Reich College of Education

From the Student to the Teacher     

 I am thrilled to write this paper this year because I student taught last semester, and I am teaching this semester. It seems like it has been a long journey since I wrote the first paper at the end of freshmen year. Looking back at what I wrote over the past few years is funny to me because I have learned so much since I wrote those papers. Since I have been in the classroom full time this school year, I have been able to implement the strategies that I have learned over the last few years. I have also learned a lot over this past school year.

First of all, I have definitely learned that you can plan everything out “to a t” for each day that you will be teaching, but very rarely does the day go exactly as you have planned.  This was difficult for me at first because I plan everything that happens in my life, and I want everything to go as I have planned it.  However, over the past year I have learned that one of the amazing parts of teaching is that everything does not go as planned. I say that because sometimes while you’re teaching you realize that you need to head in a different direction that you had planned, and when you do you see light bulbs go off in your students’ heads.  You also can see the smile on their face when they have gotten something for the very first time.  Sometimes those things will happen when the day goes as planned, but a lot of times those things happen when you veer off that perfect plan you have written down.  I have learned that when you do veer off that plan that is when you are meeting your students’ needs.  As educators our primary goal is to meet our students’ needs and that usually requires going off that neatly written our lesson plan that took you two hours to make.  But I have learned that I would much rather meet my students’ needs than make sure I taught my lesson plan is exactly as it is written.

One teaching strategy that I have implemented into the classroom is letting the students become the teacher.  I teach high school math and sometimes the best way for my students to understand a problem is for them to explain how to do it to the entire class.  Honestly when I was a student I hated when teachers would make me explain my work to the entire class, but after implementing it in my classroom I have seen how well it works!  I allow every student in my class to present a problem at some point.  Some students are comfortable with presenting to the class, and they don’t think anything about it, but some of my students are not.  Some of my students have never passed a math class before, and they do not think they are smart enough to explain a problem.  Some of my students have never been asked to explain a problem, and they think that they are underserving of that experience.  I make it a point to allow every student to present and explain a problem.  At the beginning of the semester I take volunteers, and I help students work out a problem by themselves before they present it to the class.  This allows the students that are not confident in their math abilities to have confidence and present to the class.  It also helps their classmates to see them in a different perspective.  I have learned that this teaching strategy does so much more than teach my students math.  It teaches my students that they are good at something, and they are smart enough to present something to the entire class.  It gives them a confidence that they may have never had before.  It also helps my students learn how to speak in front of a group of people.  Let’s face it as an adolescent the last thing you want to do is stand up in front of people and explain something that you’re not even sure you know how to do.  However, the minute that they realize that they do know how to do the problem and when they speak everyone is listening and not judging, their confidence grows enormously.  Watching their confidence grow is special and something I will never take for granted.  Last semester I watched a student that had never passed a math class before, had never enjoyed a math class before, and had always been told he would never do anything in life explain a problem to the entire class.  Not only did he explain a problem about Pythagorean Theorem better than I would, he did so with a huge smile on his face.  He had gotten that problem without help from anyone, which is something that I am not sure had ever happened in his life.  He was so proud of himself, and the class was so proud of him.  I will never forget that moment.

The previous story brings me to the last point that I want to make.  Teaching is important.  Implementing the strategies that we learned in college and workshops are important.  Planning lessons that directly correlate with the standards is important.  However above all of those things building relationships with your students and teaching them to become responsible adults that have a positive impact on our society is the most important aspect of teaching.  I love math, and I love everything about what I teach.  I also know that it is important to teach my students math, but there are so many other things that are more important than math to my students.  I have students that bounce from home to home with no stable place to live.  I have students that the only meal they receive is at school.  I have students that are parents to their younger siblings because their parents are nowhere to be found.  I have students that have not had a bath in days because there is not any water at their house.  I have students that freeze at night because there is not any electricity at their house.  The list could go on and on, but the point is the last thing these students want to think about is math.  There are so many more important factors in their life than the answer to that equation that I just wrote on the board.  I have to understand that, and I have to understand how to reach my students for who they are.  I will teach my students the math that they need to know, but above all of that I will make sure my students know that I am here for them.  I will make sure that my students know that I want them to be successful in whatever they choose to do, and I will do everything in my power to see them succeed.  That is what teaching is about, and even though I have learned some great teaching strategies in the classroom it took being in my own classroom to realize what I have mentioned above.

I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach.  I was able to graduate in December debt free due to the financial help of this scholarship.  I want to thank you because now I can do what I absolutely love to do.  I get to be in the classroom with some of the most amazing young adults every day, and I could not be happier.  Thank you for allowing my dream to be an educator come true, and now hopefully I can encourage other students to follow their dreams as well.