After reading David’s story, I saw some similarities within myself. As a teenager, I often failed to complete things that I would start, often out of frustration. I never wanted to ask for extra help or an explanation given in a different manner. When I failed to understand something I would become frustrated and just not do it. I would often find myself, like David, dissatisfied with my work. I find that I over think a lot which results in creating a more difficult task then that which was set forth. I am going to share a situation that I found myself in this past year. I teach at a head start classroom of 3-5 year olds and I can say this has been a very difficult year. We were given a very diverse class with many behavioral issues. …show more content…
I was giving up on what was important to me about this job and just making it through each day. Lesson plans were completed and all the children were shown love each day and all their safety needs were met, however, we weren’t able to teach them all that we had planned, just a mere fraction. This has made me feel unsuccessful as if I had somehow failed as a teacher. Our classroom this year was honestly stacked unfairly in comparison with all of the other classes; this made for a possible reason to feel unsuccessful. We may have tried every avenue we thought possible to get through to these kids but by the end of the year the behaviors increased yet academically some did show improvement. I feel unsuccessful because of all the stress we were under I could not teach to my full …show more content…
Asking for direction is not a weakness or a means of failing. Much like David, this job left me feeling restless and unsatisfied. I am left feeling like I was failing and my dreams of being a successful teacher fading. This has really made me question my desire to teach yet my love for children remains. While part of me wants to look for a new job the other part of me wants to return in August to the same place where I felt stress, anxiety, failure, and just plain lost. I fell this is because I know some are returnees and I miss and love them as if they were my own. If I do return I have learned not to let things get so crazy and take a step back in order to see what new strategies can be implemented. I also need to realize that my mental health is important and not to ignore signs of stress and
As an Assistant Teacher in a public school, I was assigned to a fifth grade student who was having problems with reading and writing. John came to me late in the school year and his reading abilities were that of a first grader. I became disheartened because I thought it was unfair to me given his situation and the time factor. Instead of immediately think of ways to move him forward, self got in the way and I became overly concerned about what my peers would say about my abilities if John did not advanced. Because I was seeking self praise, I lost sight of the main objective and as a result the child suffered. I was backed into a corner and had no answers or solutions to the problem. It was not until late March, two months later, that I realized that I needed to shift gears. I...
Looking back, I believe that the correct choice was made. Obviously, I cannot know for sure until I immerse myself in the waters of a full-time teaching position. Perhaps I will come to find that the field of education is not what I expected. Maybe I will be unable to get through to my students. Who knows—these are all possibilities. I think about these possibilities from time to time, and they always scare me. Devoting four years of my life to something only to fail at that pursuit would be devastating. Despite these fears, ...
Many individuals, teachers or not, only do what they are asked or expected to do. However, going above and beyond and being able to have greater influence on a child’s life is my goal. I know I will love my job and in this position, children and families will be going through difficult and not normative life events. It is essential to extend further assistance to make each individual feel important. Being someone who can help families understand and make their lives a little bit easier by providing support and encouraging optimal development, I can hopefully make a meaningful impact on a child and/or family. The child and family satisfaction would bring happiness in itself and be worth more than
Without a doubt the lessons and exercises on time management were the most meaningful to me. They brought insight into why I seemed to be constantly working yet still never really got anything I wanted to accomplish throughout the day finished. I realized the majority of the activities I had been spending the most time on didn’t reflect my values of hard work and self discipline and long term academic goals to be successful in college. This motivated to completely change the way I managed my time by effectively striking a balance between my maintenance, committed, and free time.
Looking back over the course of the semester, I feel that I learned many new and interesting uses for technology within the classroom – both for classrooms that have a lot of technology and for classrooms that are limited with technology. For the majority of the class, we utilized William Kists’ book The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2010), which provided multiple modes of instruction that both utilized and/or created technology. One of the first things that I remember, and consequently that stuck with me through the course’s entirety, is that individuals must treat everything as a text. Even a garden is a text. The statement made me change the way that I traditionally viewed Language Arts both as a student and as a teacher, as I very narrowly saw literature and works of the like as texts only; however, by considering nearly anything as a text, one can analyze, study, and even expand his/her knowledge. Kist (2010) states that society is “experiencing a vast transformation of the way we “read” and “write,” and a broadening of the way we conceptualize “literacy” (p. 2). In order to begin to experience and learn with the modern classroom and technologically advanced students, individuals must begin to see new things as literature and analyze those things in a similar manner.
