Reflecting: Did I learn?

This blog has been a difficult thing for me to do. I have never been big on writing because it does not capture my attention long enough for me to finish my thoughts. I enjoyed the idea of doing this blog but when it came down to actually writing the entries it became torture. However it was still a very informative journey.

I have always been very hard on myself. I always want to do the best which is one of the reasons I hate writing; I analyze it so much it no longer because a piece of what I feel or think and then I hate it. My need to do the vest drives to break down often which is what I did with this class and what I am afraid I’ll do when I’m a teacher. That is why I hope to find out how I could be the best starting out. What I found was that I need to loosen up a bit and be glad of my strong support group I already have.

Writing the blog was difficult for me because I’m not big on the whole conversationalist aspect of having a writer’s voice. I try to not express too many of my opinions for the fear that people will judge them. I don’t want to lose my shell that prospects me. This blog pushed me to mix research with opinion and thoughts.

This blog helped me to develop. Obviously it has made me a little less afraid of my words. I am sorry I did not get to finish the assignment but I am grateful that I had to do it.

The Relationship Makes It

I started this blog to figure out what I could do to be a good teacher to my future students. I wanted to know what qualities where in those teachers that inspire us to do a far better job then we thought could do. Some would say that the teacher’s experience or certification is what makes to them able to do that. However I felt like that was not the answer I was looking for; I want something that was harder to measure- the relationship they create with their students.

Ronald Ferguson

Harvard researcher Ronald Ferguson, says that this relationship is based on the atmosphere of the classroom. A good teacher will maintain a mixed atmosphere of high perfectionism (describing a classroom where getting the right answers is important) and high help (questions are encouraged and view as important).This atmosphere shows children encouragement while also convincing them that they can to do the level of work should be doing. Students in these classrooms are more likely to feel that they have done their best on multiple assignments.

This is especial important when it comes to minority student as they want to please their teachers more than whites. Whites felt that parents were more important. These students are not always given the caring and pushing atmosphere that white students often get through their parents. If they are in a high perfectionism/high help class it is more likely to improve their grades and achievement

So how can a teacher get this environment? Ferguson suggested adopting these five principles.

1. This is a place of mutual support
2. We are going to have order in here
3. We’re going to have very high goals
4. Sometimes this is going to be hard
5. By the end of the year, we will have come a long way

These principles establish caring and trust, create a balance of student autonomy and teacher control, communicate high expectations, set the conditions for students to try their hardest, and demonstrates faith in the student’s abilities.

A teacher cannot just expect student to muddle through the school year on their own. They also cannot just repeat the right “encouraging words” that have no meaning behind them. Teacher must be able to help and expect a correct answer. They must build a strong and supportive relationship with their students. That relationship is want makes a truly good teacher rather than just a well-qualified person.

McAdoo, M. (n.d.). Inside the mystery of good teaching. Retrieved from            http://www.educationoasis.com/instruction/bt/mysterygoodteaching.htm

More on the Roller coaster of the First Year

The first year is the hardest and most important year when it comes to teaching. It is the year that determines what of teacher a person will be. To ensure that the first year is successful I wanted to see what advice there was on how to get through the first year of teaching. That first is like a roller coaster with five distinct stages: Anticipation, Survival, Disillusionment, Rejuvenation, and Reflection. There are different ways to make the most of each phase.

The first phase of the first year is anticipation and occurs during July and August. During this stage you should create and hold on your vision of a great teacher. A teacher in this stage is excited and idealistic, to make the most of it begin making connections with other teacher in your school, keep a journal (record daily success and progress toward long term goals), and also begin a notebook with ideas for next year. This way you will get in the habit of reflecting on even the littlest bit of good while the year makes your excitement wan.

The next phase is survival. School has actually started and the work will start piling on.  Despite the feeling of not having enough time in a day, continue to keep your journal to maintain your momentum. Find out what other teacher are doing as their lessons so you have a starting point. Make at least one good teacher friend.

By October the stress and exhaustion will make it easy to fall into a “pit of despair.” The workload coupled with discipline issues makes this the stage that most teachers consider leaving the profession. Thus the “Disillusionment” phase. Don’t be too discouraged because this will be the hardest challenge as a new teacher. Reach out to friends, family. And especially your peers as your self-esteem may be at an all-time low. Ask for help and advice other have also experienced al, this. Keep finding small successes through your journal.

You will return from winter break renewed and relaxed. This is the stage of rejuvenation. Once you hit this stage you’re into the home stretch of your first year. To make the most of this new energy focus on developing your curriculum. Try something new; how did it work? Note that for next year. Examine your vision of teaching and see how it has changed into something more realistic.

