Passant Khattab

I came to teaching via my appreciation of excellent and passionate teachers in my own education, who exuded enthusiasm for learning, inspiring me to pass on the passion. I am applying for the position of MFL teacher at your school because I believe I would be a great addition to your school and that my values as a teacher line with yours. My love for languages developed during my GCSE studies after discovering an aptitude for French, English and Arabic grammar, and phonics.

I gained a 2:2 honours in B.A Spanish Language from University of Ain-Chams Cairo. Egypt. Studying at the university developed my passion for languages.

Having moved to the UK in 2006, one of my early experiences of the education system was volunteering at my local community College in Woking helping young children to learn Arabic. This experience really encouraged me in my pursuit of a career in teaching as I found I was passionate about working with young people. From Woking College we FITRA moved to the University of Surrey and our community grew to include Reception to Year 11, which meant growing our services to include GSCE students.

In 2018, I joined Tomlinscote School to help refugees to acquire English in order to help them settle and communicate and was shortly offered an LSA job in addition to my EAL duties. This time in a school cemented my desire to teach, seeing the influence teachers have on the children under their care. Being a non-English speaker, myself helped me stand in the students’ shoes and appreciate how intimidating it could be to learn a new language.

This can be applied to learning a modern foreign language and the barriers of teaching MFL as a subject and I how I worked hard to overcome these barriers.

It became clear that I had the skills to move students past the fear of making mistakes, because mistakes are how we learn, and motivate them.

During this time, I learned the importance of meticulously planning lessons to educate and engage students, and the power of simple strategies such as a well thought out seating plans. I saw students develop within the classroom because of my determined support and these good working relationships resulted in students achieving higher grades.

On the Teach SouthEast programme I have furthered my understanding of pedagogy for example, I always start by setting my expectations, question students to check prior knowledge, praise for good effort and enthusiasm in class, and pausing for effect to get their attention and focus back. I have been inspired by the literature we have read as part of the course and my practice in the classroom is evidence-based. For example, The Language Teacher Toolkit by Steve Smith & Gianfranco Conti as well as Breaking the Sound Barrier by Gianofranco Conti.

I applied some of Conti’s methods in class which was positively effective to lessen the cognitive load off the students and it gave them the opportunity to engage. In addition to the Conti methods, I have read The Principles of Instruction by Barak Rosenshine,2012.

My planning skills and it is regularly commented that : “excellent activities, got students engaged and motivated “ One of lessons which my challenging year 9, I had to plan an lesson about body parts and how to express “It hurts”. I decided that I have to make these lessons as creative as possible to get their attention, good behaviour and engagement, I asked one of the students to go to House Matron and she helped me putting bandages around different parts of his body, eye patch, around the knee, around the arm, a bandage on his finger, on his cheek, elbow and around his head. He came in, we started to model together “what happened?”, he will answer “My head hurts” in target language.

It was fun, they engaged, they learnt different body parts and they were at their good and best behaviour on that lesson.

One highlight was when I supported a young person with PD who attended business class. They had been struggling to understand some of the terminologies in class but were able to focus well when I started to write down each terminology with their meaning linked to examples from real life, to make the meanings relatable and memorable. This inspired me to support other young people facing barriers to learning by training as a teacher.

In my away placement, I had the opportunity to further develop me positive behaviour management with a Year 9 class. Memorably, I was also able to support a young person with ADHD through praising and assigning them with responsibilities so that they felt happy and confident, and were therefore willing to contribute in my class and engage. I received a card of appreciation from them telling me how much they’d enjoyed my lessons and progressed.

During this placement I also was given the opportunity to invigilate for the speaking assessments for GCSE mock exams. From this experience I learnt how to prep students beforehand, to be organised and planned.

Pastoral care of students is important to me. During my training I have taken part in duties and fulfilled a tutor role. commented on how my classroom has a positive culture, that I am warm and welcoming and will go out of my way to check on a student’s welfare if I feel that they are not being their usual selves. Where students have had personal family situations, I have been mindful and sensitive to their emotional state.

The time-management, communication and problem-solving skills gained during my training so far will be invaluable assets within the classroom and beyond. I was exposed to a range of pedagogical models and teaching methods.

One of my hobbies is playing squash as well as baking which have become outlets for me to make sure I am looking after my own well-being. I have used photos of my baking end-products in lessons (students thought they were photos from the internet and were amazed to know that they are my actual production!) I am a great believer that these simple things in life, like baking and exercise, are the source of happiness and I am encouraging of students’ out-of-school pursuits as much as their academic ones.

During both my placements so far, I have witnessed both the challenge and reward that the school environment offers. Teachers need to be resilient particularly when working with students who find school challenging, are reluctant to engage and lack confidence. I am resilient and resourceful and look forward to working in the education system to teach and inspire students to develop their further aspiration.