{"id":2843,"date":"2026-06-12T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:37:09","slug":"have-you-considered-a-career-in-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/2026\/06\/12\/have-you-considered-a-career-in-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Have you considered a career in teaching?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabi, a Get Into Teaching Brand Ambassador, English Literature and Creative Writing student at the University of Kent, spoke with Callum, a final-year computer science student. While he expected his future to revolve around programming, a classroom placement led him to reconsider his career options.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through a placement at his former SEND secondary school, Callum discovered a passion for helping students learn, adapting lessons to individual needs and making computing more engaging for young people. Teaching had always been at the back of his mind. Growing up, he often found himself explaining homework concepts to his parents as a way of understanding them better himself. \u201cThe more I teach something, the better I understand it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Now in his final year studying computer science with a year in industry, he says that the same mindset has made teaching unexpectedly rewarding. After returning to his former SEND secondary school as part of a teaching
\nplacement, his perspective on education began to shift.<\/p>\n

Working one-to-one with students showed him how personal and creative teaching can be. One moment stood out in particular. During a computing lesson, one student arrived in a bad mood and chose to sit on a bean bag
\nin the corner of the classroom instead of at her desk. Knowing she had a strong interest in sharks, Callum began talking to her about them and encouraged her to include them in a personal website project the class was working on. \u201cShe started talking about sharks straight away\u201d he said. \u201cThen she logged onto the computer and started working again. It only took five or ten minutes, but it really showed me how important it is to understand what students care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, the moment highlighted how building relationships with students can completely transform engagement in the classroom. \u201cThey might be in the worst mood in the world,\u201d he added, \u201cbut if you know what interests
\nthem, you can connect with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience also reshaped how he views education more broadly. Rather than simply delivering information, he believes teaching is about finding ways to make students genuinely care about what they are learning.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the future of computing education, particularly with the rise of AI, he believes the biggest challenge is not teaching students who already enjoy the subject but engaging those who may never have considered it before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students who already love computing, you\u2019ve already won them,\u201d he said. \u201cThe challenge is getting everyone else to care.\u201d For Callum, that creative challenge is what makes teaching so rewarding. \u201cTeaching is like art\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to design lessons in a way that makes people feel engaged and want to learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he already has a job offer in programming, the experience has left him reconsidering his future. While he is still deciding on his next steps, teaching has clearly had a lasting impact. For him, the most rewarding part of teaching is simple. \u201cI like seeing the moment when someone finally understands something,\u201d he said. \u201cThat feeling of helping someone get there is really powerful.\u201d What matters most to him now is keeping that connection to education alive in some form. \u201cWhat matters more than the future of people?\u201d he reflected. \u201cEven if I don\u2019t go straight into teaching, I think I\u2019ll always come back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discover everything you need to know about starting a teaching career, sent straight to your inbox. Sign-up here to get updates, advice and support tailored to you.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabi, a Get Into Teaching Brand Ambassador, English Literature and Creative Writing student at the University of Kent, spoke with Callum, a final-year computer science … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40175,"featured_media":2853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[312383,223276],"tags":[9658],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2854,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions\/2854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}