Once school is just about done reflect on how you and your students have grown. Celebrate it with your students. Start planning for next year with your  "Ideas for Next Year" notebook. Do not neglect your peer relationships over the last few months and summer; this relationship will still be need helpful during your second year of teaching.

            This advice should help to get through the ups and downs of my first year teaching. It seems that a really good way to make the most of that year is through documentation and building a support group. 

Murray, B. (n.d.). How to surrive your first year of teaching. Retrieved from http://www2.scholastic./browse/article.jsp?id=3749719 

Why are Teachers Getting a Bad Reputation?

Recently there has been a lot in the media about teachers due to the situation in Wisconsin where the governor is attempting to cut teachers’ benefits. Unfortunately a lot of what has been said has been negative and uninformed. Teachers have been attacked for the amount they make as it is simply a “part- time job.” People have called it easy due to the fact that supposedly it is over when the school day ends. Also the due to the prevailing discontent with America’s education system more and more teacher horror stories. If someone had never had contact with a public school teacher only could base their opinion on the major of what they hear, they would think that all teachers were lazy, ineffective monsters so stuck in their ways that they were obsolete.

Amid this fad of bad mouthing teachers there are people who remind us of the good a teacher does. They acknowledge how difficult it is to make children care about a future which seems to be so far away. They see that teachers don’t end their day when their students leave but rather give most of their time to making sure those few hours that the children are in their classroom have the biggest impact. They understand that teachers continue to think about each of their student and how they can best help them. They know that teaching is a hard job.

One person has spoken on the value of teachers is Michelle Obama. To her teacher are the second most influential force in a child’s live (after families). The single most important factor affecting how a student does is whether they have a good teacher. Good teacher have the qualities of a leader: lots of energy and patience, a vision, creativity to see the world in a different light, and commitment to their student doing their best. With the important that education has gained in the job market and large number of teachers hitting the age of retirement, their need to be more people who will step up to the challenge of teaching. Michelle Obama calls for university better there teacher education, for states to expand ways to certify teachers, and for the government to find ways to recruit these new leaders to and retain high- performing teachers at needy schools.

Have been searching for ways to insure that become a new leader for the children I will teach. I think that I do possess those traits that are needed and hope that I can be a truly amazing influence on the life of a child. As to the people who are currently bashing the job that teachers do, I think they need to have a long chat with a teacher and spend at least a day seeing what happens in a school on any given day. And I believe that while we are certainly in need of more good teachers, I also believe that the majority of teachers are good at their if given the means to do it.

References

Obama, M. (2009). America's future lies in its teachers. U.S. News & World Report,         146(10), 36-37. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from EBSCOhost.

What are The Stages to Excellence in Teaching?

I want to excel at teaching. This goal is probably the goal of any truly wishes to teach rather than who just stumbles into it by as it is the only job that is realistic with the degree they perused. However is it realistic to expect to be an amazing teacher right out of college? Is it fair to put that enormous pressure to not mess up on myself? Is it believable that I can be as great a teacher as those who have far more experience than I. It is not realistic, fair, or believable; it is a fantasy.

The idea of a teacher preparation program making an immediate success is a common mistake (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.). There is a great deal of pressure that is placed on novice teacher to be better than they could possibly be. They state that before a novice teacher can become good at teaching they must go through four phases. They consist of the fantasy phase, the survival phase, the disenchantment Phase and competence phase.  Each phase can take anywhere from one to several years (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

The first phase a novice teacher goes through is the Fantasy Phase. This phase begins with the decision to become a teacher.  At this point one views teaching only in the good aspects and believes that if they are a good teacher they won’t encounter bad behavior, fatigue or annoying parents. “The fantasy teacher is a legend in his own mind”. This phase typically lasts through college and teacher preparatory stages into the first few days of school as a teacher (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

During the first week of school a novice teacher will discovered they are not as prepared or amazing a teacher as they thought they were.  They also realize they don’t have enough time to do everything they need to do, and compensate by staying late or coming in early and bringing home piles of work.  As a teacher they move quickly though the lessons use a college level vocabulary and are either very ridged or permissive in their punishment. This phase comes to an end when the novice starts picking up tricks of the trade usually around the seventh month (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

The Disenchantment Phase occurs during the survivalist phase but tends to last much longer.  After a period of four to five weeks the novice teacher becomes aware of various “failures”. First is that they are not popular. Not with the administrator who is looking for greater control in the classroom; not with the parents who are constantly questioning their decisions and competency; especially not with the hormone driven, dumb students. Second the novice realized they are realizes they are not “good” at teaching. Due to the high level vocabulary and abstract concepts the students fail or do poorly on their first test. Thirdly because they did not see discipline being an issue, they are unprepared to deal with the discipline problems that occur. “The novice inexperience with managing misbehavior only serves to stimulate further misbehavior of resentment” (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).This makes the teacher feel that they have no influence.

