A Weatherman (or woman) [Reflection Eight]

Today in class the suggestion came up of being a 'weatherman' while teaching. In other words, teaching the class without hardly ever looking up at the board, the Powerpoint, or other aid you are using. You teach to the students and not an object.  My goal in becoming a teacher has always been along the lines of helping kids to learn more about this technology that I love, but more to be able to connect with them and make a difference in their lives. I want my job to be fun, but also rewarding, and I'm willing to put in the work to make it like that.  I feel like teaching to the students instead of an object like I said above, can help that connection start. Make your students feel like you are talking to them, that you want to be talking to them.  After the initial connection is made, I think it is important that your students trust you. Trust is so important in school. I know that if I didn't trust a teacher, there was no way I was going to be excited about any assignments they gave me. It makes such a big difference.
                                                                                                                                                               
"The more you remember about a student and the more you ask a student about these facts you remember, the more your students will trust you. A classroom built on trust and maintained throughout the year will perform far greater than a classroom built on threats and consequences." - Classroom Management Tips

So Much to Learn [Reflection Seven]

I currently have 5 or 6 pieces of notebook paper filled up completely back and front with different teaching tips to implement in teaching lessons. Do I remember even an eighth of them? No way. I think this fact alone has really opened my eyes to how much there really is be learned--about teaching particularly. It excites me!

Right now I have a job in the Harold B. Lee Library where I help with many things, but mainly work with the books coming through. Recently a group of books came in that had to do with public teaching in the United States. I got super excited and was wanting to check them out that day and read them all. When I realized my excitement, I got even more excited, because I am a huge reader, but not a huge fan of 'scholarly' reading, if that makes sense. I impressed myself with my desire to learn more about being a teacher. My work load this semester is a little insane, so the reading of those books might have to wait until summertime, but I set a goal that day to continually be absorbing all that I can to become a great teacher. I think if I start now, and continue throughout my life, I'll be that much stronger in not only my profession, but the raising of children and serving in church callings.


Educator and philosopher Parker Palmer said:

Good teaching isn't about technique. I've asked students around the country to describe their good teachers to me. Some of them describe people who lecture all the time, some of them describe people who do little other than facilitate group process, and others describe everything in between. But all of them describe people who have some sort of connective capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied.

Drive It Home [Reflection Six]

In our discussion today in class there was one 'teaching tip' that arose that really stuck out to me. It was:

Have one crazy thing in your lesson to drive it home for the students.


It got me thinking back on past experiences I've had in classes where the lesson ended and I had really no clue why I needed to learn that certain thing. I often decided I would never have to remember it ever again after the test it may be on, when in reality, I'm sure there was always a really neat way I could have applied it to myself.

One of my classmates shared a neat quote today. It included something to the extent that we as educators are teaching kids skills for careers that don't currently exist and technology that hasn't been created yet. One day they are going to need to know what we are dishing out, so I feel like we as teachers have the responsibility to teach it in a way that they understand, remember, appreciate, and apply it.
After doing a little research, I found this quote from salesgravy.com --

"Many in business believe "knowledge is power." Unfortunately, this is less than half the equation. Until knowledge is applied, then and only then does it become powerful."

To tie this all together, I've just realized how important it will be for me to make it of great importance in my classroom to help the kids apply what they are learning and see how they might use it in the future. There are so many ways this could be done and I look forward to the challenge of tackling it.

Blast From the Past [Reflection Five]

This morning I was able to visit and observe at another school, this time a high school. It actually happened to be the high school that I graduated from, which I thought was fun. It was interesting for me to go back and, although I'm only a few years older than those kids, feel so much different. I felt myself reminiscing and remembering things I wished teachers would have done for me in high school, teaching styles I remember, and so on. It got me thinking about my teaching philosophy I'm working on developing. I feel like to be a good teacher you need to place yourself in their shoes, bring back memories from your schooling experience, think like a high schooler, do things that you know would benefit them, because in a sense you are them. And then take the students and put them in your position. Let them teach, treat them like adults, respect them and they will respect you.

This first experience in a high school has helped me realize that I think I would like to teach high school more than at the junior high level. I feel that high school may be more rewarding for what I hope to do, but I'm also realizing that the term 'teacher' can be replaced with 'flexible person,' so wherever I'm needed or find a job, I will teach.