#RSMFridayFastFive – Mrs Beglan
Why did you choose a career working with children?
I thought about teaching from quite an early age. In Year 5, l asked my teacher about what I would need to do in order to become one, she told me that it was much harder than it looks. She took me to one side and said even though working with children was always interesting and fun, you had to be part of a team and work with other adults who had strong ideas and opinions. She advised that I would need to be both creative and strong and I told her then that I would be. When I was 14, it was suggested that I had to do a work placement for two weeks and I asked if I could go to a local primary school to work alongside a TA. I loved finally being allowed into the staff room and being able to see what happens behind the scenes, I didn’t realise how much planning and how many meetings my teachers ran and attended in order to get through two weeks. I thought it was very busy and at times difficult but it didn’t put me off!
Your favourite subjects at school?
I always loved English and Art. In Year 7 I remember being surprised when one of my poems was read out in assembly by the headmaster and he invited me into his office to talk about what I was reading and where my ideas came from and if I would possibly write some more. He also asked if I liked the theatre and I said I had never been. He told my English teacher and she was phenomenal she arranged for me to go to London to see ‘CATS’ which I thought was wonderful, to the Tate gallery to see some of the most amazing paintings I had ever seen in real life and then to Harrods to experience the store and then to write about it when I came back, which I did. I knew then it wasn’t going to be my last trip to London.
Why Upper School?
I have taught in both Key Stages 1 and 2 and spent a term teaching at a local nursery when my children were very small. I learned a great deal about the foundations of speaking, reading and numeracy and how important conversing, sharing stories and counting is to very young children. Just because they are small does not mean they don’t have a huge thirst for knowledge. But teaching the older children gives me the opportunity to reason with those who are now developing more mature ideas and opinions and seeing them develop into young responsible people who will help change the world for the better. There is no greater feeling than seeing a young person find confidence in themselves and take a firm stand.
Most memorable moment in your teaching career?
There have been quite a few, but I think one of them was in my first year of teaching in Stoke in Trent, when I was told I had to take my Year 4 class swimming.
A girl in my class had a terrible fear of entering the pool after a holiday accident the year before, I spent the first six lessons holding hands and gradually getting closer and closer to the water before she trusted and we went in together. We just sat in the water or kicked our legs at the edge for the next few lessons, but by the end of the year her mum had sewn on her 10M badge.
My favourite quote:
‘Be the person you needed when you were younger – a true reflection’