- building relationships with my students
- fostering mutual respect (between myself and students)
- engaging students on a daily basis
- making sure students are actually learning
1.2: What I mean by...
- Love(ing) children means... valuing their skills, respecting them as people, and sincerely being interested in their lives.
- Want(ing) to help students means... understanding what their learning style is, understanding what problems they might have, listen and understand what they are telling you, being an effective teacher.
- Another reason I want to teach includes... helping students understand their own worth and to stand up for their values.
1.3: What will sustain me?
- Loving children will sustain me if my students respond positively. It won't sustain me if I am incapable of fostering any type of relationship.
- Wanting to help students will sustain me if I am able to actually help them how I want or know they need. It won't sustain me if I am repeatedly blocked from helping them.
- Another reason I want to teach will sustain me if I am successful. It won't sustain me if year after year I am just not a good teacher.
1.4: Love and help reexamined
Similarities between the statements:
- interest in lives
- value their skills
- respecting students
- understanding their learning styles
- listen to them and understand their problems
- the wide range of differences described
1.11: Dale Spender's or Sojourner Truth's new interpretations
Truth was explaining that all the things she did just like men (plowed, planted, gathered). So why should women be excluded or treated differently than men. No longer will women stand by and do the same work as men and be ignored.
1:12: Your philosophy of education: How would you answer the following questions? Provide a rationale for your answers.
1. What is the main purpose for schools?
The main purpose for schools is not to merely teach children, but to help them learn and understand - not only their own society, but the many different societies throughout the world. By helping children know how to learn things we are creating the skills they will need to be productive adults.
2. How does this purpose relate to or serve a diverse society?
This will create a tolerance and understanding in students that will better serve the world as a whole when they are adults.
3. How does this purpose relate to or serve a socially stratified society?
By teaching children to learn, it gives them the tools they need to succeed. Also, if a teacher makes sure each student is reaching their potential through learning skills that are best suited for them individually, they can take those skills with them and break social barriers that have previously held them back.
4. What are the implications of what you wrote above for the work of a teacher?
The teacher must make a constant effort to know her students, respect students, advocate for them, and to always continue to help them learn.
1.13: My vision revisited
As a teacher I envision myself... letting my children be involved in developing their classroom dynamics, getting to know my students and fostering mutual respect, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses to better help them achieve their goals, advocating for my students, stretching their minds, getting them excited and engaged about learning, and helping them discover their self-worth.
"Actually learning" An important goalpost! That implies a certain level of assessment, perhaps "continual and consistent" in the words of our book on constructivism..."Love" is certainly different with high school and middle school students and I think you capture some important features of that relationship here: valuing, respecting, being interested. When students feel these things, I think they are more likely to "actually learn". I appreciate that your definition of learning is more than just "knowledge" but is more focused on "understanding" and acquiring tools and skills.
ReplyDeleteI really like that something you mentioning in your "wanting to help students means" section was understanding learning styles. I think that is so, so important - not just wanting to help students succeed, but finding out HOW to best help them, and in what ways they will best understand. That is something that will certainly make you Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteDenise,
ReplyDeleteYou will be a FANTASTIC teacher because you already see how students are different from each other and you value that. Wanting to understand their weaknesses and strengths will serve you well in helping them better achieve their goals.
I like the fact that you understand already that teachers must always think about the students that are under their care. Teaching is a selfless job. So many teachers out there have forgotten that.