There has definitely been a lot of stressors that have shaped me into a better professional and educator. I have overcame being displaced in a temporary room with little to know supplies for 3 months, being interim Head Teacher for 1.5 months while still performing all my Teacher Assistant duties, training and working with 2 new staff as well as personal issues going on as well. I have overcome everything. I believe now that I can tackle whatever life throws at me. This quarter, I believe that I became a better educator by increasing my abilities to individualize learning and development, being more focused on how children learn instead of what they learn, and learning techniques and practices I can put into effect next year as an educator. I definitely feel like a better educator after learning from this program. I have the ability to be patient when children are having negative behaviors. I have grown into a professional improvising in situations, and I definitely have a lot of knowledge about how children learn. The best part of my experience has been working with other professionals that I now call colleagues. I realize that networking with other agencies is the best way to accomplish goals for children. I have learned so much from working with people outside of Head Start and my other practicums. I have full confidence in my abilities to teach and educate children, as well as administrate. With my education, and experience I know that I am now a quality educator and can perform any job with
...at at least I now know that I need to teach--in some format, somewhere, and I need to apply what I've learned and continue to learn and question my own learning. But I can't decide if going on for a PhD is really what I want anymore. I always thought that was the mark of success. But I wonder if it will really allow me to work with the students I am most interested in helping. I am particularly interested in working with those who didn't get enough out of school but who decided to come back and give it another try, to see if they'd find something different this time around. I want to provide something different. I know I want to keep teaching and talking about teaching. I know I want to keep the hope that teaching writing is valuable and opens up possibilities for students who maybe thought they had none. Is that too naive? Maybe. But it seems like it's worth a try.
Throughout this semester, our class has read four powerful and influential pieces by James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldua, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Nick Bear. The first piece we ever looked at was Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” This was our first writing assignment, focusing on using generative writing to get our ideas from our heads onto the paper, to then develop later. However, we were still supposed to focus on the PAR criteria, in order to get an idea on how we would need to develop our writing and our own pieces to pass the class. One of the first mistakes I made as a writer was as follows: “I really enjoyed the latter quote, on page 263. The importance of this quote, to me anyway, is that in every language, there is a common language. You know, English, French, Spanish, Italian, that sort of thing.” (Barley, Ass. 3)
It is the responsibility for teachers to create a healthy learning environment that is physically, emotionally and intellectually safe, clean and secure for all children. I believe effective classrooms are places where children feel well cared for and safe. They are places where children should be valued as individuals and where their needs for attention, approval, and affection are supported. They are also places where children can be helped to acquire a strong foundation of / for the knowledge and skills needed for school success. Effective teachers and child care providers: Plan activities that have a purpose and that challenge children, know how to help children learn to work together and to resolve their conflicts. Know how to set up and maintain order for a classroom, but in a way that permits the children to learn how to take part in and enjoy learning.
...ed student engagement and academic achievement in my classroom. I know that I am a better teacher, mentor, and role model because of these experiences.
Everyone has a different view on how they learn and learning itself. First starting in EXP 105, my understanding of learning was new knowledge and becoming wiser. Taking EXP 105 has truly increased my knowledge of what learning is and the process of it. The most important thing I have learned about learning is that you observe the world around you, make sure it is understandable, and figure out the right way to respond. Learning also provides critical thinking skills. Everyone have different ways of learning and those ways are based on four different learning patterns. The four different types of learning patterns are Sequence, Precision, Technical Reasoning, and Confluence. Learning patterns are very helpful when it comes to everyday life, school work, and your job. Knowing your learning patterns and which ones you should use make
When this semester came about, I did not know what to expect, I was nervous but also excited at the same time. My desire to teach evolved probably when I was in middle school and the desire matured through high school and is still evolving as I immerse myself into the field of teaching. I started to enjoy learning more and more and felt that to be able to teach all this information I learned would be my dream job. I love to learn and want to inspire my students to love to learn new ideas and skills. I career-shadowed in middle school, and I enjoyed being at the center of the classroom with all the pupils attention directed towards me. Valuing what I had to tell them was awe-inspiring. These children saw me as a role-model and wanted to know
Throughout humanity, individuals evolved and adapted to a changing society. People have not always been perfect in their selected field, however, as time progress individuals learn to develop themselves. A common factor that drives success throughout humanity is an individual 's capacity to set goals and strive towards personal development. As we progress through life and become older, individuals tend to realize life only becomes harder, and in the working world; life is not a walk to Elysium. With each passing year, life becomes more extensive, and stress tends to consume us, although life is difficult anything can be achieved and overcome by setting goals and attempting to enhance our personal development. Personal development is the key
As I reflect on my professional situation, the Epic Win that addresses my state of affairs need is, ‘Success is to be measured against the level of challenge’. Walking into the school for the first time as a teacher that cold January morning was one of the proudest and most nerve wracking of my life. I 'd completed my final teaching practice, had graduated from Valdosta State University only three weeks before and now found myself entering into a contractual teaching career. I was lucky enough to be employed to teach in a school I had done my final teaching in whilst training. Stepping in as a new teacher half the year presented its challenges, but nothing in comparison to my first full year of teaching. Within my first full year of teaching,
If there is anything I have learned as an educator, it is that effective communication with is key – and this was a lesson hard-learned during my first year of teaching. For example, I thought I was communicating my expectations clearly to my classes. I let them know of our class objectives, planned my lessons using the model our school advised, kept in contact with parents, updated my website, and constantly asked my mentor teacher for tips on keeping my kids interested. The situation that followed in my classes were that my struggling students