Exploring Options

How networking has and is developing me and my Professional Practise 

Following on from my spider  diagram of my options within my practise, I have been observing my networking skills over the past few days and documented outcomes from networking. One specific outcome was incredibly beneficial to me and my development in my current practise. Right now I am a dance a gymnastic teachers  in primary schools, but I have always known I would like to progress further, whether it be within my current company or within education. I am on this current course  because of this I would like to further myself and my career options, BAPP  is a part of my journey through my practise and I am discovering so many different ways to explore and develop my professional practise.

I speak regualrly with one primary school teacher, I asked her politely to arrange a quick meeting with me before school started to discuss career options in education. We spoke about how she got into teaching herself, which was incredibly beneficial as she spoke about a SCITT programme, this is where you train within a school for a year on a salary. This conversation has had a huge impact on my practise because it has given me an option that I did not know about before, my understanding before this was the PGCE route which would mean I would have to stop working or take it part time which would lengthen out the process, neither of these options are suitable for me.  She also suggested that I look for a teaching assistant job to gain more experience in working in one school,  this would allow me to understand a teachers job. This would be incredibly beneficial as it would help me decide which path to take, but I would be accepting a lower salary and leaving my current dance teaching role behind, which means leaving the career progressions within that company behind too. Networking has given me ideas for further development either as a teaching assistant or applying for a SCITT programme once I have graduated from this current course. This highlighted to me just how important networking is and how it can develop you in your practise, I feel this small conversation has opened doors within my practise for me to explore and develop myself further

Since the conversation I have looked into the SCITT training via this website, and the teacher has been in regular contact about other options out there.
https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/explore-my-options/school-led-training/scitt

I throughly enjoy teaching and  I feel my skill set is strong to develop myself into a primary school teacher with the correct training. I am patient which is key in teaching to have the time and patients to listen and keep trying even when a child still doesn't get it the 15th time. I am organised in work and I plan for back up plans to make sure I do my best by the children, I feel this would be a great quality as I would be planning, teaching and marking for a class of 30. But a few questions are going round in my head, am I ready to leave dance teaching behind? Am I capable to teach Maths, English and Science these are subjects that I haven't done fully since school. I would have to almost re train and remind myself of the subjects and I would have to learn how to teach and differentiate the lessons to suit the children. I am fully aware of my strengths and now I am becoming aware of my weaknesses too, despite of this I know that I would put the work in and the time to be the best teacher I could possibly be.

It is an option that I am looking forward to exploring in even more detail.

What are your options?  Are they changing since enrolling in the BAPP course ? Or have they already changed? It would be interesting to see if anyone has similar dilemmas.