My
Personal Feelings about Teaching
As a future educator, I believe that
it is my responsibility and obligation to help my students achieve. I have had many teachers who have been
helpful in my learning and understanding about information, which have helped
me to decide on my future career. One
such example occurred during my first year of school here at Utah State. At the time I was taking courses to become a
physician’s assistant, but I did not love the idea of working in an
office. I wanted to be able to help
people with longer goals in life. I took
a course for my humanities credit called Survey of American culture. It was an English class that focused on house
and home. During this course I realized
that I had a true love for English and since I had been in classes to receive a
degree as a PA, I decided that Chemistry was also something I loved. I have also been teaching dance classes since
I was a senior in high school, and I love watching the girls grow and advance
in their technique and understanding about dance. This is how I decided that I really truly
wanted to be a teacher. Therefore, as an
instructor I feel that it is my role to be an example and provider for my
students. I need to teach towards their
interests and skills, and cannot let my own beliefs stand in the way of giving
my students a good education to help them learn of their true passions and
skills in life, so the students will know what they want to do. I also feel that I need to be a challenger
for my students. I cannot pass someone
in a class just because they have tried or have gone through hard times. I need to push my students so that they can
succeed and have the opportunity to achieve the future they desire.
In order to help my students have
success to gain the future they desire, I need to teach with specific goals in
mind. As a science teacher, I need to
address all of the learning objectives that need to be covered within that
specific year/course, but I need to do this by having fun and keeping the
students interests in mind. If I can
address the many interests and abilities in my course then, hopefully, I will
be able to keep more students interested in the sciences and want to build a
career based on what they learned from my class. One way to do this is to have a variety of
methods for the way I teach a class. I
cannot only focus on lectures with note taking.
I need to address the different learning styles of my students. I can teach using videos, demonstrations, and
labs for the more visual and hands-on learners.
I can have the traditional lecture and note taking method of teaching
for the students who are more auditory and traditional learners. I can include activities and projects for the
students who are more kinesthetic learners.
I feel that it is important to include a variety of learning styles in
my teaching so that I can address and teach towards the needs and interests of
my students. I also think that by
altering my teaching style will help to keep the students, and myself, engaged
in what we are learning. Although, it is
more difficult to try to include the different learning styles of my students,
it will be more beneficial over time because it would be a way to keep the
students interested and intrigued with the sciences, which is my overall goal
as a science educator.
I feel that it is important for
teachers and students to have equal amount of responsibilities. Teachers need to provide relevant and
reliable information to the students, so that the students can better
understand what is expected of them and what they need to be doing in
class. Teachers need to be prepared and
ready to teach every day. They also need
to be on time and present in class every day.
By coming to class prepared, on-time, and ready to teach every day the
teacher can establish an appropriate and motivating work environment to the
students. I think that keeping that
professional environment in the classroom allows for the students to see that
the teacher is serious about teaching and allowing the students to grow and
learn appropriately in the classroom. Furthermore,
students have similar responsibilities as the teacher. They need to come to class prepared, ready to
learn, and on-time. If they are prepared
then they will get more out of the lessons and activities because they will not
have to ask repetitively for further information on something that was covered
in previous lessons or in homework assignments.
If students come on-time and prepared then they will be more
appreciative of the lesson and/or activity that is being performed. I know that for me, I was more interested and
had more fun in class when I came prepared because I wasn’t stressing about
what was going on or that I didn’t get an assignment done. I also think that it is the student’s responsibility
to come to class wanting to learn. I
feel this way because a teacher and/or student can come to class everyday
prepared for the class, and the teacher can have a wonderful lesson planned
out, but if the student comes to class not wanting to learn then they will not
get anything from the lesson. The
teacher can try to help by asking them questions or doing other forms of
assessment or activities, but if the student is unwilling to learn then there
is nothing the teacher can do.
One method that I can do to employ
to these ends, being prepared and ready to teach every day, would be to have my
lesson plan detailed and created more than the day before. I can create all the lesson plans that I need
at least one month before I plan to teach the lessons, so that I can adjust my
meetings and the schedule of the class depending on what needs to be covered in
the course. I can also get approval on
my lesson plans and converse with other teachers so that I can get help and
improve the lessons that I plan to teach for the curriculum. In order to be prepared every day I need to
refer to my lesson plans at least the week before so that I can get all
material gathered and ready for when I will teach the lesson. I also need to have all the material ready
and lesson plans printed at least the day before I plan to teach the lesson, so
that if I need to get a substitute they will have everything needed to give an
effective lesson. This will help so the
students will know that they are also expected to come to class prepared and
ready to learn, and so that they will not lose a day of learning if a
substitute were leading the class instead of me.
