How Will I Teach?

Walking into a classroom on the first day of high school is not only a nerve wracking moment for students, but also for teachers. On the first day of school students are known to worry about things like making friends, wearing the right clothing, and making it to class without getting lost. Similarly teachers share these nerves and worry about how they will keep the students interested in learning and under control. It is important to also note that a student's interests in making friends and a teacher's interest in keeping students engaged often creates conflict within a classroom. A good teacher can see the situation from both perspectives, and works with the students' need to be sociable.

Names are a important pieces of information within a classroom, both those of the students and that of the teacher. A student's name is important in that it is difficult for a teacher to discipline a student or call on a student for an answer without it. It is also useful in group work situations for students to know each others' names. For the past three summers I have worked at a summer camp, and each week when a new group of children come in the first activity I do with them is an icebreaker to help learn everyone's names. This is a practice I plan to continue while teaching, at least with freshman classes. Icebreakers are useful for allowing me to learn each camper's name, encouraging camper's to get to better know one another and make friends, and in the long run it makes other group activities easier for the campers. On the other hand a teacher's name is important in that students must know how to respectfully address their teacher and often use it on the headers of their papers. During summer camp where it is a little mor...

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...e “problems of the day”.

Once the students have learned the material it becomes time to evaluate them on what they have learned. One of my favorite ways to prepare for quizzes and tests was when the teachers allowed us to play games such as jeopardy. I would have the students for homework go through the material covered, and create their own trivia questions, encouraging them to begin to learn how to pick out what is relevant and irrelevant on their own. The following day while the students complete their problems of the day I would go through the questions and pick out the ones I found relevant and useful, and use those for the day's trivia game.

In conclusion, I will teach by working to instill leadership, integrity, critical thinking, respect for authority, and responsibility within my students, all while having fun and keeping a safe classroom environment.