William Arthur Ward once said “Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.” I have always believed equal opportunities must be given to all students. As teachers we are not just educating our students with knowledge, but also instilling values in them and developing their character. Our minister of education had mentioned four key attributes of a Student-Centric, Values-Driven Education. It is important for us to understand our students so that we could come up with the best strategies to help them learn effectively. Among the four attributes, “Every Student, an Engaged Learner” and “Every Teacher, a Caring Educator” are key characteristics which led me to how I perceive myself as a beginning teacher. I want my students to be cared for and be an engaged learner who is involved in learning in school and as a lifelong learner in life. How am I going to reach this goal? As a beginning teacher, I see myself as a reflective teacher through communicating, learning, observing and understanding my students. In my essay, I will talk about what I mean as a reflective teacher, what are the two major challenges that I may face and its respective …show more content…
This is exceptionally relevant to beginning teachers as we are new to the school culture and environment. As much as we tried to be caring and keeping them engaged, there are students that will ignore you and deem you every other teachers that gives up on them. No matter how much you reflect on where went wrong, it will still make you feel unappreciated, disrespected and exhausted. What can be done is to have enough patience in building a strong and positive rapport with them and slowly break down their walls. We should always remind ourselves of drew them to teaching in the first place, to make a difference in every students’
Writing essays was never my forte, it just never came easy to me like it would to others. Since other subjects came easy to me and I had to focus more than others on writing, I had a negative attitude toward the process as a whole. During this summer semester, I was able to grow as a writer, and gain a more positive attitude toward how I write and a better feel for writing in college. Writing a paper is a process in which there are many different stages. In high school I would never write outlines or any sort of pre planning work. Other struggles I encountered in my writing were my theses, and framing quotes.
Up until this year, before taking the class intermediate composition, I thought I was a terrible writer. I was right. Writing isn’t something that I enjoy doing, nor am I good at. Writing is difficult for me because I’m not very good at explaining things in a professional manner, that can be easily well written. While writing you are expected to make little to no mistakes, which is not something I’m great at. I am so much better at explaining things with verbal words rather than written words. I had not taken any extra writing classes before this year rather than the mandatory ones. Like I had stated before, I hate writing, with a passion. I dread writing anything, especially an essay for school, like this one. I’m
Multiple essays have been formulated during the duration of Composition 1. These essays have taught me an important lesson about my writing, failure is acceptable in order to grow. On the other hand, I made an important discovery last year that I want to study journalism and advance further in that field after college. From taking journalism classes, to blogging in my spare time, to always getting an A on my papers, I thought I had no room to improve. I was mistaken. Therefore, because of the rigorous essay work each essay brought, I learned more about how to write different pieces and grow from my “failure”.
Initial Reflective Essay When I first thought of what I wanted to do with my life after college, the first thing I thought of was helping people. The next step in deciding what I wanted to do with my life was to examine how I could accomplish this goal. I started pondering and I was thinking about how much I love to take care of my body. Health care and personal hygiene has always been an important factor in my life. So I decided to major in Health Sciences.
The first four weeks of CR510 have prompted this student to reflect on her years of teaching in the public school setting. Having experienced many similar complexities to the ones in the text, this student is sympathetic to the challenges facing those in the education system and is eager to find opportunities to offer a better solution for all involved. CR510 has strengthened this student's belief that a third party neutral can provide valuable benefits to educational systems at all levels.
Education is a very important aspect of our lives. It is our education that makes us who we are and determines what we become. Therefore, education is not something to be taken lightly. As a teacher, my goal will be to provide the best possible education for my students. Every student is unique. I must see students for who they are individually and respect their ideas and opinions. Each student has a different learning style. I must take this into consideration because I want to provide a constructive learning opportunity for every student. I believe that every student has the potential to learn.
This being my first year of teaching I feel there are so many things that I have learned, and have helped me too become a good teacher. Yet I have so much more to learn, I still believe that students have the ability to learn and as a teacher it is my job to find ways to help them to become the best person they can be. Through being a reflective teacher, using professionalism, respecting diversity and having collaboration and community connecting this can be accomplished. When I am having fun teaching the student will have learning that material, this will help them to be relaxed and engaged in that lesson. I feel it is important to connect what they are learning to things that they have experienced in the real-world.
I could go on at length, discussing all aspects of my praxis as an educator, however, that would lead to a paper of excruciating length. These aspects of my teaching pedagogy that are delivered in this praxis statement are those that I feel strongest about upholding. It is important for educators to value their students and the perspectives and cultures they bring to the classroom. Student-centered education is what I find to be the key to great teaching, and overall, is the greatest way to allow students to value and grow through their own self-exploratory and self-directed education. Valuing and appreciating each of your students is what makes teaching such an enlightening, uplifting profession.
Along these two weeks we have been prompt to make a recall to our own way of learning and why we became a teacher: Was it because coincidence, due to life circumstances, maybe because family tradition, was it a conscious decision or because someone influenced us? Whatever the answer is, we have to face reality and be conscious that being a teacher does not only means to teach a lesson and asses students learning. It requires playing the different roles a teacher must perform whenever is needed and required by our learners, identify our pupils needs and preferences, respecting their integrity and individuality but influencing and motivating them to improve themselves and become independent.
An effective teacher will excite, inspire and motivate students to be active in their learning, investigate new areas of knowledge and make connections to future learning (Whitton et al 2010). When a teacher is successful, their students are motivated, mutually respectful and ready to build on their knowledge and solve real-world problems. To be a teacher of value, one must have many skills and qualities to cater for a diversity of learners and their individual development; this includes many personal traits that are noticed students.
"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as every child should be instilled with the wish to learn."
My cooperating teacher has been employed in the field of education for 19 plus years. She has been in her current position as a Pre-Kindergarten teacher at the Lighthouse Learning Center for 12 years. Observing a teacher who has so many years of experience in the classroom is very beneficial. She shared with me this week her teaching philosophy that has evolved from her many years in the classroom. The components of her philosophy include a focus on people, strategies, and tools.
Gun control, abortion, unemployment, climate change, discrimination, and inequality fill the newsreels every day in our country. Capitol Hill is teeming with debates over issues that hold great significance to the current generation. Many of these topics and ones to come will never be agreed upon by all sides as having a fair situation. In contrast, I believe the improvement of the education system is the most important social issue that can be resolved and then used to improve so many other problems in our society through aspects such as merit pay, Common Core, and increased vocational opportunities for all students
At the end of the day or beginning of the school day, I communicated what I did with Ms. P to plan out better activities or lesson plans to meet each individual’s needs.
As an educator, there is always room for reflection and growth. Being in this class has provided an opportunity for both. From my knowledge gained in this class I believe that I have become smarter and have learned how to implement different tool into my teaching as well as general life as a teacher. Of the topics discussed in this class, commitment to students, avoiding burnout and reflective practices had the biggest impact on my professional growth.