My aim throughout working at DACA was to gain as much work
experience as I possibly could. As I would like my future career to be in
teaching, my main goal at DACA was to figure out what specific age range I
would be most suitable to work with. When working with different ages at DACA,
I realised that I enjoyed working with multiple ages rather than the one, I
think this is because each age surprised me. I only worked with Year 7's and
Year 10's but the gap between the 2 was huge. I enjoyed working with Year 7's
because of how imaginative they are but I also enjoyed working with Year 10's
as the ones I worked with were knowledgeable, committed and open as well as
appreciative of any help I gave them.
My expected outcome for the workshops was limited to the
outcome we received. I may have put myself down as well as my group by having
such a small expectation but the outcome was amazing and I was thrilled with the
feedback from both the students and Louise as well as how relieved the group
was that the workshop ran smoothly and the outcome was successful.
My greatest challenge that I had to overcome was my
confidence and being confident when approaching the students, I found this very
challenging. To overcome it, I gave it little thought and just forced myself to
be confident. I think I realised that I have knowledge and expertise that could
be beneficial to them and if I do not approach them now, I never would and if I
could not do it now, would I ever make it as a teacher. Making myself approach
the students was beneficial for me as the students began approaching me for
help, it made me feel useful.
Individually I put all my effort into everything I did.
However, when working in a group I could have done a lot more and got more
involved. I felt that sometimes my voice was not heard because I was not
confident enough to argue my ideas further. Everyone in the group got a long
and we all played our part in making the workshop and this Unit successful. I
have used my organisational skills, my communication skills and my practical
and technical knowledge throughout this Unit, I also managed my workload,
became resourceful when choosing materials and I worked collaboratively. As a
group, we all set goals, tasks, we solved problems when they occurred,
negotiated ideas and most importantly worked as a team. It has definitely been
an enjoyable experience.
To further this line of work I would continue to gain work
experience in the field of teaching. As I have missed a lot of the time
allocated by DACA through doing other voluntary work and being ill, I would
like to have the opportunity to work at DACA again. I would also like to work
at other schools and with different ages to gain more experience and to ensure
myself that teaching is the right choice for me, as a career.
From this Unit I have learnt a lot about myself and my
confidence has certainly grown. Working at DACA gave me the great opportunity
to gain a realisation of what being a teacher or a teacher's assistant is like.
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