Week 3: Teaching as a Career and Happy Moments

Last week was wonderful because it really made me think about why I was going into teaching. We had to write a letter to ourselves in 5 years as a reminder of why we decided to be teachers. I ended up needing to think about these reason the next day at work when the 1st grade students were acting a little bonkers! Here is my letter:

Dear Danielle,
You may or may not have forgotten why you wanted to be a teacher. It can be an easy thing to loose track of sometimes. Always remember that it is about the kids, not about you. It's about doing whatever it takes to help them learn and to soar. This can be tough for some of them, so remember to always allow them time to just play and be kids. The work to overcome their personal obstacles cannot be completed by you - the most you can do is to be a guide and inspire them to do their best. The best moments in a classroom are the ones where you can see each child physically change when they "get it" - all those "ah-ha" moments. I know there are days when you feel like giving up... DON'T! Remember these things about why you wanted to teach in the first place. They will help you through the tough times.

After doing writing this letter and thinking about all the good there is in teaching, I was a little put off by the Bilkin article. The way the article was written seemed to cast teaching in such a negative light! I could not believe that many teachers didn’t consider teaching to be a career! As I was reading this article, one of my friends called me, she is also a teacher, and I couldn’t help but rant about how appalling it was that teaching is not considered a career. I do agree that it is DIFFERENT than typical careers, say, in the business world, but that does not mean teaching is not a career! To me, a career is a job, occupation, profession (whatever you want to call it) that a person puts all their effort into and is something they have chosen to do. No, there may not be specific opportunities for advancement, but that is not the reason most people go into teaching. From my experience, teachers want to be there; they want to put 110% effort into helping children learn; they want to devote more than 40 hours each week to making sure everything goes as planned (for the most part); they don’t care about getting paid less than people in traditional careers. Teachers are a special breed of people.

Switching gears completely – I really like the Ayers chapter! I really liked the section about how labeling children as having a learning disability only focuses on what they can’t do, as opposed to what they can do. The way he made this point was humorous and illustrated very well how true this idea is. Schools should be focusing on ways to help children learn things they are “deficient” in by using skills they are good at. If a student is not good at reading or writing but seems to be an imaginative artist, maybe read a story out loud and have the child illustrate it as you go to help them better understand what is happening in the story. For the same student, a teacher could have them draw pictures about what happens in a story then go back and write the sentences that go along with the pictures. There are multitudes of ways to use children’s strengths to help them in the areas that need some work.

Another point Ayers makes that I connect to is that, “When teachers value their children’s opinions and experiences, children begin to think more openly” (42). I actually say this happen in my class today. We started a new reading curriculum called Junior Great Books. Today we read a story and had the students illustrate certain sections using their own interpretations about how the characters were feeling at that moment. After each piece, students were called on to share their work. They were hesitant at first and the usual outgoing students volunteered to share. The teacher praised each student’s efforts and pointed out the fantastic ways in which each interpretation was different. After the next section, EVERYONE raised their hands to share! The quiet, timid students that we usually don’t hear from very often were up on their feet explaining, in loud voices, how they interpreted the story. Not only did more students want to share, but the visual interpretations of the story became more and more creative as we went through the lesson. It was absolutely fantastic! By simply showing that everyone’s opinions are valid and different in good ways more students were willing (and excited) to share their opinions with the rest of the class. This in the type of classroom I will strive for every day!

Week 2: Existing in The System

After our discussion in class last week I started thinking about how I want to teach. What if I want to just go with the flow and not try to be a trailblazer in education? What if I am OK following the mandated curriculum? After the discussion I felt a little guilty about not wanting to challenge the education system. I am not saying that I agree with EVERYTHING out there, but I think that if something works, why try to fix it?

I think Bellevue is an example of an extreme situation. In a place where teachers are expected to be on a certain page, on a certain day, at a certain time, there can’t possibly be any sufficient learning going on. The curriculum is there as I guide and I believe that teachers should be able to use it in a way that best benefits their students. I have been in a similar situation where I currently work (although it is definitely not as extreme as Bellevue). We received a new math curriculum this year and from my understanding, each teacher is expected to follow it exactly, in order. The teacher I work with was skipping around a little bit based on the needs and abilities of our students. Earlier in January I guess she got reprimanded a little bit for not going in order in a curriculum that she wasn’t familiar with yet. I would not want to work as a teacher in a school even this strict with curriculum requirements. I like to be able to feel free to adapt things to fit my students’ needs.

