Category: Patience

To begin, in the book Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover, there’s no doubt that she has had her share of hardships throughout her life that started at a young age. Although Westover went through a lot as a child and as a teenager, that didn’t stop her from her goal of pursuing an education, but of course to reach this goal she had to have plenty of patience and persistence. Having patience and being persistent is beneficial as it allows one to overcome any challenging situation they might face and allows them to have the determination to finish what they started, no matter how tough and that is what Westover was able to do on multiple occasions. These two characteristics have several key features that Westover demonstrates throughout the book and they impact the story by allowing a few major themes to break through.

To be patient, there are some key features you should have and they may need to be practiced to really understand it. The features I believe that are most important when it comes to being patient are having focus, self-control, and being tolerant. When you’re focused, the only thing on your mind is the center of attention, and when you’re focused on just getting that one thing done and taking your time with it, then you’re building your patience. When you have self-control you’re able to control your emotions and behaviors even in difficult situations. Lastly, when you’re tolerant you are more open-minded and other people’s opinions or behaviors don’t really bother you, even if they differ from what you think.

Along with this is persistence. The key features I believe that come with persistence are being committed, being adaptable, and in my opinion the most important, having a passion or goal that you want to reach. When you have a commitment to a certain thing then that might be one major thing you’re focused on and will stop at nothing to finish it. When you’re adaptable, you’re able to easily adjust to different situations and settings which helps in being persistent because different scenarios won’t affect you. Finally, when you’re passionate about something or have a goal, then you’re more determined to get it done and constantly work on that goal. All of these features play a role in persistence and patience.

In addition, on her journey to basically a new life, Westover was able to be patient and have persistence nearly the whole time while demonstrating those characteristics. An experience that Westover was dealing with in her childhood and as she was growing up that I believe she showed incredible strength and patience in was all the times she was dealing with her brother Shawn. Shawn was very manipulative not just towards Westover, but nearly every woman in his life. He was also physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive to Westover and all of his girlfriends. Everytime Westover was abused, she would tell herself that Shawn “didn’t affect [her]”, and since it happened so frequently, she ended up believing it (Westover, 145). I believe that this shows patience from Westover because even though she endured all that abuse from Shawn, she still held on, showing the self-control characteristic of patience and didn’t let Shawn affect her or stop her from her goal of going to school.

Another time that Westover demonstrated patience and persistence was with the whole process of her wanting to go to school. As a child, Westover was never allowed a formal education, and she was barely homeschooled that she couldn’t even “remember the last time [she] read a textbook.” (156). After her brother Tyler convinced her to go to college, Westover “drove forty miles to the nearest bookstore” and bought an ACT study guide and an algebra textbook (160). She also tried getting help with her math from her mother and her brother Tyler because she was determined to learn it. Westover easily demonstrates the commitment characteristic of persistence by doing this because she wants to pass the ACT, so she is using her resources and getting the help she needs to try to pass it.

Continuing on with her school journey, Westover exhibited extreme adaptability which is another characteristic of persistence. Not only did she have to adapt to a different lifestyle, the college lifestyle, she had to leave the place she lived her whole life. She moved another state away and had to adjust to living there and she also moved to a whole other country and had to adjust to living there. Westover was able to adapt well at Cambridge. She “believed she belonged in Cambridge.” (336) and even “had become a […] family” with the friends she made while being there (346). While still dealing with family crises, like her father catching on fire, Westover was able to make genuine connections with other people and have the strength and determination to keep pushing through with school. Eventually Westover was able to finish school with her PhD and become “Dr. Westover.” (392), which is an incredible achievement considering her circumstances of only being homeschooled for a few years and further showcases her patience and persistence.

Next, there are multiple ways that patience and persistence are represented as themes throughout the book. One way is the patience that she has with her family. When her dad basically disowned her and told everyone in her family to do the same, even her aunts and uncles, Westover still cared and tried talking to her parents and was able to have a strong connection with certain brothers. This represents the patience and love that she has with her family. She was also patient when it came to learning new things either when she was studying for the ACT and when she was in school learning things she never heard of before.

