fashion to the delighted surprise of the students. I very much hope I shall be able to start such projects in my new teaching position.
My success and determination have been the fruit of my love of working with and teaching young people. I am always looking for how to improve my teaching skills so I look forward to getting to grips with new challenges and thus developing my own talents as well as the pupils’ in the new role. For which reasons, I hope you will look favourably on my application.
This example Teaching personal statement should be used as a point of reference to help with structure and general content when writing your own personal statement.