I sometimes think that too often educators don't really reflect on what being an educator really is. Sometimes we enter our classrooms without really taking into consideration what an educator really is and what an educator really does and what a really good learning environment should embrace. And then when our students don't perform to our standards or the schools' standards we place the blame on the system - on the kids - on the parents - on the.....
When we enter our classrooms how should the learning environment really look to promote good learning experiences?
So the questions then become... at this time what do you think really is a teacher? What really is an educator? What really is a learning environment? What really are learning experiences?
When you think about really good teaching and really good teachers and really good educators who do you see? What do/did they do that makes you think of them? (don't use names - but identify them when you knew/know them - maybe though grade level - content area etc.)
Describe what you really think are the two most important characteristics each teacher should have and share why you really think they are important.
Describe what you really think the two worst characteristics a teacher should not have and explain why.
Most importantly think about and share how you will try to achieve the most important characteristics you just identified and how you will really try to avoid the worst characteristics you identified.
Really....
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You ask an interesting question. I wonder is there a difference between a teacher and an educator? My first reaction is to say the two words can be used interchangeable, but perhaps not. Perhaps a teacher is merely someone who goes about the task of giving information to students and an educator is something more. Perhaps, an educator is someone who spends more time focused on their individual students and varies lesson plans and styles of teaching to allow all students a chance to learn and grow. I know my English teacher during my senior year of high school was that type of teacher/educator and I believe nearly everybody in the class learned from him because he didn’t just do thing the same way each day. I believe this creativity and willingness to try new things is one must have characteristic for a teacher. Along the same lines, I believe one of the worst characteristics for a teacher is to be too rigid. If you cannot change the way you do things in the classroom depending on your students or your resources, you limit your ability to educate those students. Another positive characteristic I think it is essential for teachers to have is a passion for their subject matter. I have discovered during the classes I have taken that the teachers who have the most passion for their subjects are the most interesting to learn from. For example, I took a geography class in college, and although I could care less about geography I loved the class because the professor was so passionate. They have an ability to make their students feel the same passion and interest in the subject. Another negative characteristic I believe teachers should avoid is negativity. I’m not saying teachers cannot tell students they are wrong or offer criticism, but they should do so with a positive outlook. They should make it clear to the students their job is to help them. If students understand this they are much more inclined to except and learn from criticism. The worst thing that a teacher can do is act as if they do not care about their students or their job. Students instantly note this and then stop caring about the teacher’s class. If nothing else, I always want my students to feel I care about them and the material I teach.
In my opinion, a learning environment can be just about anywhere. Since learning can occur when one is walking down a street, sitting at the kitchen table, or sitting in a classroom, a learning environment can have limitless descriptions. When you first mentioned learning environment, I immediately pictured a school classroom. In order to be conducive to good learning, I think this classroom should be welcoming, cheerful, comfortable, and familiar in some way. Perhaps it should reflect the season or be decorated with items that reflect the curriculum or the varied backgrounds of the children who will be spending time in the classroom. A featured aspect of the classroom is the teacher, and that individual should seem happy to be there. As I have grown older, I have grown to appreciate more and more that teaching is a type of calling. Many people are well educated and are objectively qualified to teach, but it is a specific subset of these people who should teach. In order to be a good teacher, it is important to appreciate children as unique individuals. It is also important to value education, to be patient, and to be flexible. I know that is more than 2 characteristics, but I think these qualities are all crucial. Impatience and skepticism are 2 qualities I would least like to see in a teacher. A teacher is a guide and a role model. Children of any age deserve an optimistic and inspiring leader. These children may have different learning styles and certainly have different strengths and weaknesses. A teacher needs to appreciate the unique characteristics of each child and be able to patiently and flexibly guide that child to discover his or her potential. I am lucky to have had many fabulous teachers. One English teacher taught The Odyssey by bringing in mythology, poetry and slides of various works of art -- vase paintings, oil paintings... The class seemed to have something for everyone, and it made the book come alive. I know that I tremendously value education and value a positive, rewarding school environment. While I believe that, on some level, I always understood that each child is unique, having children and watching them grow has certainly cemented my understanding of this fact. My continued pondering of what makes a good teacher is probably one of the best things I can do to help me become a good teacher. As I ponder the importance of appreciating individual differences and of being patient and flexible, I think this will help me achieve these characteristics. Similarly, as I ponder how awful it would be to have/be a teacher who was impatient and skeptical, I think it will help me avoid exhibiting these characteristics.
I have had a number of amazing teachers in my life. Two that particularly come to mind where both male and taught history. One I had for eighth grade and one for the whole of high school. The eighth grade teacher was really amazing with project ideas. We were constantly working on huge projects that allowed us to use all of our talents and build new skills as well as being really fun to do. You could tell that he really took an interest in his students and he treated us with respect. He was fired after his first year mostly for not fitting the mold of the school. The other great teacher was excellent at relating to the students and at incorporating humor and dynamic experiences into the classroom. He would have reinactors visit the school and present information. Once he even built a trebuche and shot watermelons across the football field. The worst teacher I ever encountered told me that I wasn't good enough to achieve my dream at the time. Instead of giving me tools to become what I wanted, She cut me down and I gave up because of that negativity. I guess the lesson in that is to encourage your students. It's not wrong to warn them about how difficult a dream can be but to discourage or flat out deny is disastrous to a students self-esteem. Another teacher I had just took an active dislike to my group of friends and flat out called me a brat after class one day when I went to ask a question about a grade. She insinuated in class that a friend of mine was having an inappropriate relationship with another TEACHER! There are alot of things to learn from her mistakes but most importantly that words carry tons of weight, especially to YAs. It;s important as a teacher to use words to uplift and encourage and never to put a student down.