This being said, I am excited to face the challenges ahead of me! I am anxiously looking forward to student teaching and being able to fully take over the class. I also can’t wait to have a classroom of my own. I want the opportunity to try everything I have learned or seen other teachers do that I have liked. I want to put more than 100% effort into my lesson planning and into making sure my students succeed. I want to use theatre and other creative teaching to make this happen. I may be a bit of an idealist in that sense, but I also understand that there are certain things that need to be taught and even certain ways I will be expected to teach them. I will do my very best with the situation I am given and “go with the flow” until I am at a time and place where I can have more freedom in my own classroom.

Week 1: The Beginning of the Quarter

This first entry is going to be a little bit of everything. With the start of a new quarter and going back to work after winter break, there are a few things that have popped into my head that I thought would be good to write about.

First is work. I am an instructional assistant in a 1^st grade class at a private school. Towards the end of winter break I was feeling like I didn’t want to go back to work – mainly because I enjoyed all the extra sleep I was getting! However, the minute my students stepped into the classroom that Monday morning, I realized that I had the best job in the world! How many people can truly say that the LOVE their job? I LOVE my job! Teaching really makes me happy. It is hard to put into words exactly what it is I love about teaching, but I am going to try. I love helping students learn something new. There is a light bulb moment when you can see that they understand and then they are off and running! I enjoy hearing them ask genuine questions about a topic. A 6- or 7-year olds’ curiosity seems to be never ending. They just brighten my day everyday with the amazing things they say and do.

January also began with new classes at UWB. I was pleasantly surprised on Thursday night when we talked about things in class that I hadn’t already covered at NYU. We watched a short video about the history of education (one of our readings was also on this subject). I had no idea that public education started so long ago and was based on preparing students to be politicians. The chapter we read this week also talked about how the purpose high school today is to prepare students for entry-level jobs. What about preparing students to go to college? Even most entry-level jobs today require a college degree.

Now for a complete change of subject: the Ayers book was better than I was expecting. I guess I was expecting a boring text book rather than a book with little stories interspersed throughout. At first I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel about the book. Was I supposed to agree with everything he said or be extremely skeptical and mentally argue with him? As it turns out, I ended up agreeing with many of the arguments he makes.

Mr. Ayers did such a good job of addressing many different sides of teaching. He talked about how teaching is a list of many different duties, how devalued the teaching profession has become, and the many myths about teaching. I really enjoyed his thoughts about becoming a good teacher. He says that there is no way to become a good teacher unless you go through the process of being a new teacher. New teachers are not as respected as more experienced teachers but I think they should be. Just because new teachers haven’t been teaching as long doesn’t mean they are any less worthy of being a teacher. It takes time to gain all the skills necessary to be a good teacher, none of which are learned in classes. In my experience so far, all the helpful things I have learned about teaching I have learned in the classroom. The theory and everything else we get in classes is definitely helpful, but I never fully understood any of it until I was actually working with the students.

Another point he made that I agree with 100% is that, “…a major obstacle on the pathway to teaching is the notion that teaching is technical, that it is easily learned, simply assessed, and quickly remediated” (10). I have come across this belief many times being from a theatre background. There is the general belief floating around the theatre community that “those who can’t do, teach”. I have had people broach that subject with me and I try to explain that I actually CHOSE teaching theatre over performing! Every time they are shocked that I would make the conscious decision to go into teaching. Most people don’t realize all the effort that goes into learning how to teach. However, I also think it’s true that teachers are born to teach. As Ayers says, it takes a truly special person to want a career where they are over-worked and under-paid, as the saying goes.

I really liked all the myths he talked about as well, but my favorite one was Myth 4: Good Teachers Always Know the Materials. I laughed out loud when I read this one! I think he is spot on. I tell my students all the time that I don’t know the answer to something and then we find out the answer together. When students get the opportunity to see their teacher learning right along with them, it creates such an engaging environment. It also sets the great example that it’s OK to not know the answer to something! The school where I work consists of 200 or 300 budding perfectionists. I think it is a great example for them to see me and their teacher looking up answers to questions right along with them.

I am excited for the rest of this quarter! I hope that I learn some new things about teaching and about myself as a teacher now that I am in different place in my life. I feel very prepared to begin trying out everything I have learned.