My Personal Essays [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Leadership Obviously, knowing that leadership is the primary skill which teachers are required to master for a successful classroom management, I have researched and practised various ways of how to influence and lead students in different age groups. Therefore, I can confidently state that I have had sufficient experience in this field. During my work experience, as a result of my assertive leadership, I have always managed to have my students and their parents respect me as a teacher; to handle problematic students, the ones with disruptive behaviour, by persuading them, rather than sending them into punishment, which may cause a great discouragement and loss of motivation; how to convince the students and their parents to do the things which I believe are the right things to achieve their goals. I am currently employed to teach classes in mixed age groups, ranging from younger learners to adult learners aged 40-45 and I get outstanding results by leaving a great impact on them. In addition to this, I have taken responsibility in a number of occasions to lead a group of my colleagues and students to carry out various extra-curricular activities so far and have taken appreciation of the authority several times for a successful management. For instance, while I was working as a teacher in a secondary school, our school conducted two massive educational exhibitions in 2013 and 2015, which received hundreds of visitors, ranging from government officials to heads of companies and social organizations. During the exhibitions I was in charge of arrangement of several stands and services, such as heading a team of students serving tea and coffee to the visitors. Another example is that I have volunteered to run the Sports and Healthcare club in our institution and I usually arrange a table tennis tournament among the students during terms. In my first time, there were about ninety-five attendees and five tables to play on. Although we (I and another colleague who was assisting with the arrangement) faced a great challenge to note the scores and monitor the matches for a fair play at the same time, we carried out the tournament successfully by announcing and awarding the winners. Having been able to manage dozens of participants within the sports events like this, I believe that I have demonstrated an outstanding example of leadership and influence. Furthermore, I have also influenced my leaders a number of times by getting my notions applied in different occasions, including choosing the right venue for holding extra-curricular activities, like football and tennis. To sum up, having desired to improve my knowledge and competencies, I truly believe that being chosen for Chevening Scholarship will be a great opportunity for me to advance my leadership skills. Network Being aware of vitality of a wide professional network for a successful career, I always engage myself trying to utilize any chance to broaden and maintain my professional and social relation. Owing to this intention, I have always been convinced to attend vocational conferences, educational seminars and public functions held. My current employment is an English language teacher in Gujurly Nesil education centre in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. There are 3206 students (more than half of which are male) studying various subjects in morning, afternoon and evening period in different days. Recently, I volunteered to start a 'Sports and healthcare' club in our institution and I experienced my first challenge when I was to arrange a football tournament among the learners. In a very short time I had to reach more than a thousand male students to set the teams and the fastest way was through their tutors. I requested the principal to announce the date and time of the tournament in a staff meeting and ask the tutors to send the names of the participants and their teams via e-mail. During the following week, I was bombarded with e-mails, some of which were from the newly employed tutors with whom I hadn't even had a chance to contact. I responded to all the mails and provided updates about the tournament. With the assistance of some of my colleagues, we auspiciously carried out the competition with about 500 players in 75 teams, which happened to attract attention of some social organisations of the government, such as The State Oragnisation of Youth named after Magtymguly and they offered liability for awarding the winners of the tournament.

Another example of my networking experience is that while I was a teacher in a secondary school in 2015, I was assigned to supervise three students from different high schools in our country who were participating international computer project competition "Infomatrix Asia and Pacific" in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It was my very first time to be a supervisor in such a great event and very first trip abroad. However, as a result of effective mutual relationship with the other supervisors, who were coming from different countries, I managed to overcome my dilettantish approach and was able to help the students prepare and present their projects impressively. In the awarding ceremony one of the students was awarded with a gold, the others were awarded with silver medals. Looking ahead, I am planning to maintain my network as I currently do, especially using online platform, as well as to seize every opportunity to meet new people. Therefore, I am looking forward to possible major events, like meeting Chevening community and eagerly awaiting to build new connections on both local and international basis. As a prospective Chevening participant, I intend to work closely with the Chevening alumni to improve the education system of my home country and be inspiration for the new generation.

