We all have our favorite teacher. You know, the one that makes us want to work hard.
The one that actually made us enjoy school. Have you ever wondered how that
favourite teacher got to be in job, and what kind of person makes a great teacher?
Well today,
I'm at the University of WA to find out all about studying teaching
by talking to somebody who's actually in the course.
So come on, let's go meet Amy.
The world of teaching has come a long way since the days of chalkboards and ink wells.
And the master of teaching course at UWA
is right at the forefront at the latest teaching technologies.
You'll get experience with all the latest learning software and hardware
and -of course- you'll even be put into a real life classroom
giving you the opportunity to work with the students themselves.
"Hi, I'm Amy." "Hey I'm Rebecca."
I've got some questions about studying teaching at UWA, can we go have a chat?
Sure, let's go.
Okay Amy, you're studying teaching at UWA.
What made you want to start doing teaching?
I didn't always know that I wanted to be a teacher, but I've been working at a learning centre for the past six years,
And I think getting in there and really working with kids
one on one, getting that experience, made me want to enroll in teaching.
And what pathway of teaching are you specialising in?
I'm doing Primary. There are 3 different options,
Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary, and I chose Primary.
Now because ICT is such a big part of the community these days,
How do you feel UWA has prepared you for using technology in the classroom?
It's a huge part of the program, we got iPad's given to us in the first year.
to play around with, to test out different apps, just generally get familiar with
that technology.
And, we do a lot of work on Smartboards.
We look at implementing them in the classroom, using them to their
kind of fullest potential. Now I've heard that Smartboards are actually quite complicated,
have you had to design programs for them and stuff like that? Yeah
We do a lot of workshops on how to use them because they are really complex and hard and it's not until
you do all the theory but on prac it's really great to try them out.
In your two years being here, what's been your favourite part so far?
I really liked the idea of Masters of Teaching, I know that the
the diped is kind of being phased out, especially with primary there is too much to go over
in one year, and I really liked the idea of doing lot's of theory,
lots of practice and then coming out with a higher degree at the end of it.
And what made you decide that you wanted to start studying teaching
here at UWA? I thought that the Masters of Teaching was a really good option
I didn't want to just do everything in one year
I felt that would take -may be rushing through it a little bit, and I know that
they're phasing them out but
the Masters of Teaching has a lot more theory, you have more opportunities for prac,
you come out with a higher degree.
Ok Amy, so now it's time for you to give me the edge. I want to know what it is
that you had to study prior to starting this course here at UWA.
I finished my high school degree, I then applied to do my bachelors.
I did my Bachelor of Arts and then I rolled straight into the Master of Teaching.
And what kind of person do you think best suites being a Primary school teacher?
I think you have to be really dedicated, it's quite full on
even though it may not look like it from the outside, it is something that you
have to have planned
pretty much every minute of the day and it's very unpredictable.
Each day is different, because you're dealing with 30 little kids that have their own
idea of what they want to do.
Yeah, definitely dedicated, fun, creative,
confident, just really having that compassion for children and wanting to
really teach them in new and exciting ways.
If you could do one thing differently, but still end up where you are today,
what would you change? I think I'd definitely try and get into teaching
earlier.
It took me a while on a bit of a winding path to get to where I am
I love it, but I wish I had of done it just a little bit earlier.
That's great Amy. Thank you so much for having a chat with me today. No worries
So there you go, studying teaching at UWA
sounds like so much fun and best of all you get access to a tonne of experience
and a heap of history. If you want to find out more about studying teaching
at UWA, jump onto iwannab.com.au