Sophie Woodbridge: My Journey To Becoming an English teacher

Love English and History, but are unsure what to do with that after High School? In this article, Matrix English teacher, Sophie, shares her road to becoming an English teacher.

Who is Sophie Woodbridge?

I am an English teacher and tutor here at Matrix. I’ve been a member of the team for almost a year now. At university, I studied a Bachelor of Arts with a major in English, and secondary studies in Ancient History and Italian.

Currently, I am completing my Master of Teaching (Secondary). My favourite thing about my job at Matrix is the students. They are all such a joy to teach and helping them attain their learning goals is so fulfilling.

What were the top 3 things you loved most about your degree?

1. The content. I’m very passionate about both History and English, so being able to spend three years focusing purely on those subjects was fantastic.
2. Studying alongside like-minded peers, and under brilliant lecturers/tutors who shared my same passions and interests.
3. The freedom to focus my academic investigations on areas of personal interest. A Bachelor of Arts is highly flexible so I always have an array of options to choose from when it comes to major and unit selections.

What were the things you liked least about your degree?

1. That you only have space for two to three majors
2. Career options for a Bachelor of Arts are so diverse that it can be hard to decide what career path to follow afterwards.

How did you know what you wanted to study?

For most of high school, I was very unsure of what to study after I graduated. It was only by the end of Year 12, when faced with so many options, that I decided to simply pursue what I loved the most.

Given my passion for the humanities (I loved them so much I didn’t study a single math or science subject in Year 12), the Bachelor of Arts was the most obvious choice as it allowed me to study any number of subjects within that category.

Being both a bookworm and a history buff, my eventual majors – English and History – were a no-brainer. That said, I did have room to dabble in a number of other majors throughout my degree, such as philosophy, Italian, and film studies.

What was it like to study at USYD and ACU and how did you know you wanted to go to study your Undergraduate and Masters at these unis?

Studying at the University of Sydney for my Bachelor’s degree was fantastic. The humanities department is filled with so many passionate researchers and students, and I learned from a number of brilliant lecturers and academics!

After researching several universities around the country, I knew I wanted to attend the University of Sydney. USYD boasted one of the best departments for my chosen majors (English and History) at that time. Based on this research, I was confident that I would receive an excellent education there.

In a similar manner, when researching post-graduate courses, Australian Catholic University reported very high student satisfaction numbers, as well as post-graduation employment numbers. This led me to study for a Master of Teaching (Secondary) at ACU here, in Strathfield.

How did you land a job afterwards?

After I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, I began my Master’s of Teaching. I applied for a job tutoring here at Matrix as I wanted to gain as much teaching experience as possible before graduating. This led me to my current teaching role in my second term with the company.

Are you where you thought you’d be when you were deciding which degree to study?

Honestly, even when deciding on my degree I still had zero idea where I wanted to go career-wise. My path to teaching sort of unfolded naturally when I realised that I loved History and English so much that I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to continue to engage with and further research these subjects.

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What career options are possible for this degree?

So many! In fact, there are so many career options for an Arts degree that it can be very overwhelming when it comes to eventually making a decision.

On the one hand, you can continue onto higher research (Masters/PhD), editing and publishing, marketing, curating, journalism, foreign affairs etc. The possibilities are endless! On the other hand, a Master of Teaching is a bit more simple as it is job focused.

What advice would you give someone who wants to study in the same field as you?

Go for it! Although make sure that when you enter into the degree, you have a good idea what majors you would like to focus on, as it is easy to get lost among the many options. ​