Tip Toe into Teaching: Observing a teacher

In a previous post I mentioned observing another teacher as a great way to learn how to manage a classroom and pickup techniques for future use. A little while ago I had the opportunity to follow my advice and observe a couple different teachers in action. To do this instead of doing a high school close to college, I went home, back to my high school. Trust me when I say it was a step back in time, and I kind of felt out of place. Not quite a student, but not quite a teacher either. Even though this was true I picked up on different teaching techniques, learned some lessons, and got some great advice. Let me tell you about it.

I observed three different teachers all taught English and had very different ways of teaching. It was almost like the three bears from Goldilocks. The first teacher I observed was a teacher I had had previously, Mrs. W. It was strange being back in her classroom, even stranger yet not being a student. Her views on teaching were much more traditional, like the mama bear. Don’t get me wrong, she was very flexible, but still used a lot of the more traditional ways of teaching. She didn’t like using technology for younger students and forced them to read paper books. She also walked through the desks to interact with the students. When I think of a traditional teacher I think of her. Another teacher I observed, Mr. S., was the complete opposite of Mrs. W. He based a lot of what he did on the technology that was available. He allowed the students to use iPads to read and led them through a process to reserve books from the library via his own iPad on the projection screen. He stayed at his desk for most of the hour except when we went to the library. His process was let them work on their own and not hold their hand like a lot of teachers do. Like the hard chair of papa bear. The last teacher was Mr. H. He was a nice combination of the two. He used technology, interacted with his students, and still used some traditional aspects of teaching, like making them write on a piece paper with pen or pencil. It was a very interesting seeing all three in action, definitely gave me a better idea of the teacher I want to be.

 

Some lessons that were learned: Technology should not rule the classroom, but have some part in it. The biggest lesson was BE FLEXIBLE.

Advice given: “Observe different school districts. Poor, rich, middle class, rural, inner city, suburban, and everything in between. Your first job will more than likely not be the one you want, but doing these observations will make sure your ready for different situations.” Ms. Harker Schau

Now that I have all this information to use I’ll tuck it away until I have to use it as a teacher. This experience has expanded my rolodex of ideas, lessons, and advice for being a teacher in the near future.

Teachers, Media, and Expectaions

In my class we had to do a project about teachers int he media and how they are portrayed. Right now I bet you can think of some type of teacher in the media whether fictional like: Ms. Frizzle, Mr. Feeny, or Mr. Belding. Or a teacher in movies or based in reality like the news. All of these examples brought either high expectations or what a teacher should not do. All of this effect the way teachers are showed and the expectations they are held to, which is sky high. Which brings me to my point of how much media affects the expectations of a teacher.

In society expectations are high for all public servants especially teachers. The problem is society compares human teachers to fictional teachers that are seemingly perfect. With this state of mind society expects the real teachers to do everything the fictional teacher can do no matter what. However, what the public forgets is that real teachers have certain things, like budgets, that confines them in what they can actually do. The public also expects the teacher to give every student individual attention, but with growing class sizes that is almost nearly impossible. These are just a few expectations that the public has of teachers.

Even though society has some unrealistic standards for teachers, they try. They try to give students everything that they can even if it comes out of their own pockets. With ever growing classes and shrinking budgets teachers are getting more and more creative with teaching students, they have to. Instead of the media protraying the teacher as someone who can do everything I believe they need to show the world the underbelly of the education system. Show them that we are trying and succeeding with the limited resources, but there is a reason behind why schools are struggling.