WEEK+3+So+you+want+to+be+a+teacher!

WEEK 3: SO YOU WANT TO BE A TEACHER?

=

 * Every time you talk about school - teacher, the teacher is the critical point; you have to like to teach, you have to like to deal with the kids and you have to have respect.** Transcript of Jaime Escalante interview ======

=
So from all this, what does it mean to teacher? Reflecting on the lecture today, I will always have a lot to think about and continually evaluate myself to do better but what I did take away from both the lecture and work shop: To me it means, PASSION you learn something new every day. It means that what you do and say matters. There are countless ways that teachers build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities that lead to opportunities for learners to achieve competence and to be caring, secure, actively literate human beings. Based on what teachers do, learners have the opportunity to engage, and the questions show the depth of thinking and the content that we think is important. As Teachers we should not give up and be proud of the work we do even when we fail.======

=
Yes I agree Kryssia, the teacher is the crucial point of education, the influence and interpretation you want your students to walk away with is in our hands. After this lecture I also starting to think carefully about the type of teacher I want to be. After reading ‘The Challenge of Teaching’ there are many aspects of teaching I have not considered and thought about. Like Ayers, (2001) I also thought teaching is largely about instruction, performing and being the center of the classroom. I now know this is not the case. Teaching is instructing, advising, counseling, organizing, assessing, guiding, goading, showing, managing, modeling, coaching…..(Ayers, 2001). She then continues to state teachers must be experts, cops, judges, generalists, priest……etc. Overall there will be many situations and endless requirements we are going to be expected to face in our teaching careers and we need to have passion and drive if we want to succeed as teachers. After all there will be more than 25 children looking for guidance and relying on us as their leader and second most influential adult in their life beside their parents. ======

=
I thoroughly enjoyed Dr Howards Nicholas’ lecture, in particular the comparisons made between media portrayal and real life accounts of influential teachers. There was some embellishment with characters based on individuals such as Jaime Escalante; the purpose is entertainment, but there is still something to be learnt, no matter the means. I agree with Kryssia in regards to moving past failure as teachers. Dr Nicholas pointed out that yes; we make mistakes, but that it is okay to make these mistakes. We need to acknowledge that sometimes we will lose, but as Kryssia said, this is no cause to give up. There are so many questions that we need to consider as teachers, and as people, and this was reflected in our workshop activity. Question 5: ‘What content should we be teaching?’, when you look beyond the curriculum you realise, as Belinda pointed out, that our role as teachers needs to be multi-dimensional. We need to be an expert in all areas (Ayers 2001), and as Belinda said, this is often overwhelming. When considering what content is relevant, we also need to reflect on what our view of the world is, As Dr Nicholas revealed, it does not need to be right, you just have to have one. Reflection is important, it gives us the opportunity to improve and grow (Ryan 2000). ======

=
Incorporating the above points I believe it is vital that as teachers we are continually reflecting and self-assessing our teaching performance. We have such powerfully influential roles and it is of high importance to ensure we are meeting the needs of our diverse students. I thought the music vido clip and the scene of Jaime Escalante illustrated well two paths of teacher influence. In Britman's 2003 article "Contradictory Realities in Learning to Teach", I came across the term 'teaching identity'. I think the thought-provoking term has profound meaning as 'identity' encompasses so many dimensions. ======