Michelle

My name is Michelle and I am 26. I am a qualified primary school teacher and have experience working with children from ages 3-15. I am a bubbly and enthusiastic individual who is approachable and friendly. I am able to develop good relationships with the students that I teach and enjoy getting to know their likes/dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. I have been a teacher for four years and have loved every minute of it. I really enjoy working with children and get a great sense of satisfaction watching them enjoy and achieve. I supported my nephew through his Maths GCSE and as his confidence developed his exam performance improved.
I believe in giving students ownership of their learning and where possible, I encourage them to make choices. For example, if teaching maths, I’d ask them to choose what area they wanted to cover first (where appropriate). I also think that it’s really important to listen to feedback from both parents and students. This includes how challenging they are finding an activity, whether they would like to study a topic in more detail to give them greater understanding or if they need to approach an activity in a different way. Through listening to feedback and taking this in to account I am able to adapt my teaching so that I can ensure it is as effective as it can be.
I strongly believe that learning should be both challenging and fun. Problem solving gives students a great purpose in their learning and motivates them to work towards achieving their goal. Games, rhymes, competitions, etc., all lead to fun, effective learning. It`s also important to cover things of a more serious nature but as long as the students I work with are enjoying their learning, benefitting from their experiences and keen to learn more then I feel that I am fulfilling my purpose.

Availability: Flexible - day time, evenings and weekends.

Willing to travel: 10 miles

Experience: I have 8 years experience working within the education system in three key stages: Foundation, KS1 and KS2. I have taught in Devon and Hampshire in Infant, Junior and Primary Schools. I have worked with children with a range of abilities from gifted and talented to children with complex learning difficulties.
During my time as a teacher, I spent twelve months teaching a Year R class. I feel that my experience within reception has been such a great learning experience, it really taught me that in order to be able to be a confident, effective learner the basics really need to be in place and comprehensively understood. This solid foundation, I`ve learnt, leads to success.
I have also used this time to develop my understanding of how I can support older children who are finding either reading, writing or maths tricky. Through developing my understanding of how children learn to read and write I am able to enhance my teaching as I know how I can support students who are having difficulties.