Melody Walsh tells us about deciding to pursue a career in primary teaching, and the challenges of working with fourth class pupils.
I’m a permanent mainstream teacher, I teach the fourth class pupils. I was always really interested in education, the idea of an office job never appealed to me. Because if this, I did work experience at a local school and loved it. I realised it’s not all about disciplining children but also relating to them and having a bit of fun!
The Pros and Cons of Primary Teaching
I have a B. Ed (Ordinary) from the Church of Ireland College of Education and a B. Ed (Honours) from Trinity College. In total, four years in college. I think the predominant characteristic needed to be a good teacher is a sense of humour! Other helpful features are diligence, compassion, friendliness, kindness, enthusiasm, and honesty.
There are many pros. The first is the sense of achievement, the feeling of helping a child is fantastic. Another benefit is that each day, week and year is so varied, there’s no fear of boredom. A big advantage is definitely the holidays. These are excellent when you want to travel during the summer, as are the working hours.
Career breaks are also brilliant because you can come back to that same school (once you’re permanent). Student teachers also need to do teaching practice with your class for three weeks, which is great as well!
There are disadvantages including bad behaviour, unhelpful parents, class size, lack of resources, and the continuous negative press in the media. After Easter is always a busy time because of tests, reports to write, organising school tours, preparing for sports day, speaking to your classes’ new teacher for next year, discussing your new class for September and meeting with learning support teachers. I think teaching is a great job, very satisfying and rewarding.
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