1.1 My vision of the teacher I want to become? Involved, dedicated, engaging, fun, committed to my students and to their learning, inspiring, inspired, daring, a guide, passionate, unusual...
1.2 Loving children means...supporting them, valuing them as individual beings with their own need for meaning and their own opinions and experiences. Loving children as a teacher means being a guide and a resource as they strive to find themselves through education and exploration.
Wanting to help students means...recognizing that every student is on a unique journey towards self-actualization and wanting to be a support system for them as they struggle to make meaning of themselves, their lives and experiences, and the world around them.
Another reason I want to teach includes...love of learning. I myself love to learn, to experience new knowledge, or even old knowledge in a new ways, and to better understand myself and my world through the process of learning. I can think of no better way to continue to do that all of my life than to facilitate and guide the learning of others.
1.3 Loving children will sustain me if...I feel I can communicate to them that I am interested, not in whether they can spit knowledge back at me, but in helping them grow as individuals - if I can connect to my students. It will not sustain me if...I feel I have been unsuccessful in reaching out to them, or I am having serious repeated discipline problems.
Wanting to help students will sustain me if...I feel as though I am making a difference in their lives; if I see them making progress in their self-identification; if I sense that students need the help, EVEN if they are not very openly responsive. It will not sustain me if...my students write me off or overtly try to lose my respect on purpose.
Love of learning will always sustain me. Period.
1.4 Darling-Hammond et al.'s observation focuses more on individual students' learning needs and styles, while my statement is more about personal identity and the journey to the self. However, I think these two things are intimately connected, and must be combined in order to be effectively loving or helpful. Both statements imply significant time and energy spent on each student.
Katie - I think one of your most outstanding qualities is your ability to remember that everyone is their own being, no matter how young or old, and he or she is constantly on their journey in becoming that being. Even when you are forty! Your statement "Love of learning will always sustain me. Period." is outstanding. Over my life the best experiences I have had is when I have been in a learning situation.
ReplyDeleteYour acceptance of people is something that that will help your students and hopefully foster tolerance and respect for others in your students.
Self-Actualization--that sounds a lot like the goals Greene has for students as well. In the context of this class, how does their achievement of self-actualization depend on your cultural competence? In what ways? It is a beautiful thing to see students' progress. Sometimes, however, we just plant seeds that others harvest. There are a number of students that I struggled with, worked hard to support and never heard from. There are some students who I heard from many years later that said "You made a difference in my life" that I couldn't remember their names. The rewards can be unexpected sometimes...
ReplyDeleteBy the way...you can summarize your reflections on the book items here in your blog rather than writing out the whole things if you like. You can just focus on what was significant for you in your learning.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteYou have an amazing ability to understand and care. This will serve you well in teaching. The idea of being a guide is a key to not falling into the trap of "filling a vessel".
Connecting to students is important; ESPECIALLY if they are not openly responsive. We don't necessarily know how what we do, or don't do, affects students lives. As long as we are here to be the best we can be, it will turn out right.