Why I love the teaching profession so far

We live in a cutthroat society today that to be the best you need to out perform other to get to the top. All through school my classmates competed and fought over grades to be better then the next person, not to learn but to win. The same goes in the business world where to get to the top you need to be cut throat and competitive, or at least that is what it seems like to me. In so many professions competition to be the best and out perform others is what is required. I was never a competitive person when it came to school so I knew a competitive profession would not be for me. What I was most pleasantly surprised about teaching is there are so many people who are willing to help you become the best you can be and to have the greatest impact on the students you teach. It is not that teachers don't want to be the best, but the difference seems to be is they all help each other to be the best they can possibly be. I think it was said that village is needed to raise a child; well the same goes for teaching students from my experiences so far. From my helpful classmates who have shared their ideas about teaching certain topics or helping students, to the online community from tapped in and those who have commented on my blog. Even with my cooperating teacher and student teacher in my class I did my practicum in, they gave lots of ideas and suggestions throughout the semester and the greatest compliment that I have received they wanted my lesson plans too! I love the willingness to collaborate and work together to bring a better education to our students. The students we teach today are so much luckier then we ever were because the online community expands the amount of teachers that can influence each other. An examples being teachers creating wikis to share ideas, information, and resources with teachers that are in different states or countries! There are many more examples about all of the wonderful resouces teachers have created to help others in their profession. This community of teachers makes you feel like you are not alone when you are starting something new, when the rest of the world seems to be caught up in competition.

Technology Lesson

Today I taught my lesson plan which integrated technology. I was my first time teaching an entire class and it went really well. I was put at ease right away when the students walked back from lunch and saw the projector on for the lesson they got so excited. Even one of the girls said, "cool we get to use the projector today!" The students were engaged and ready for the lesson before they even took off their coats. Which took away a lot of my initial nervousness. The lesson was for a first grade class dealing with fractions, one half, one fourth, and one third. First we reviewed what the fractions were and what they meant. Then we did a Kidspiration activity with grouping fractions as a class. I created this activity on Kidspiration 2 software the students had pictures of three fractions and there was one fraction that didn't belong. The students had to pick the fraction that was different and move it into another box. I thought the activity was very good it was clear because the students understood the process right away. I think I did a good job engaging and keeping the rest of the class into the activity when the one student was doing the problem, we only had the one computer. I did this by asking the rest of the class what fractions are in the big box and then asking what fraction was now in the little box. My cooperating teacher said that I did a good job of asking questions and I was very enthusiastic and thought I did a great job. One thing I need to work on is having students justifying their answers even if they are right. I did the classic teacher response that I disliked through my school years, only questioning them about their answers when they were wrong. I noticed I did this when I was at the last question and realized that I didn't make any of the students who got it right initially to justify their answer. So I finally asked the student to justify her answer even though it was right. For next time, I need to remember to always make the students justify their answer to increase their learning. We have learned about it again and again in class to always have the students justify their answer if it’s right or wrong because it increases learning and confidence. I was so nervous and so relieved that they got the answer right that I just completely forgot about making them justifying their answers. My teacher said not to worry too much and that good questioning will come with time and experience. Overall I think my first real teaching experience went well and I learned a lot and I am looking forward to next time when I can improve my question asking.

Games for change?

Besides being an Elementary Education major I also major in Psychology and I am especially interested in prevention science. This semester I am volunteering in a pre-school, which is a prevention program for at risk students. Being involved with the young students makes me realize how important earlier prevention programs are for students. I have seen a lot of presentations that show programs like Al’s Pals and other programs are implemented in the curriculum for younger students. These students that I work with are lucky that they receive this type of education and attention, but I always think what about the students that are not labeled at risk. What happens to the normal child that can slip through the cracks and don’t get the prevention they need. These prevention programs seem to take a lot of time and energy by the teacher and the students are not always responsive to the programs. So I was thinking during the presentation that we had with Mark Wagner who talked about video games for change. How neat would it be to have students play some video games to foster the qualities that prevention programs promote?

In our technology class we are talking about changing education for the future, learning how to problem solve and deal with issues isn’t on just a school level anymore it’s a larger issue. I realized this after reading Anne Davis blog
Link
about online bullying. I am sure there is probably no substitute for teachers conveying students the importance of respecting others autonomy on and offline, but in a digital age where we are all connected it could be worthwhile to teach acceptance, and respect through video games.