Persistence was also represented throughout the story as a major theme. Westover was very persistent even as a young child. For example, when she auditioned for all those plays and ended up getting the roles, she was determined to do the best she could as that character. When she played Annie she cut and dyed her hair to look more like her, and she bought and borrowed dresses too, all to play the part. As mentioned before, Westover was also very persistent when it came to her schooling. Although it was tough for her at first she always tried her best in her classes, talked to her professors when she needed to, and would stay up all night to get her work done.

Nevertheless, others might say that Westover wasn’t always patient and persistent with her school or family life. On one hand, I agree with them because Westover did have her fair share of struggles throughout school, like when she had her breakdown and kind of quit everything for a while. But on the other hand, I still insist that even though she did give up for a little, she ended up back on her feet, excelled, and finished school. I feel that as long as she didn’t entirely give up, go back home, and fall into the trap her father used to have her in, then she was still able to represent patience and persistence.

All in all, Westover went through many challenges and hardships in her life, and came out thriving on the other side. She had the patience and persistence to get through school and struggles that she had with her family. Having patience and persistence, she was able to make lifelong friends, build new connections with family members, and she was able to become her own person which is the most important thing. Having these two characteristics allows one, like it allowed Westover, to get through any tough situation and be okay when it’s all over.

INTRODUCTION

This report will be about producing a critical analysis of skills, knowledge, personal development, and potential for my chosen career paths. The career I have decided to analyse in this report will be a teacher who works in a secondary school and teaches Geography.

Secondary school teachers support and record the progress of their students. The ages of these students range from 11-16 and can range up to 18 if the secondary school has a sixth form. In addition to that, the national curriculum involves teachers planning lessons with aims and learning objectives, this helps students to recognise and understand what they need to achieve by the end of the lesson. These factors contribute to creating a healthy culture of learning.

The three essential skills required to be a teacher are: having knowledge of teaching, having patience, and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations, and having good verbal communication.

SKILL 1- KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHING

I believe that people who choose to become teachers generally have a passion for it, as it can be an incredibly challenging job.

Having knowledge of teaching is important. As I child growing up, I taught my younger sibling things such as: tying her shoelaces, how to write her name, and how to read. I enjoyed every second of it as it is memorising teaching someone something they did not know before which they are likely to then go and teach somebody else. For me to be able to develop these skills even better, doing things such as part-time employment in schools or youth clubs to be able to get the feeling of teaching would be a good thought. I could do this after I have finish semester two but commence looking for some type of placement in January, so I know that by the time I am ready to start everything is sorted. Hopefully, I will be able to teach a group of students myself as this would help to know whether I could be a teacher and also help me develop new skills. If I was to successfully find a placement that relates to me, keeping a diary of what went well and what did not go well every day, and then from there I can analyse and examine what needs to be improved.

In addition to that, being to prepare and deliver lessons to a range of different abilities and ages relates to being organised and versatile which all ties into knowing how to teach. I am very organised when it comes to assembling work and ensuring things are done on time. I am not used to teaching people of different ages and abilities so it would be a new experience for me. For me to improve I could do some type of work experience secondary schools, where they allow me to teach a class of different ages and abilities, so I can experience it. I will definitely face some hurdles as it is something I have never done before. Some students can be difficult, but I must remain professional at all times. Know how teach does not mean only knowing about the topic you teach. It is important to also know how to deliver things to students to enable them to understand so therefore, it is essential to know what you are teaching to pupils as they tend to assume that what their teacher is saying accurate. For instance, teaching geography to students and delivering information is very important as it is a very interactive job. Furthermore, pedagogy is the study of how knowledge and skills are imparted in an educational context ( Li, G., 2012), which means when you are a teacher you need to know how to link your knowledge with your skills.

