If it doesn’t challenge you, how can Learning change you?

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day 35


Seventh Week Reflections: If student teaching didn't challenge me then how could I grow as a future teacher?


Essential Question for this week:

  • What is something you learned while teaching this week?



In the mid way point of the semester I find myself contencting to the memes on how if you ain’t tired you ain’t a teacher. Especially with this half way mark being the end of the first half of student teaching I find myself being reminded more and more about this quote that we used to describe student teaching. Don’t get me wrong I have had some great lessons. I have. My big thing that I also find myself saying is that as I get into my second half of student teaching I need to not be satisfied with a couple of good lessons and a couple of bad lessons. I need to grow.



I know this may sound like I am being hard on myself but I see that if I accept this my students will begin to expect this of myself as well. And to me it’s my job to always look for improvement. My biggest thing I need to work on is my communicating my expectations and enforcing standards with my students. I think something I am struggling on doing is being nice and kind. Nice is allowing a student to not do the activity today. Being kind is recognizing when a student is having a bad day and allowing them to have a day off vs you are being lazy so yes you still have to do it.  

I need to work on using my teacher voice and expecting my students to do A and make it clear that A is the expectation. I think that there are things I need to work on and continue to improve and its important that I hold my students accountable for their actions.  I think the big point here is I need to not be afraid to raise my voice and make my expectations clear to students.  



I think need to keep reminding myself that this experience is about growth. So that when I begin looking at jobs I can tell people that if teaching doesn’t challenge me then how would I ever grow as a teacher. I need to be the best teacher I can be for my students. And so I have a list of stuff I need to think about and grow on and hopefully I can become the teacher that I believe I can be. 

Sometimes faith in yourself is also faith that you know you can grow.

To Be Continued . . .

Comments

  1. Tiffany MoreyFebruary 27, 2018 at 1:05 PM

    George, well said! Teaching is all about knowing when to hold your students' hands and when to push them forward to help them grow. It is good to see you recognizing the importance of this and looking for more ways to help them follow your expectations. Teaching is hard, but you have been given the tools you need to succeed in the rest of your student teaching internship.

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