Learning to trust myself

After my second week in the field, I feel that I am finally becoming a teacher. Everything that I have learned about is finally falling into place. I am learning that it is necessary to take risks, and often those risks are worth it. As I gain more control over the classroom, I have learned that there will be times when I say the wrong thing or go outside my students' norm. How I chose to handle those situations are up to me. I could hang my head and give up, or I can learn from the mistakes and do things differently. I am going to choose to learn. I feel that knowing that I am going to make mistakes but will see them in a positive way helps me to trust myself in this profession. I have had many situations in the classroom where I was given a choice in what needed to be done. I've realized that that is what teaching is all about: Going with your instincts and trusting that you are making the right decision for your students.

Dialectic Response Cues



Chapter 1

1. One question/comment/insight

I really liked the concept that I liked about this chapter was the fact that educators need to educate for diversity. It's important for students to understand and accept differences between people. I think that this is so important in a classroom because students are not the same and in order to create a caring learning environment for all students. I feel that educators often times have a difficult time with this concept because there is so much controversy surrounding the studying of different cultures. I think that teachers need to make sure that they introduce the ideas of being different to their students. Also, I think that every teacher believes in the beauty of differences. Why else would you be in a profession that works best when everyone is different? If we show our students the beauty of being different, they will be able to learn acceptance and the appreciation of human differences.



2. How does this relate to my student teaching experiences?

This is something that I see everyday in my classroom. My mentor teacher thinks that it is very important to see the differences in students and that even though we may all be different, we all bring something to each other's learning. My mentor teacher will often read stories that are from other countries and talk about the people there. I think that this has helped me to see that teaching diversity is something that is very powerful and necessary in a classroom. We did a lesson for Christmas about different holiday traditions from other countries. After talking about the traditions, many of the students wanted to ask their parents if they could include something like that in their homes. By teaching acceptance and awareness of diversity, my classroom is accepting of anyone who walks through our classroom door.

After my first week...

So, after being at home for 3 weeks on Winter Break, I felt that getting back into the swing of being in a classroom was going to be difficult. However, I found the swing was what I was missing the most from my break. I am in a kindergarten classroom in Tallmadge City Schools. As a matter of fact, I'm in the same classroom I was in during my previous semester. Through the first week, I saw myself as a teacher, not so much as an observer or a field student. I was taking over times of the day and was feeling very confident while doing so. I even took over for a whole day. One issue that I need to continue to work on, however, is time management. I feel that I am getting much better at this in my classroom because I have experienced the way my mentor teacher sets up the day, but I still need to realize that as a teacher, you may not get to everything that you have planned for that day, which is a concept I seem to be struggling with. I realize that as time goes by and I start having more opportunities to take over in the classroom, I will become better at my time management skills. This is a teaching lesson that takes a lot of practice to achieve and is something that I'm excited to succeed in this semester. Another thing that I hope to learn from my student teaching is who I am as a teacher. I feel that so far I am learning a lot more about not only my students, but me as well. I am learning that the more opportunities I have to learn about teaching, the more confident I become not only as a teacher, but also as an individual.

I'm so excited to see what this semester holds for me and for my fellow student teachers. Let the learning begin!