Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Beginning [Reflection One]

After attending our first day of class and reading out of "The First Days of School," I've realized that boy, it's a whole lot harder to become a good teacher than I had expected.  I say good, because I feel like anyone can go through the motions to become a teacher, but it takes hard work and dedication to do it right. There are so many things to do that take you out of your comfort zone, so many different approaches to teaching something, and always something new to learn.

To be honest, I have always wanted to become a teacher. There are many reasons for that, but I have a few that have kept me going. First, I love the logistics of it- the paper copying, the setting up of the classroom, the organizing, the preparation. Second, the fact that I could help one of God's children, who year after year has been told they're not good enough, be able to believe in themselves again. And third, I love using technology to create art, to design things, and have fun with it. The opportunity to teach that sounds amazing to me.

My last thought comes from the "First Days of School" book. At the bottom of page 6 it says, "Effective teachers know how to open the door and invite their students to learn." I like this. In my future classroom I would love for my students to always feel like I am inviting them to come inside and learn something new, not be another class they feel they are being forced to come to. I would like them to know that I care for them, I may not be their best friend, but I am their equal, never above them. I've learned through further reading that these wishes will be hard things to balance but I hope to find a way to do it.

I've realized there are so many things I can do now during my education to push myself toward becoming that great teacher I know I can one day be. I've seen many examples of good and not so good teachers. One day I hope to be numbered among the good ones.

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