University courses The use of technology in education facilitates teaching and learning process, serves as a source of motivation and makes it possible to reach to a great number of resources for teachers and students. However, the thing that encouraged me to do postgraduate degree in the area of using technology in education was that in my home country the use of technology during and outside the classes has fallen far behind what is expected. Although our government pursues an effective policy on education to install the most sophisticated technology into the educational institutions in the country, most of the teachers have poor knowledge about how to use them. In most of the secondary and higher educational institutions the educators still stubbornly refuse to change the traditional ways of teaching with the modern ones. For instance, I have attended a number of English and Russian language lessons which were carried out in teacher-centred grammar translation method, and in which the course-books are the only source for both the teachers and the learners. However, this is my personal opinion that prior to setting such facilities, the focus of attention needs to be directed to the individuals. People, particularly prospective teachers, need a new viewpoint on how to integrate the subjects in course books and/or annual plans to be covered with the innovative tools provided, using modern techniques. Another point is that the teachers need to be given some freedom to prepare their own material considering their students’ levels, learning conditions and their interest in using hi-tech and social media, which makes up one of my plans to struggle for in the future. Hence, the first course I have chosen is MSc Learning, Technology and Society taught at the School of Education at University of Bristol, one of the top 50 universities in the world and top 30 in Europe. Beside advancing their skills by trying out and critically examining the use of different hi-tech (like social media, reflective blogging) in a key element of the learning experience, students have a great privilege to get out of routine life with the stunning beauty and fresh weather of Bristol. My second choice is MA International Perspectives (Technology in Education) at Newcastle University. Alongside being taught by highly regarded academics, like Professor David Leat, students of Newcastle University are offered a golden opportunity to improve their leadership competence, which I have been seeking. My last choice is MA Education (Technology Enhanced Learning) at University of Huddersfield. The TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) gold-rated university is one of the best places to focus on the use of technology, develop technical skills, including blogs, wikis and other social media tools, to deepen my understanding of frameworks and how technology can enhance and support learning.

To sum up, I am looking forward to broadening my knowledge in innovative approaches to teaching on technological basis as well as improving my perspective how to implement the latest technology into educational settings in my country. Career plan Throughout my career, my objective will be seeking different ways of settling a new perspective of technology based teaching into education system in Turkmenistan. During the next few months following the end of my postgraduate study, the first thing I am planning to do is putting what I have learned in the UK into practice. Since Gujurly Nesil education centre, which I am currently working for, is well-known for its effective learning environment and the teachers are entitled to incorporate their own style, I believe that it will be the best place for me to apply myself to prepare and exhibit a new programme for teaching English and another subjects using digital platforms. The programme will mainly involve the integration of the contents of a course book with educational mobile apps, like Plickers or Kahoot!, and/or social media tools, like Instagram and IMO, which will help boost learners’ autonomy. Furthermore, by organizing games and competitions in larger scale, I will be working closely with two of the partners of our institution, The Organisation of Youth named after Magtymguly and The Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which I believe will help me publicize the programme. Within upcoming years after my experience in Gujurly Nesil Education Centre, I am planning to work at one of the most esteemed universities, such as The International University of Humanity and Development and Turkmen State University named after Magtymguly, where, I expect, the charm of having UK Master’s degree will make it available for me to apply my plans for prospective teachers in the scope of contemporary approaches of hi-tech integrated teaching. In the long term, I plan to continue my career in The Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, participating in the new research programme on globalizing our education system and get a higher degree. Meanwhile, I plan to carry on working with the Ministry of Education to focus on teacher-training programmes in both local and British universities. This will also give me a great chance to work with British Embassy within its Education and Learning programme to arrange seminars for fellow educators, hosting well-respected lecturers from the UK, which will help strengthen educational partnership between two countries. In general, studying in the United Kingdom will give me a golden opportunity to improve my knowledge and competences in various aspects as well as to advance my leadership and networking skills. It will also help me make a great deal of contribution to our national education system and serve as a bridge between the UK and Turkmenistan.