Student Teaching Graduate Paper
Spring 2004
As the time approached, my attitude toward student-teaching was one of confidence and in some ways overconfidence. I believed that I was equipped with all of the tools necessary to be a superior teacher. Little did I know what truly goes on behind the scenes of a teacher. Between grading papers, attending meetings, and preparing lessons, I would often feel overwhelmed. Still, student teaching would prove to be much more valuable than I anticipated. It would teach me to appreciate the wisdom of mentors and experienced teachers, value or being organized and prepared, and lastly the resilience of students.
Student teaching has taught me to appreciate the wisdom of mentors and experienced teachers. There were several times when my field based supervisors pointed my in the right direction when faced with challenges. I recall a student that I suspected to have copied his homework from other students. I stressed that we figure out how he did it but I could not some up with any definite facts to prove he had did so. Ms. Darling insisted that I not worry about it and if he did cheat then it would be revealed on his exam. Surely enough, the student failed his exam miserably. During a teacher/parent conference, I asked him how he managed to receive an A on all of his homework and fail his exam so poorly. To my astonishment the student confessed to having copied his homework from other students. His mother immediately addressed both issues with her child and needless to say I did not have the problems form the student anymore. During my computer Information technology Course, discipline problems plagued me during the first two weeks of student teaching. Mr. Washington, another field based supervisor told me to began calling parents immediately after class. He told me to call everyday if I had to. Surely after a few phone calls to parents, behaviors adjusted quickly. By the end of my student teaching time period, in my opinion I had a model classroom as far as classroom behavior goes.
Additionally, student teaching has taught me that organization and preparedness are keys to having success. With advice from other student teachers bell ringers became a subtle reason for my success in improving my classroom management skills. I learned that by occupying the students immediately with work it seemed to have a calming affect upon then.
Kenya is located in the East of Africa and has large plateaus and high plains. I am going to tell you why Kenya is a good place to live for the Bantu people. The Bantu people lived in Nigeria then moved down South to have more water source and cooler weather to live in instead of the Sahara Desert.
So many African countries were under the rule of the colonial masters and Kenya was not an exception. Many African nations wanted to gain their independence which is freedom from their colonial masters and with the help of the founding president and liberation icon Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya gained their Independence on December 12, 1963 from the United Kingdom. Kenya is located in the Eastern part of Africa bordering the Indian Ocean between Somalia and Tanzania. The capital of Kenya is Nairobi and Kenya has a population of about 39,002,772 people. The country is blessed with natural resources such as Limestone, soda ash, salt, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, and hydropower. Kenya’s total land area is about 569,140 sq km while the total land area is about 11,227 sq km which gives it a total of 580,367 sq km.
Many different tribal communities inhabited Kenya, during its pre-colonial period. Today there are about 42 different tribes in Kenya who are all different from each other ("Safari in Africa”). The Agikuyu and the Miji Kenda were farmers, the Maasai and the Samburu lived off of livestock, and the majority like the Luo and the Abagusii practiced a mixture of crop cultivation and pastoral work. Subsistence production was the norm and manual labor came from the family. Classes were mostly non-existent and poverty was not much of an issue either as reciprocity was largely practiced. Relations between other tribal communities were for the most part were good as they traded, married with each other, and had limited and sporadic conflicts (Ndege). Foreigners first appeared in Kenya with the constant visits by Arab traders who eventually created Arab and Persian colonies. (“A Brief History”) The Portuguese who later held their own colonies in what is now Kenya were defeated by the Ottoman Arabs, who ultimately were overpowered by the growth of the British and Germans. This constant change of power in the area was due to competition in slave trade. However, like in the rest of Africa, the official start of colonialism in Kenya began with the 1884/85 Berlin Conference.
Northern Africa can be an ambiguous term. Northern and North Africa are two different entities. Northern Africa consists of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. North Africa loses certainty because of land and country disputes.
From the economy to its culture Kenya has felt the devastating results of the ...
