Advice?

ElaElaElano

Hi,

I've been contemplating teaching ever since I was in school myself. I had an English teacher in 5th and 6th year who was just incredible at his work- he managed to really engage with the whole class and inspired a lot of people who weren't remotely interested in the subject to get involved. By the end of his first year he had kids coming up to him after school with poems and stories they'd written in their spare time.

I still think back to him and just how much he loved his job. As it happens, English was a favourite of mine and I got an A in the Leaving Cert. But here's the problem- I wasn't quite as good in other areas, my maths in particular is atrocious and I got reasonable but unspectacular grades in everything else. I didn't have enough points to do a degree in English, nor even an arts degree so ended up taking a HND course in Journalism which I despised. Are there any roundabout ways into becoming a secondary teacher? Obviously going back as a mature student is one but I'd have to sit it out for a couple of years yet to be eligible. Can you take a few back doors, maybe a diploma in something leading into English?

The second issue is that I might be a little bit too 'nice'. I'm not an authoriatative type so would be either playing the cool, approachable teacher who everyone likes OR being weeded out by the nasty ****es and destroyed in front of the class every day...I'd love to hear from anyone who has a similar shy demeanour and how they've dealt with it in the classroom.

Sorry for the long post!

pathway33

www.oscail.ie BA in humanities

you can teach english and history or CSPE with this

it's distance learning with DCU

You probably need to apply this week