Celta Essay

"An Individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." Martin Luther King
This year, for the first time, I have started to learn the Arabic language. Although, this extremely rich language has alphabet, vowels are not included when writing and marks, which represent vowels, written above and below the text are removed in most texts. This is one of the differences the Arabic language has to the English language, making it a challenging language to learn. In the midst of all these challenges, I have been fortunate to have had some extremely skilled teachers that have explained the work in comprehendible portions. I was amazed by their ability to motivate students and to adapt their teaching style for different students. I would love to emulate these teachers by inspiring students to achieve their aspirations, despite the challenges they may encounter.
However, I did not truly appreciate the demands of a teaching career until I worked as a learning support assistant at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. I supported most students in a classroom, where I realised the importance of versatile communication. Astonishingly, the teachers were conductors and the class was their orchestra. They did this by developing a strong rapport with their students enabling them understand how they learn and making best use of this. I observed high quality teaching and was able to practice it with my students. One of my students was blind, thus required to see her work through words. I listened to the concerns she had enabling me to understand her needs and how I could help her a lot more.
Many elements of my degree in Biomedical Informatics enhanced my ability to cope with the potential demands of a teaching career. Frequent presentations built my confidence in speaking before an audience, small or large. I also developed planning and management skills in order to ensure the successful completion of my dissertation. Other key skills that I developed from the production of my dissertation included data analysis and data presentation, which are both important skills for a teacher.
I realised the importance of strong leadership skills during my year as ISoc deputy head. I gained many skills, such working in a team. These were essential to ensure I was successful in the following year as student president of ISoc. This was a rewarding position as I certainly developed my organisational and management skills to enable me to find a balance between doing my final year at university and such a challenging position. I played a key role in ensuring that my team members completed tasks on time by setting an example myself, first and foremost. Using good communication and developing a rapport with the team ensured that tasks were completed on time and to the best practice standards possible. My voluntary role as a mentor in Hornsey School for Girls allowed me to develop a different kind of communication skill. Here I simply listened to what concerns young people had, showing understanding, providing comfort and reassurance and, if necessary, taking appropriate action.
My desire to help shape the future of students compels me to strive to achieve my ambition to become a teacher. A successful teacher must be caring, determined and academically capable. I believe I have acquired some of these qualities though life experiences and education. If I am honoured with the opportunity to study CELTA I hope to help students that may find their studies challenging to strive and excel, just as my teachers had helped me in my Arabic classes. I am aware that the four week course is an intensive one, but as a highly motivated and hardworking individual I welcome the challenge with open arms.