It is critical that the novice not remain in the phase for too long. If they do teacher will become quickly leave the occupation or bitter.

Usually by new teacher’s second year they have ended the other phases and are becoming competent.  They have learned the necessary “tricks,” how to balance their social and professional life, and understands that remarks and attitudes of students are not a personal attack. They have learned to limit school problems to school and not let it intrude no their personal life. This shift to competency is slight but very important. These teachers have fewer discipline problems, bring home less work, interact with students on a more personal level, and are less fatigued (Littleton & Littleton, n.d.).

The road to competency is hard and stressful but these phases have given me a little more confidence that I can succeed at teaching. Also it has helped me understand better what it will be to be a new teacher. Now I know that teaching is hard and you become good at it through experience.

Littleton, M. & Littleton, P. (n.d.). The evolution of a teacher. Inspiring Teachers. Retrieved February 19,               2011 from Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context Database.

The Importance of Teacher Development

            One of the most inspiring teachers I have had was my AP (Advance Placement) US history teacher. She truly had a passion for her subject. She also understood all of us which allowed her to make the lessons relevant to each class. Rather than take the same approach to teaching for each class she instead had a lesson tailor made to the students in that class. She focused on helping us understand the meaning of history rather than just memorize facts.

A great teacher is eager to learn and to share with others. However that eagerness does nothing if not coupled with development both professionally and personally.  A new teacher will never become a better teacher if they are unable to find a way to grow and an experienced teacher will never reach their best if they do not embrace change. In order to develop teachers need to be given attention.

Teacher supervisor, Danielle Nyman, feels not enough people in education understand that how qualified a teacher is does not matter if the teacher is not helped to develop their abilities. She says that a promising teacher is bright, knowledgeable, and relates well to student. However it is also vital they are open-mind and enthusiastic in their approach to teaching (Nyman, 2008).

 What I do to better myself and my teaching will not be very effective if I do not have support professional. As a teacher, I will be expected to nourish my students. In turn I will need nourishment in the form of encouragement and guidance. As a new teacher I will need help and feedback; I cannot be expected to figure out everything by myself.

To provide an idea on how to nourish and develop teachers into the best teacher they can be Nyman discussed a few guidelines (Nyman, 2008). These guidelines are primarily meant for supervisor but I also found encouragement and guidance in them. For the rest of this posting I will follow her structure to discuss what I learned from them.

“Recruitment is Key”: Good teachers are rarely found but rather trained (Nyman, 2008). That means that the teachers that have inspired me did not necessarily start out as amazing as I found them to be. For me this means that if I work at it I can be like them.

Teachers pay attention: Good teachers are attentive to their students. They make sure they know about them so they can best teach them. Teachers need the same attention. “Just as teachers work to understand their students’ lives, so too should a supervisor attempt to understand the context of the lives of teachers” (Nyman, 2008).  

“Differentiate:”  Teachers have different ways of teaching. No teacher is the model of perfection (Nyman, 2008). This gives me the freedom to explore and discover what works. While I should take my cues from others I should all not feel stuck with what everyone else does.

“Revitalization is Critical”: “Teaching is a demanding profession.” As such there is a high rate of loss of effectiveness after the first few years. To prevent this “brownout” a good teacher will continually revitalized their lessons (Nyman, 2008). Rather than accepting that the lesson is good enough I should look at it critically before and after teaching it.

           

Teachers should try to be the best they can be. They should be eager to learn and develop. However, teachers should not be the only people devoted to ensuring that they are the best. Supervisors, principles, and other higher ups should be committed to give teachers the supplies and nurturing that they need to stay at a level that benefits the students.

References

Nyman, D. (2008). Nourishing teacher development: A subject supervisor's perspective.    Encounter, 21(2), 41-45. Retrieved February 3, 2011, from EBSCOhost Database.

Aspirations

I have wanted to become a teacher from very early in life. Some of my earliest memories are of playing school with my dolls. This childhood dream has grown over the years to become a career aspiration. Now, as I am trying to make that happen, I worry whether I will be any good at teaching.

            I want to become a teacher that inspires students the way many of my teacher inspired me. My teachers were some of the most patient and knowledgeable people I have met. I am not quite sure I can claim to be the same. Thus I want to figure out what supposedly makes a really good teacher.

            I hope that by figuring out what qualities good teachers have, I can begin to develop those qualities. By doing this I will be confident that I have taken the steps necessary to become a teacher that children deserve.  I want to be the kind of teacher that my nephews or someday my children deserve to have. I want to become a teacher that inspires her students.