I want to become a
teacher because I had excellent teachers who seemed to love their jobs, their
students and their work. I want to enjoy my work while helping our youth
discover the world the way my teachers helped me discover mine. I formed a
vision and an understanding of the world mainly through my teachers’ guidance,
who continued to build a house full of windows around me, and every once in a
while I would find the window and open it. I remember the excitement I always
felt when the light would suddenly turn on and I would have a moment, an
epiphany of understanding, and then a whole new direction would become
available to me, the window would open. My teachers, the best ones, were
always able to step outside of the curriculum and find creative ways for us to
succeed, and with success came the learning. As teachers (in the making), our
main goal should be to provide opportunities for our students to succeed every
day, to provide the tools and motivation for learning. With this blog I hope to
shine some light on how important it is for teachers to get to know and
understand their individual students on a level that allows for creativity and
flexibility and together, teacher and student, can discover how to open the
window to knowledge and understanding.
"Tell me and I
forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn"
- Benjamin Franklin
It has been argued by
many that the most effective and safest method of teaching is to follow a well
laid out plan, a proven formula, a linear curriculum. I have found that a good
plan still needs a good teacher, and a good teacher provides opportunity for
individual creativity and the freedom of critical thinking. Like Benjamin
Franklin, I have come to realize that to achieve this goal, it is up to
the teachers to create opportunity. If we provide a safe environment where a
student feels comfortable enough to explore, without judgement, without
failure, then we will have started students on a path to success.
As demonstrated in the
video above, teachers make one of the largest, if not THE largest impact in our
lives. Teachers have the power to help make us into the people that we strive
to be. Education is not only about testing and grades. As stated by Drake, Reid
and Kolohon, it is about teaching our students everyday life skills, they need
to be taught persistence, curiosity, self-control, and consciousness if we want
to make a difference in their lives (Drake et al., 2014).
https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/ejdTQD5rqKaYvw/building-community-in-the-classroom
Students are diverse and it is our job to meet their
needs on every level, academically, socially and emotionally. Students come
with multiple strengths and abilities and it us up to us to be able to create a
classroom culture that builds on those strengths in order to have the best
learning experience possible (Hittie, 2000). Like the image illustrates above,
COMMUNITY IS IMPORTANT and it is up to us future educators to be aware
of this ourselves and to provide our students with the knowledge that there is
so much more beyond the curriculum.
Thanks
so much for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on the importance
of a caring teacher. Please feel free to comment below! :)
Resources
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner.
Franklin, B. (2013). Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Hittie, M. (2000). Building community in the classroom. International Education Summit, Detroit, Michigan.
Your first blog demonstrated your personal insights of teacher dynamics and understandings. It seemed like a story that became more and more interesting! You incorporated metaphorical examples to enhance your blog such as “…I would have a moment, an epiphany of understanding, and then a whole new direction would become available to me, the window would open”. I like this example as it gets the reader’s attention and focus, and you should keep doing this for your next blogs to come. Your quote "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn" clearly emphasizes this notion of the teacher who helps the students become the individual beings they strive to be. The quote stand outs from the blog as you used a different font and colour, and your paragraphs are organized well so that they flow from one idea to the next. I would only suggest of incorporating more secondary resources or materials to your main concepts to develop deeper understandings and their supports. Also, you can include questions that could probe your thinking as well as the reader’s. But overall, good job and I can’t wait to read your next blog!
ReplyDeleteVictoria, I thought that your first blog post was well done. The topic that you chose was very interesting, and I could tell that it was a topic that you really connected with. The 'house and window' metaphor that you used was a very creative way of illustrating how a teacher can provide a student with so many different possibilities. A point from your blog that stuck out to me was how a teacher can impact a students life development, let alone just their academic development. So often, teachers become so fixated on helping their students improve academically, and overlook the importance of teaching practical life skills.
ReplyDeleteTo offer some constructive criticism, I would encourage you to include some hyperlinks from your various sources. Doing this might help the reader to develop a better understanding of what you are writing about. The reader would be able to quickly access the article you chose, and read it for themselves. As well, it would be beneficial if you could have expanded further on some of your thoughts. In your last paragraph you mentioned how teachers are to meet their students needs socially. I was just curious as to how teachers meet their students social needs? That could have been something you could have expanded on.
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ReplyDeleteHi Victoria, great insights into what it means to be a caring and conscious teacher. I enjoy how much you spoke about how teachers affected you in your learning and your life. I may be a bit biased here, however I too feel that teachers are some of, if not THE, most influential people in one's life. You added a video that showcased this point of view perfectly. Your metaphor of the house and the window worked really well at tying your concept together. For future pieces, I hope to see more connection to some of the course content through hyperlinks to articles or books, however for your introductory piece, I really enjoyed how personal it was. I will look to add more of a personal spin on my next piece after reading yours, and in that your blog was inspiring. Keep up the awesome personal tales and continue to pursue and establish a growth mindset through your stories and metaphors. I cannot wait to read your next piece and I will leave you with this question: If teachers have the potential to be one of the primary influences in a students life, how do you plan on building an environment that allows you to influence your students to their upmost potential?
ReplyDelete