Their exports consist of cut flowers, tea, coffee, plastic lids, and brochures. The imports are cars, tea, furniture, telephones, palm oil, and telephones. Flowers are one of Kenya's biggest exports. Kenya is one of the top flowers sellers in the world and one in three of flower bouquets sold in Europe are from Kenya. While the beautiful floral landscape of Kenya may seem nice on the outside the people have to work hard to keep up with such a high demand. Like the varying imports and exports of Kenya there are also varying races and
There are many harmful objects or creatures that can damage crops. More than one-fourth of the population go hungry and there is a forty percent maize crop loss in
In today’s classroom, the teacher is no longer viewed as the sole custodian of knowledge. The role of a teacher has evolved into being amongst one of the sources of information allowing students to become active learners, whilst developing and widening their skills. Needless to say, learning has no borders – even for the teacher. One of the strongest beliefs which I cling to with regards to teaching is that, teaching never stops and a teacher must always possess the same eagerness as a student. Through several interactions with other teachers, I always strive for new ideas, techniques, teaching styles and strategies that I might add to my pedagogical knowledge. Furthermore, through personal reflection, feedback and evaluation...
The job of a teacher is never easy but we have seen how cooperative discipline and enabling students to feel capable, connected and contributing can improve classroom management and maybe even our own moods. If we create an environment of mutual respect and give our students legitimate power of voice and choice in the classroom we will see positive results in improved student behavior and student achievement. Because when our students believe that they can succeed, they will.
There is 75% of the labor force occupied by agriculture sector which only contributes 22% of GDP. Conversely, 75% of GDP were contributed by 25% of the labor force in service, industrial and manufacturing sectors. [9] In 2012, the World Bank showed the data of Kenya’s GDP which was only $40.7 billion in 2012 considered as a low income country. The major agriculture products are tea, horticulture and coffee which are also the main export product. Corn is the major food for Kenyans, but the yield of corn is not stable due to the fluctuant weather condition. For instance, Kenya was in a food shortage during the severe droughts in 2004. In 2012, agriculture exports (horticultural produce and tea) collected $5.942 billion revenues, but the imports ($14.39 billion) the product was more than exports. Thus, it can be seen that Kenya had a serious trade deficit in the world market. The main import products are machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicle, iron and steel, resins and plastics. In other words, the development of industrial sector was still weak in Kenya. It accounts for only 14% of GDP. The major industrial activity in Kenya is food-processing industries. It has an oil refinery that is able to filter crude oil to complete petroleum products which are mainly for the domestic
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.
Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve oneself.
Dreyer, personal communication, 13 February, 2016). I was hungry for information on classroom management following a substitute teaching experience with seventeen kindergartners. The session only lasted for an hour and I wished I could have had eight hours of instruction on the topic. R. Dreyer modeled setting expectations, with step-by-step procedures that can set the right tone for the classroom from the very first day. I have further research to due in the area of Accountable Talk, but I did take away two gems from this lesson that I have already started implementing. Firstly, setting specific expectations for students from the very beginning is helping me put forth the type of authority I desired in my teaching. Letting students know what tasks we will be conducting and what behavior I expect from them has already changed the way I substitute teach. Secondly, understanding that students will do what you allow them to do, not what you tell them to do has helped me set boundaries. I have a tender-hearted nature and would overlook an infraction here or there, but now realize that was undermining my authority. Now, after having set clear expectations, I lovingly hold my students to
My philosophy of classroom management is characterized by a teacher-centered approach. I believe that the teacher is the leader of the classroom and should determine the learning needs of the students. To have an effective classroom management, I would begin the school year by dedicating some time in educating my students on the class rules, expectations, and consequences. I would strictly emphasize that these rules, expectations, and consequences are to create a pleasing and productive learning environment. I would use logical consequences with those students who choose not to follow the rules and expectations, and encouragement and rewards with those students who demonstrate the appropriate behavior.
As a student teacher, the main responsibility is to learn and expand on our knowledge, disposition, and performance. Through my observations I have learned the most important point to set is the class expectations at the beginning of the school year. When setting class expectations at the beginning of the year and being consistent with it, the students will know what is expected of them, which, influences positive behavior. Another method of classroom management that I learned, is the proper usage of the clip chart and teacher student discussions. These classroom management tools, model proper behavior to the students and show them the rewards and consequences of behavior choices.