question 7

This experience has had a significant impact on the way I see the school system and a teacher’s role in the classroom. Even though I would not teach the exact same way my VIP’s teacher did, she still provided me with a great foundation that I could use to further my teaching skills. As I worked with kids in a group and on an individual basis to improve their reading and writing skills, I also was able to gain knowledge and teaching techniques from this experience. Since, the children I was working with had been behind in English, three or four years, I learned how to be patient and demanding at the same time. This was a technique that I had observed the teacher in my class performing. She showed the kids that she was expecting hard work from them but was very understanding when they had not understood something they did in class. My teacher has been teaching English for ten years in every academic level. I was able to grasp another technique while in her class and that was how to keep control of an unfocused or frustrated class. This teacher would give out daily behavior and participation grades that would give those students more incentive to behave and add thoughts to the class. Observing and interacting in a classroom with an experience teacher has advanced my teaching identity. I know what direction I want to go in as a teacher. I want to be a teacher that has their class ask critical questions and stimulate group solutions that benefit all students in the class. The teacher I had observed was not a critical teacher but she still provided me with skills and showed me how I would want to guide my class. However, I do think that since the students were a few years behind in the subject that they could not participate to the class with critical discussion because they had not learned any necessary skills in English. I also discovered that I would like to teach in a diverse school. I would like to teach in this kind of environment because these students and schools need teachers that care and want to make a difference. Usually diverse or urban schools have a shortage of funds, which adds to the problem of under achievement. Critical teachers are needed everywhere in the school system but especially in diverse schools. I would like to be a teacher that could provide students the skills they need to advance in the classroom but also how to be involved in a complex democratic society. I feel my teacher identity has already grown a significant amount in the few short months I have been involved in the school system. I am excited to move on and build on the small base of knowledge I have gained about myself and other teachers.