My Goal to Become a Further Education Teacher

Growing up facing a lot of challenges and hardships, I always appreciated my teachers' positive impact on my life because they believed and supported me even when peers and people close to me did not. Also as a teacher's son, it was motivating to see my Mother's sacrifice of not only being a teacher but a mentor and support system for her students.

With all the challenges she faced such as having to walk long distances to school, working too many roles, balancing the challenges we faced at home with those at work and adjusting to each student's learning needs among others, it was inspiring to see how strong and content she was. I could see the rewards, which to this day has inspired me to have the zeal to become a Teacher. Being the person that I have grown to be today, it is evident that teachers helped me build my self-esteem, build my career while building theirs at the same time and earned my respect and admiration.

Although I aspired to be a teacher someday, it wasn't until 2012 when I finally felt I had a calling to become a Further Education Teacher. During my time as an undergraduate student, it gave me much satisfaction when allowed to lead a class or teach a lower level class in my University, which was a support initiative of the Head of the Communications Department at the time.

My interest piqued during my time as a Master's student at Sheffield Hallam University where I also got an opportunity to volunteer to teach new International students for a week through the 'Culture connect' program. To further hone my teaching skills I took an online course in University teaching from the University of Hong Kong that helped me analyze research on effective teaching, understanding key teaching/learning concepts, understanding instructional design and acquiring knowledge on assessments and feedback practices among others. I applied these skills when I was given an opportunity to be part of a Digital media master's lecturers' interview panel at Sheffield Hallam University during the summer of 2019 to pick out new prospective lecturers. This experience helped me peep behind the curtain and see some of the requirements for becoming a further education teacher.

My master's program has helped me grow and gain skills such as knowing how best to work with others and manage workloads with various people who have various strengths and weaknesses and professional development through online learning and courses from reputable organizations such as Google, Hubspot, the Institute of Data & Marketing have helped me develop my skills further and keep up to date with current trends in my Industry.

On the other hand, my experience as a Journalist working in fast-paced media organizations both as an intern and as a supervisor have helped me gain resilience and the ability to work under pressure, gain leadership skills and improve my organization skills, which I believe are going to be key for my career as a Teacher.

Studying abroad has also made me more culturally aware and has enabled me to adapt to the wide range of experiences and challenges that I was not previously used to, hence I am now confident that I can thrive in any environment or situation. I am humble, approachable, I am always willing to learn and most importantly I am a hard worker and this is reflected by my reference statements and Master's studies results.

My goal is to have a strong impact on people's lives and contribute to their success and sharing my skills while I learn and grow in the process.