Student Life – Critical thinking

I started kickboxing

when I was nine years old.

I've won some British titles,

some European

titles, I won a world title in Greece.

I went through a stage of

competing almost every

weekend somewhere different

around the country,

which has been such an amazing

experience.

I did a year at college and

I just got a little bit fed up,

because I thought, "I want to

be out there doing something."

It felt like I'd spent too

much time at school then.

My brother really, was really keen

on opening a martial arts gym.

So, we opened a martial

arts gym and

I was teaching there full time.

I really got the buzz out

of teaching someone

something new

and seeing people improve,

and then I got to a stage where

I thought, "I want to be teaching

people, but in a different setting,

and I'm going to

follow my childhood

dream of becoming a teacher."

I work in a secondary school

as a cover supervisor.

Some days it might be maths,

English, science,

geography: it could be any subject,

any age, any class.

So, it's really nice because I

get a huge variety of students

to work with, different teachers

to work with as well, and

I learn lots as well.

I take home so much.

Well, I've lots of responsibilities:

I work five days a week

at the school. When I get

home from school,

I have something to eat;

then it's all the study books

that come out.

So, it's really,

I'm working every single day,

in the evenings, on

my assignments, and

then over the weekends as well.

I also enjoy lots of different hobbies,

being outdoors,

and I've got a partner,

which is also - a relationship,

it's something else you need

to weigh up.

So it is a lot of different things

going on, but

you only live once, so I think,

"Do as many things as I can."

This is my fourth year

with distance learning studying.

I'm studying for a BA Honours in

humanities. Half is English language and

half is religious studies.

I've had a really positive

experience. And every year I

see myself improving.

I had no idea what

critical thinking was.

Everything I read I just thought,

"Oh, that must be right,"

but now I know that I can

challenge it,

and that as long as I've got

evidence or even my own opinion,

they're not

always right.

Writing critically was difficult

at the start.

There was an online activity

about critical

understanding, where you had

different sections of

different peoples' work

and you had to

look at critiques:

look at ideas that

were against them,

ideas that were for them, and

you worked your way through

this online activity.

And I found that really, really useful.

There were activities

where you had to pick out the

key words that you had to use, and

I literally followed it step by step.

There was a lot of hedging,

it's called, where you

say, "So and so suggests,"

or things like that,

so they're always the good words to

look out for.

And then obviously you've got

the "howevers," which are

looking at the other

side of the argument as well.

I would definitely say that

my critical thinking skills

are really useful

within life generally.

Now I feel critical about

anything I read,

anything I see.

I use critical thinking a

lot at work,

especially working with students

and children as well.

And I always say to

them that it's so important

to have an opinion on anything

they read and

anything they watch.

Go the distance.