SKILL 2- PATIENCE, ABILITY TO REMAIN CALM IN STRESSFUL SITUATIONS

Not all students are easy to deal with, some students give teachers a difficult time doing their job. This factor contributes to the teacher having to give her attention to students that are a disruption to the class. Consequently, students who are willing to learn are not able to possibly get all the information that was meant to be given during the lesson.

In terms of how I am currently with being patient and remaining calm, I need a lot of improvement. This is because I do not have much patience with children at the moment, but it is something I am willing to learn. A way for me to enhance my patience is being mindful of things that make me impatient. For instance, if I am teaching a younger family member something and they are not understanding what I am saying it can become irritating and infuriating. Taking deep breaths and counting up to 10 could also help me overcome this problem. Nevertheless, I have the ability to remain calm in situations as I understand that overthinking and stressing about the situation does make it look worse than it actually is. Another example where I struggle to have patience and remain calm is when I am driving and there is traffic or a slow driver in front. I tend to get frustrated quickly in these types of situations.

Equally important meditating can also help with patience and learning how to control breathing. If I were to take some classes for meditating, they would help to improve my patience. The main challenge I will encounter during meditating will be sitting still and trying to only focus on meditating, there is a possibility that the mind will commence drifting elsewhere. However, if I make it a regular activity, I will notice a difference. The main reason people commence meditating is that it reduces stress and as teaching is a stressful and hectic situation are very likely to occur fortunately meditating helps reduce stress. Another reason meditating is advantageous is it can generate kindness. This means that you become more pleasant to talk to and you tend to see the positive side of things more often. In relation to how this will help with being a teacher is that when situations that can be stressful for instance, a student not following rules, or students not handing in coursework/homework on time.

Taking on pastoral duties like being a form tutor allows teachers to get to know perhaps a group of 20-25 kids more and it also adds more responsibilities. For example, if a student is not meeting their target grades; the form tutor is made aware. They must monitor progress academically and urge a high standard of work as well as commitment. Situations are likely to occur where my patience is tested. For instance, if you are dealing with a student that is not reaching their target grade and there and this is because they are not following instructions or simply not putting enough in their work and you have explained to the student numerous times it can become discouraging as students may feel like you are picking on them and then start to act a certain way towards me.

SKILL 3- GOOD VERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

My verbal communication skills improve every day. I constantly have younger family members around me that always want a book read to them. I make sure I pronounce the words correctly. But in terms of speed, I do talk fast and it can sometimes be difficult to comprehend what I am saying. To improve this, I will try to create reasonable pauses to help people understand what I am saying, and I will also try to go with a consistent rhythm which will help with the speed. I could do this by reading aloud more and also when I am talking with friends and family.

Events such as parents evening are necessary to have good verbal communication skills so you can get your point across and parents and the students can understand you thoroughly. Teachers have to give a review of a student over a specific period of time. They must give an honest evaluation and give good and bad points to the parents. Taking notes before each parent visits you are a good idea, so you do not forget what you have to say. Another point worth a mention is that when explaining topics to students being able to explain it accurately and properly is vital as not all students take the information the same. Some students are slower than others in the classroom. A good technique to ensure the information has been noted is randomly picking students and asking them questions that relate to the topic that was spoken about.

There will also be times when there will be newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and trainee teachers where I could be teaching, and they would need to possibly watch me teach. If they were to have any questions or queries, I need to be able to explain effectively and thoroughly so they are able to comprehend what I am explaining to them. As it could be information, they require to improve.

Subsequently, having good quality verbal communication skills is important, as it helps maintain a healthy and successful business relationship. Effective communication enhances productivity and fewer mistakes are likely to be made; as a result, things run much smoother (Cleverism, 2020).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the three skills I have spoken about in my report are the skills I believe are necessary to become an excellent secondary school teacher. I am good at each skill to a certain degree. Nevertheless, as mentioned before, I need to improve on each skill differently and I have a plan on how I would do this before becoming a teacher and understand I will face challenges whilst trying to improve.