Well, I left school with few qualifications in 1972. Always thought I was as intelligent as the next man (or woman) and wanted to prove it to myself. The Open university had been formed at the latter end of the 1960s and in my mid thirties I embarked on my first OU course, which turned out to be engineering based - "Living with Technology". I chose this because it had an element of IT and I had learned how to program computers.
I was shocked when it turned into an engineering course! But I had started and my company (International Computers Ltd - ICL) was paying for the course so I submitted my first three assignments and found I was getting distictions on every assignment. Sadly, workload, travelling around assisting with ICL's delivery of the Faraday Lectures, meant I had to abandon the course halfway through at the behest of my boss. As they were paying for the course I had little choice as computers were not mobile at all back then - green screens time and no graphics!
I did not get the time or opportunity to embark on another course until I took volountary redundancy from ICL, now Fujitsu Services, in 2002. This time I stuck at it and despite working in a secondary school full time as a Learning Support Assistant I managed to achieve my degree and another 120 points of study in 4 years! I was hooked. Learning was fun and became an addiction... I now avidly read text books on a number of subjects and keep finding new topics that interest me. I would love to become a perpetual student - but distance learning does not provide enough social interaction and I also discovered I loved working with young people.
I had originally planned to become a teacher for my second career, despite the drop in salary it was a safe option and would provide me with a decent pension. But knowing that dedicated teachers spend an enormous amount of time outside the classroom would mean I would have to give up my studies as I like to be the best in whatever I do and that often means putting in more hours than more talented people might have to do. I tried being a learning mentor, but that drained my emotions as I wanted to adopt all my mentees - I have not had the opportunity of bringing up my own children and the impact on my emotional health was great.
However, as a mentor I had also had the opportunity of covering lessons for absent staff and of teaching small groups in my subject area of English. I took a job as a cover supervisor and actually enjoy "teaching" the whole gamut of subjects to a large number of pupils. It allows me to keep an emotional distance from the problems young people face but still allows me some interaction and the sense that I am doing some good ensuring they work in the lessons I cover.
I do not have to plan lessons, and I have studied most of the subjects taught at university foundation level, including maths and science, I have studied French and German and my studies in philosophy and psychlogy help in other subject areas. My experience with computers means that I can teach ICT and Business Studies - no subject has proved a problem, even in my weakest subject - Maths - my perseverance in conquering it has led to my learning a few tricks that I can pass on to weaker students when covering maths lessons or helping with one to one.
I am in an ideal place at the moment and want everyone else to be here with me - loving learning and recognising what a sound knowledge base adds to simple life experiences and to the choices available in this knowledge society.
Hence my commitment to Lifelong Learning and the reason for the creation of this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment