The Role of Personal Development in Teaching - Essay Example

Name Tutor Course Date Personal Development Summary Personal development is a very important part of the overall human development as it ensures that a person with the right frame of mind contributes to the society. It is imperative that a person looks inside him or herself before looking without. “Why are we so surprised that there is so much chaos in the world? Just look at the chaos within each of us. We must first bring order and clarity in our inner world, before we can bring order to the outer world”, (Krishnamurti). This course will enable one to appreciate concepts such as self-reflection, self-awareness and ultimately self-development. This course is an important recipe for success and inner peace (PDP 150). In 2007, I finished my service term in the United Arab Emirates Army where I had served for a period of three years. I love helping people and therefore helping my country develop appropriately. In light of this I thought I would be of better help if I taught people and therefore help them by influencing their line of thought. With this in mind, I did not reapply for my job in the army. I thought I would help people in a better way by pursuing a degree in Fire Safety and Risk Management in the United Kingdom. Through my experience in the army my dream of teaching and giving back to the community was born. In the precedent 3 years, I have gone from serving in the army and looking to obtain a degree Fire Safety and Risk and Management to doing community service in the juvenile institutions in Blackburn. Juvenile institutions are places in which less fortunate children are taken in before being allocated to foster homes. After my service in the United Arab Emirates Army and my life in the UK, I developed a broader global perspective, an ingrained zeal to invigorate change to the running systems, a theoretical understanding of probable solutions, experienced working in complex and diverse conditions during my army days, polished skills in motivation and headship, and an open-mind and desire to comprehend the aspects of what makes a successful teacher. With this in mind I took a foundation course in English as a foreign language in Newcastle College to help me communicate since I am more versed with Arabic. In the human pursuit for harmony and happiness, teaching is my way of achieving this (PDP 150). I have come to this premise through my interaction with various thinkers and people. The pursuit has led people into taking up numerous vocations like chasing money, chasing power and others by helping the society. Teaching therefore allows me to work towards achieving a happy, harmonious life in these diverse facets. My goal in teaching is to impart skills in students that will enable them to free their mind. The skills include very sharp observation skills that enable students to be aware of their surrounding reality, critical thinking to enable them to analyze problems and the capability to come up with solutions. I would also like to learn how to teach a large class of students and still be able to put the diversity and individuality of each student into perspective. I would like to create a culture where students can express their thoughts, feelings and questions freely. I also hope to learn and practice a range of methods of teaching dissimilar subjects in a germane, intriguing, thought-provoking, and curiosity-developing way. Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses After my thorough self examination while in Emirates; I discovered that I have strengths and weaknesses. My strengths include; good leadership skills, broad perspective, an ability to comprehend and put across concepts. However, I am a very impatient and imposing person. Leadership is an imperative skill in teaching as a teacher is a leader in the classroom environment and the community at large. During my service at the army, I was the leader of my team. During my reign we were one of most soldiers who completed their assignments as required. My ability to comprehend and remit concepts particularly in math and science is another one of my strengths. I am about to be a holder of a degree in Fire Safety and Risk Management which has courses in Physics and Mathematics; energy transfer and thermodynamics. I was also a very good student in math and science in high school; with an eighty six point nine percent score (Medhurst). I further tutored other students in mathematics. I constantly thought of new methods to impart different concepts on others. The aforementioned subjects are usually deemed as difficult and it therefore takes a person with ingenuity to make the subjects appealing and relevant. Lastly my broad perspective comes to hand. Over my experiences in Emirates and those in the United Kingdom, I have developed an open-mind that is imperative to teaching. I am therefore viewing the world through a number of frameworks which makes me aware of their existence and thus modes of handling them appropriately. However, with every good thing come downsides. I have come to realize that I am very impatient. This weakness does not sit very well with the teaching profession. I plan to combat my impatience by taking meditation as a form of relaxation and also to help me be calm even if I want things done my way. I believe that I have the potential of being a very good teacher once my impatience and imposing natures has been put in check. I plan to continue my skills development by interacting with other teachers and thus further developing them. My army days have made me an imposing person as I make decisions and I do not like to be questioned. I got this habit from serving in the army where a junior was not allowed to question the decisions made by any senior person. I have come to the understanding that for one to lead he must learn to listen, understand, and deliberate prior to coming to decisions. However, there were occasions when I made unilateral decisions and directed staff on what they