I feel that in order to have
effective lessons they need to align with the curriculum. The best way to do this is to create your
lessons based on the different sections of the textbook. It is important to have all lessons align
with one another in some sort of way, and the easiest way of doing this is to
have the lessons have similar themes and topics. I think this is why I think the easiest way
to design lessons is to have them be based off the different sections of the
textbook. Although, I think it is also
very effective to have labs and games that the students can do as a way of
learning certain topics, especially when it is a more difficult topic to
understand. I usually refer to the
internet to think of fun games and activities that I can use in my classroom to
help teach the students these difficult topics.
I think the internet is a useful resource to help spark your thoughts
and creativity to come with a really good and effective lesson that the
students will be able to use to remember the topics covered. In order to decide on what topics I should
cover in class I refer to the common core state standards and see what the
students need to be able to do by the time they are finished with the
course. I choose the topics/ chapters
that I teach based on the common core state standards. I also use this as a reference to decide how
long I need to spend on certain topics.
One example of this is that with chemistry, especially first year
chemistry, it is more important for the students to understand the basic
components of the periodic table than that of organic chemistry
components. Therefore, I would spend at least
two to three weeks on the basic components and organization of the periodic
table rather than that of organic chemistry, since according to the common core
state standards that is what the students need to learn and understand. I would only touch shortly on organic
chemistry topics, and only if there was enough time in the course outline.
Personally, I believe that inquiry
based learning can be very effective, but it is also something that takes a lot
of time because it involves more student involvement and participation. I think it can be effective when you teach a
concept that is easier for students to understand and learn more by
themselves. With chemistry I think it
would be effective to use inquiry based learning as a form of a lab. You could
tell the students that they work for a land clean-up company and there have
been reports of chemical spills around the area in which they live (give a list
of the chemicals). The student’s job
would be to work in groups of three to four and find a way to properly clean up
the chemical spills, and a way to prevent it from occurring in the future. This would give the students the opportunity
to learn more about the hazardous chemicals and figure out ways to properly
dispose of them and prevent the spills from occurring in the future.
While I would like to use inquiry
based learning for all of my teaching strategies there is not enough time to
use it for everything. This is why I
feel that student based learning is appropriate to use throughout the course of
the class. Student based learning is
effective because it does not take as much time to go through a subject as
inquiry-based lessons. Two specific
times that student based learning should be used in a chemistry class is when
going over the periodic table and stoichiometry. There is so much information involved with
the basic components of the periodic table that the students need to learn that
there would not be enough time during the course of the class for the students
to use inquiry based learning. Another
time that student based learning is effective is when teaching stoichiometry
because it is a very difficult topic that a lot of students struggle with, so
it is important for the teacher to make sure that all students understand how
to do stoichiometry. It would also take
a lot of time to try to teach the students how to use inquiry based learning
for stoichiometry. Personally, I think
it is effective to use both student based learning and inquiry based learning
simultaneously, so that the students get different methods of teaching
instructions, and so you can monitor the amount of time it takes for the
students to learn a specific topic in the course.
As far as learning goes, I feel that
students learn the best when they have variations in the way they learn and are
taught. I know that for me I learned the
best when I had a variety in the lessons.
I always enjoyed when we got to do different activities in classes, such
as, watching videos, coloring pages, drawing diagrams, playing games, doing
labs, and writing assignments. I wish
that I had more of these kinds of activities in my high school classes because
most of them were mainly the teacher lectures and the students take notes on
the lecture, then we complete a worksheet at the end of the lecture. I think
more students would enjoy school if there was more variety in the way teachers
gave instruction. I think it would also
help students who learn in different methods.
For me I am a very visual learner, so when I have a lot of lecture where
the teacher just talks I struggle.
Therefore, I think it is beneficial to teach concepts in different modes
so that students who learn in different ways can have the opportunity to learn
and understand more effectively. I also
think that by doing this there would be more success in student achievement
because then the lessons would be addressed more towards all students rather
than those who learn best by lecture. I
feel this way based on my own schooling and from observing other students in
the classroom. I have witnessed that
there are very few students who learn best from lecture only, but that is what
most teachers employ because it is the fastest way of teaching students. I think that, based on what I have witnessed,
that there needs to be more variety instruction to help with students learning
and success. Therefore, when I teach I
want to use very minimal lectures, and have more visual, verbal, and
kinesthetic activities because from my observations that is how the students
learn the best because it helps to keep the students attention and it gets them
thinking more about the activities and lessons, which help them to understand
more.
Blogs that discuss teaching:
http://edublogs.org/curriculum-corner-using-a-blog-with-students/
http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/student-blogging-activity-3-beginner-teaching-quality-commenting/
http://onlinewritingteacher.blogspot.com/2014/09/blogging-about-blogs.html
