Education Blog

“As a teacher, you are also a learner.” – Dr. Riggle

I would not be writing this if it were not for the education that has brought me to where I am today. At first, I’m sure I can speak on behalf of many when I say that I did not first aspire to be a teacher. Instead, I wanted to be a Funeral Director, but throughout the end of my middle school year to the end of high school, I had many mentors get me to where I am today along with a passion for the subject of literature. Listed below is my teaching philosophy. In other words what I believe are the fundamental needs to be a great teacher. Being a great teacher can mean many things, but I believe the centralizing idea to have is to build those connections with your students, and maybe, just maybe, they will want to follow in your footsteps and become teachers themselves. 

A classroom should be a place where all students feel welcomed. Schools, especially classrooms, should be a place where students feel welcomed by making sure they understand that the teacher is there to listen to them. It is a place where students should speak and feel comfortable speaking their minds as well. As a teacher, understand that you are not the students’ guidance counselor, but they have to know that you are there for them in a school setting. 

Every student needs an adult role model in their life. I believe that every student needs a sort of role model in their life. Parents or guardians have to be there for their children to support them and teach them the ways to be civil in our society. 

Students need different types of learning patterns. Many students, I believe, have different learning patterns. Students may learn: visually, hands-on, etc. Not all students are going to learn in the same exact way that other students may learn. Some students work better with hands-on learning, others may feel like they have the material down-pat when they visualize it. 

As a teacher, I will understand that failing helps teachers learn if we want meaningful learning to take place. “It’s the notion that the most meaningful things that we learn come out of challenging situations” (Dr. Riggle). I believe that everyday is another day to learn something new and by failing you actually prepare for the next time a situation arises. Failing makes people better learners, so they know not to do that same thing over again. 

As a teacher, I will keep my temper down when getting yelled at by a student or parent, but ask them to share their view first so I can de-escalate the situation. (#5) As teachers, we have to understand that we don’t know what is going on in every students’ life. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to meet the student or parent where they are or try to understand why they are upset and what we can do to fix the problem together.

As an educator, if I am wrong or I don’t know the answer to a question a student has, instead of rambling, I will tell them I don’t know, but I will find out the answer for them. Teachers don’t know everything. It’s hard to believe it, but it’s true. It’s important to be honest with your students and with yourself as well. Regarding any question that you truly don’t know the answer to, students would much rather hear you say that you don’t know an answer than try to just explain the answer in a less-confident way. 

Before my lessons that I teach, I will make sure I know the lesson to the best of my ability. You, as the teacher, are there for the students, and the students are there for you. It may sound a bit cheesy, but they are there in hopes to educate themselves. In order for students to learn something, they have to be taught it and have a comprehensive knowledge of the subject they are talking about. Before any teacher actually teaches their lesson, it’s important to understand the lesson yourself to the best of your ability. That way you can explain it to the best of your ability to your students. 

This list is not complete, nor do I think it will be completed in the next 3 years. It will probably be completed when I retire, that way this list will go out to the world for other inspiring educators to see. When an inspiration strikes, it shall be placed on this list. In order for us future teachers to become great teachers above are the examples that you have seen which fulfills just a portion of my teaching philosophy. Teaching can be stressful, not just physically, but more so mentally. If it is so tiring, why do we continue to educate children? To respond to this question I can really only say one thing…. growth. Teaching makes us think, teaching makes us grow, teaching makes us inspire students, teaching makes us grow as humans and enrich the world around us. Below is a quote that I believe sums up what makes a teacher:

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

• William A. Ward

What the interviews that we constructed tell us about being an impactful teacher, is that it takes patience and understanding to level with students. The interviews that I did, it was fascinating to hear from teachers that I once had about their experiences and to see how they deal with certain issues and manage their classroom in general. The two interviews that I did, both teachers said that there were influential people in their lives to have them go on the path of being an educator still to this day. The way one of the teachers that I interviewed build relationships in their classrooms is with their new curriculum the other teacher created bonds using their seating charts. Seating charts can be very important while creating a bond with students as they would be placed next to someone who they may not usually sit next to. A big quote that really stood out to me was if students are complaining respond with “they are still kids.” Another piece of advice that I took from this interview is that you need to be willing to admit when you are wrong. Even though you may have been teaching the same subject for many years, one day a question might arise that you don’t know the answer to… and that’s okay. Students would be better of hearing that you don’t know the question, but you will find out the answer rather than you just trying to show that you may know the answer. Overall, these interviews have shown myself and I think I can speak on behalf of others, that when playing the role of a teacher, there will be a lot of ups and downs so to speak. If you can make a difference in the life of your students, you are doing fine – one student at a time!

What my group and I learned during the Wisconsin Schools Project is that our schools in our district are deeply underfunded. Based on the information we gathered, we found that the Janesville School District has the highest average wages for teachers at $62,432. As the graduation rates, we found that the percentage was averaged around 85% which is pretty close to the state average which is 89.5%. When dealing with the topic of test scores and how the students preform academically, the Milton School District performed the best in rock county with a 42% of students being proficient in reading and 43% in Math. When looking back at this project it was very interesting as well as eye-opening to see the statistics of different schools and how their different categories varied.

While reviewing all the Edtalk presentations and answering the following questions that each group members had, it was by no surprise that closely all of the students in our book were around the same age as us. When we encounter a problem in the class that we teach in the future, we can reflect back on these Edtalks and resolve the problem if it were to occur in our own classroom. As teachers we need to understand that each student has an ability; it’s what makes students unique. Those abilities or gifts can change a student’s perspective of the world. Many times, students will come into the classroom and express themselves in a fit of rage. As teachers, we need to understand that maybe there is something more going behind the scenes on whether it’s: parents getting a divorce, economic status, struggling with sexual identity, or even a student getting bullied. Being able to answers these questions and take a civil approach to them helps us to not just understand the students, but ourselves as well and how we, as teachers, can shape the world.

“Our Job is to teach the students we have. Not the ones we would like to have. Not the ones we used to have. Those we have right now. All of them.”

– Dr. Kevin Maxwell

1854 – The Boston Public Library Opens up to the public. It is the first “free municipal library” in the U.S. The reason why I chose the Boston Public Library is because from the opening of the Boston Public Library, the chain of libraries has progressed to where we are now. Many of the citizens throughout the United States have enjoyed going to the library in their free time. Libraries are a special place as they have many things to offer such as: activities throughout the year, story time, book clubs, and most importantly, it provides a study area to those around in the surrounding schools and makes people feel welcomed. Libraries help as they supply children and adults with books and different genres as well. The libraries in the area of residence also provide historical information/ records of the city/ town. Because technology has played a very crucial role in our life today, may libraries have expanded from the paper-copy book to eBooks found online. This gives many people the chance to where they can bring the library home to them without having to go to them.

“A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.”

– Lemony Snicket