‘Get Into Teaching’ and The Teachers That Shaped Me

I was never the best student in school.

In hindsight, I was so childish in my approach to school-life that I never felt I would truly prosper in that environment, leading me to often lash out in my early years because I felt I was wasting my time in the educational system.

Y’know, typical troubled youth kinda stuff.

It was this constant lashing out that caused me to clash with teachers regularly, and in turn not want to work for them. I’d disrupt classes and refuse to do the work I’d been given, and as time went on, I began to find myself with a certain disrespect for the teaching profession.

Yet somehow some way, I now find myself in university and applying myself (most of the time) at my course to be the best student that I can be.

To say this version of myself would be possible without the help of some of my teachers would be a massive understatement.

That should go without saying realistically. Along with other relationships and friendships you may have made along the way, and of course the effort you put in to improve personally, teachers SHOULD be fundamental to your growth in school. I mean, that’s what they’re there for right? That and the bants, of course.

However I recently found myself thinking back on my latter school days, and amid the whirlwind that was the early pandemic period and the subsequent worldwide shutdown, I realised I’d never truly said my thank you’s on my way out.

In fact it wasn’t until listening to the sponsor section of a WhatCulture Wrestling podcast that the importance of several teachers roles in my growth as not only a student, but a person, became apparent.

On the podcast, host Adam Wilbourn discussed his growth in school through a particularly fond relationship he had with his drama teacher, and how the teaching process can be integral in setting a person on their future path.

The sponsor this was in the name of was ‘GetIntoTeaching’, a promotional programme I have since seen encouraging people to enter teaching under the tagline of ‘every lesson shapes a life’.

Seeing this message and hearing other’s stories of how their teachers impacted them resonated with me to such an extent where I began to feel credit hadn’t been given where credit was due in regards to not only the teachers who helped shape me, but how important the profession is as a whole.

So I guess it’s time for me to give that credit, and hopefully shed light on why you should ‘Get Into Teaching’.

To help me get this message across, I decided to have a chat with some of my old teachers. Firstly to thank them for their service, and the second to get their first-hand perspective on the profession.

So I was surprised that when first asking them questions about what made them get into teaching themselves: They said didn’t want to become teachers initially.

My Drama teacher Miss.Arburthnott had parents who were both teachers, and thought it’d be the furthest thing from her mind when it came to a long term profession.

Similarly, one of my English and Media teacher’s Mrs.Pye drew upon her negative experiences with her own teachers in the past to rule it out as a profession in the future.

These answers took me by surprise, as if I were expecting teaching to have been a first love for a job that later becomes all encompassing.

Yet just as my own pedestrian understanding of the importance and complexities of teaching came way after my own school years, another former English and Media teacher of mine in Mrs.McCluskey spelled it out as a growing process of learning to love such a difficult profession.

In a sentiment shared by all three of the teachers I discussed the profession with, it’s the biggest challenges that comes with the job that make it so fulfilling.

“Trying to get it right for everyone all the time”, was the way Miss.Arbuthnot described her biggest challenge in teaching, having the weight of a child’s education and future on your shoulders can hold a large, but thrillingly challenging weight to it.

Mrs.McCluskey delved deeper into this mindset, describing the importance of “knowing your learner”.

Using the teaching of Shakespeare text as an example, she explained that students shouldn’t be expected to simply go along with a text that would hold no immediate relevance to them. Instead, it was up to her to engage every student in the text by putting it into a context they could not only understand, but enjoy deciphering, allowing them to not only enjoy engaging with the text, but with the teachers themselves.

This all fed into the overall point of teachers building effective relationships with their students. Building that bridge in which meaningful conversation could be had to create the most effective learning environment for the student to succeed in.

It was this lack of relationships and positive learning environment that led Mrs.Pye to having a lack of positive school experiences with her own teachers, something she said she remembers and always seeks to rectify in her own teaching, as she recognises the importance of building said relationships, and the consequences of a lack of them.

Speaking as a product of all three of these teachers work, I can personally they are very effective at creating an extremely positive learning environment.

Not that this is easy though.

The phrase “everyday is different” may sound like a cliche to somebody outside the teaching bubble, but as Mrs.Pye described it to me, in jumping from different classes with different texts and different needs on a whim, all the while maintaining those relationships that have been carefully built, it’s a true one.

“Everyone is learning”, was the way Miss.Arburthnott put it. Forming and maintaining those aforementioned relationships isn’t a straightforward task, but when done properly, all three teachers emphasised how rewarding the job can be.

When I finally asked each teacher what they would say to any aspiring teachers, they all emphatically said, “It’s important to love it”.

Miss.Arburthnott described that the time and energy you put into the work, while difficult, would allow you to absolutely thrive in the long run, and most importantly, allow each student to thrive as well.

And as Mrs.Pye and Mrs.McCluskey sat next to each on the call, they reminisced on the near 15 years of teaching together across the north east of Scotland, and emphasised that through all the trials and tribulations of teaching, being able to see students they taught venture off to university on the basis of their work, is the most rewarding thing about the role of teacher.

That and the summer holidays off of course.

Personally exhibiting the importance of teachers’ roles in my education and in deciding to become the person I am today is a difficult task, let alone highlighting the magnitude of the overall profession.

So instead, I decided to use somebody else’s, that being the perspective of University of Aberdeen student Abbie Taylor.

Like me, Abbie went to Mintlaw Academy and often had her own run in’s with teachers, refusing to do work or revision in fear of embarrassment or being judged for getting things wrong.

However in arguably the biggest compliment any student could give to their teachers, Abbie has since decided to become a teacher herself.

“Going back to Primary School, all my teachers there had some form of positive influence on me”, Abbie said describing how far back her desire to teach went. “The teachers I liked in the academy were the teachers that made it look fun”, she continued, “I want to be the teacher that I had in school”.

Like me, Abbie spoke of Mrs.McCluskey as a teacher that helped her progress, highlighting how her teaching of English “opened things up” for her in a way no other teacher had for her in the past.

“I don’t think there’s any other job that would make me feel the same”, Abbie concluded at the end of our talk, sharing a similar sentiment to the teachers that shaped her after only a few days in the classroom herself.

After talking to Abbie and the various teachers that taught us at Mintlaw Academy, I began to admire the passion that went into a job that not only helps shape the lives of student’s everyday, but helped me personally get over my childish reactions to education, and embrace it to set myself up for a better future.

Not to get all ‘STAY IN SCHOOL’ on you dear readers, everybody in life has a different path.

However in taking a stroll down memory lane to see where I got where I am now, the teachers I had and the profession as a whole has been instrumental to my growth, and whether you want to GetIntoTeaching, or simply GetIntoUni, teaching can be instrumental to your growth too, if you let it.