were supposed to do. Since I bypassed the deliberation part the decision seemed to be imposed on them. This led to their diminished respect for me and hence became lax on the impending task. A similar situation plays out in a classroom situation. If an issue is deliberated upon with the contribution of students then the decision reached upon has more value since each student was a part of its development. Another vital quality of a good teacher is to lead by example. The teacher must be in a continuous state of trying to improve his/her methods and supplement his/her understanding. This will impact positively on the student as he/she will understand that education is a continuous process. Other modules and teaching Education is a very vital part of our society today. It is important to have adept teachers to impart various concepts to students. I am of the opinion that students do not see the significance of the subject objects at school. The subject being taught may be irrelevant to their lives or the teacher does not explore it properly. I therefore want to teach so as to take advantage of my skills and understanding. Being a prospective degree holder in Fire Safety and Risk Management which has no links with education as a subject still makes me a better placed teacher. Fire Safety and Risk Management is a hand on subject which is directly related to what happens in our society. For instance the law and management module can be directly related to the governing of the human relations in the society. For example we learn how to deal with fires that have been caused on purpose, arson and accidental fires. It has also been common knowledge that before a building is deemed to be fit for human habitation it must satisfy fire rules and regulations. The methods we learn in engineering design practice allow us to be creative. This is because in this module we are encouraged to develop ways to deal with fire situations and come up with novel ways to save people. I am therefore abreast with how important it is to draw analogies of the classroom concepts and their implementation in our daily lives. I am better placed to make concepts into tangible ideas that could positively impact our society. One of the rules that govern education is to look outwards and learn about the world “out there”. This policy leaves a gap since students do not learn about themselves. It has also been noted that categorization is mostly made use of (The Society of Orthopedic). That is the putting of various studies in different disciplines such as math, science, history, English. This has led students to view the discipline in isolation which is not the case. This has also resulted in the separation of their lives that is career, family life, religious and social life. This leads to an individual having conflicting dimensions. I have therefore noted that making the subject matter relevant to the students comes a long way in ensuring they grasp the concepts that are being taught. For instance in teaching English, I made the students (foreign children in the UK) understand that it was not very different from their native tongue. I further went ahead with our discussion and the students and I came to the realization that English is important to them since it is used in numerous countries. We also conducted an activity in which the students came up with words for instance “computer”, “pants”, etc. I further gave them homework to come up with other words and therefore made the subject relevant to them. Another method of teaching is categorization for instance in modules such as physics, math, biology, history, religion, home science, English, etc. Categorization has been necessitated by the bid to comprehend various ideologies. However, it is just but a learning method and not how the units should be viewed. It has been suggested that more work should be done on the integration of the various subjects. It has also been noted that compartmentalization seems to be part of the students through maturity, where they put their career, family life, their religious life, and social life in different categories. Instead of being one whole, the individual begins to have many different, and sometimes conflicting, dimensions. My work will be to advocate for self-reflection, self-awareness and self-development, elimination of the abstract mode of teaching and elimination of categorization. An evaluation of the role of PDP In a nutshell teaching is real. There exist students and teachers, and existent human relations between the teachers and students. There is also a reciprocal exploration of the self and the world. The exploration of self allows one to be aware of what he/she likes and therefore obtain happiness and harmony. The continuous review of ones skills and weaknesses puts the person in an advantage of achieving his/her aspirations. As for me, teaching is not a job, but a life-style. Works Cited and Bibliography PDP 150 (2007) The Personal Development Reflective Essay Assignment [Online]. Retrieved March 24, www.bridgewater.edu/.../PDP%20150%20final%20essay%20assignment.doc Custom-Essay.org (2005) How to Write a Reflective Essay [Online]. Retrieved March 24, 2010.http://www.custom-essays.org/essay_types/Reflective_Essay.html The Society of Orthopedic (2010) Guidelines for the Portfolio Reflective Essay Medicine [Online]. Retrieved March 24, 2010. Available at: www.somed.org/somdip/reguidelines.pdf Private Writing (2008) Reflective Essay [Online]. Retrieved March 24, 2010. Available at: http://www.privatewriting.com/reflective_essay.html Medhurst, S.W (2005) Supporting Student Development Using Reflective Writing [Online]. Retrieved March 24, 2010.Available at: www.londonmet.ac.uk/londonmet/library/a31988_3.pdf Rushessay (1997) Reflective Essay [Online]. Retrieved March 24th 2010. Available at: www.rushessay.com/reflective_essay.php Reflective-Essay-Info (2007) Guide to Reflective Essay Writing [Online]. Retrieved March 24, 2010. Available at: http://reflective-essay.info/ Read More