I'll never forget walking into my school for the first time. I was going to see my beautiful Chicago Public School classroom with hardwood floors, beautiful bright windows and shiny old wooden book hutches. Unsure of the culture of the school, I peered through the door of other teachers' classrooms on the third floor; what kind of posters were on their walls? how were their desks arranged? did they have any plants in their rooms? So much of first-year teaching requires "stealing" that I was ready-and-willing to be a criminal of thievery--and what I wanted to steal was inspiration.
At the end of the hall I found a room with a locked door, and as I peaked through the window of the door, I found the what I was looking for: the classroom of my dreams, Mrs. S's classroom. Her desks were arranged as tables, allowing her middle-grade students to collaborate creatively. She covered her paint-chipped walls with pictures from National Geographic, exposing her students to the beauty and physical features of people from around the world. She had posters with quotes of Presidents and famous agents of change from Gandhi to Einstein. She had beautiful bookshelves filled with everything from historical picture books to important magazine articles in Time and Newsweek.
In the back of her room, hung dodecahedrons: an exercise she did with her eighth-grade students while reading The Phantom Tollbooth. And, colorful cloths from Africa and Mexico covered her computer tables and desks. What most caught my eye? She had a bulletin board with a laminated Dr. Seuss calendar. As a new Language Arts teacher, I couldn't even comprehend what/how she used Dr. Seuss with her high-level gifted students. Weren't we supposed to be implementing rigor and hard-nosed literature into our classrooms? What about these "test scores"? What about ingraining our stereotypical lethargic "middle school" students with hard-work ethic. Public education -- at the eighth grade level -- wasn't about teaching Dr. Seuss, was it? How could this be?? I was curious...
As the year unfolded, I finally got the nerve to walk in and talk to Mrs. S. And, as I was forcing my students to MEMORIZE THEIR PARTS OF SPEECH, and READ CHAPTERS & and 8 OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, I noticed her classroom presented a lighter, more playful atmosphere. "Can I ask you how you use Dr. Seuss in your curriculum?" I asked her. "Oh.." she laughed. "Dr. Seuss is great, isn't he?" "Everyone loves Dr. Seuss," she said. "And, the best part is that he is such an excellent example of voice. And, that's how I use it in my classroom. Dr. Seuss is so recognizable, right?"
Of course.
My then-burgeoning relationship with Mrs. S. has since grown. To me, she is the example of what "good teaching" is. She thinks about what's important for her students to know, learn, understand and process--from studying a map of Chicago (and the transportation systems), to drawing the Star-Spangled Banner on the blackboard (...the dawn's early light, etc), to taking her students on mural tours of Chicago. Her curriculum is engaging, real and relevant. It prepares her students to function globally.
In my practice as a teacher, I have learned to ask myself the question "Is this important?" -- and using theories of backwards design and essential questions, my students have been given just cause as to why what they are learning is/should be important. For example, How does social class affect life in The Outsiders? or How do author's experiences reflect our own experiences as in House on Mango Street?
The dichotomy of good teaching appears as a never-ending bicycle ride,balancing stuff-that-must-be stuffed-in versus stimulating joy and wonder in students.
With heroic preparation and a willingness to abandon that work at a moments notice a teacher is ready to step into the classroom. The flexibility and preparatory industry required to strike that pose are extraordinary yet vital.
However, school districts will extract their pound of flesh as the price of education. Public education is not free but rather a pretense for culling and control of the next generation.
The people who are paying teachers think they want higher test scores and he who pays the piper...
Good teaching will remain a guerrilla activity so long as the locus of control keeps shifting away from students. This trend is accelerating from my observation.
Blog Responses
Fredrica Worlds-MLE502
1. What is a Teacher? A person who has the task of passing knowledge to another.
2. Who is an educator? A teacher who understands knowledge is nothing without comprehension.
3. What is a learning environment? A place where one is comfortable during a lesson.
4. What are learning experiences? These are lessons taught with a flair that results in the enjoyment of learning and leaves a life long impression.
5. Who are good teachers and educators? Those who see beyond distractions as race, gender, etc., when attempting to pass on knowledge. They weave these distractions into a tapestry called lessons. During my elementary school years, there were a few teachers instrumental in helping me understand that looks and income are a small part of life. They helped me in my development of self-confidence.
6. Characteristics- Patience and authoritative. Students go through a myriad of crises. Some minor and others major. A teacher has to be sensitively flexible to their mood swings. Controlling the children in your class will create a classroom environment conducive to learning.
7. Worst Characteristics- Apathy and impatience. Some students are maniacal, but they are not the rule. Most students just want to test their teachers. They need to know how many of their buttons can be pushed. After teaching for many years, some teachers tire of the fight, but do not retire, resign or move on to something new. This is a mistake, as they are no longer affective as educators.
8. I am not sure of my theories. I need to be in my own classroom with students to bond with, before I can state any. I can say that getting to know students will be my primary concern as a new teacher.
I had a teacher from sixth to eighth grades that I loved. She challenged me, and always called me out when she knew I wasn't giving 100%. She believed in me, she respected me, and she inspired me.
Every teacher should be respectful because you don't know every one of your students' stories. A teacher should want to learn what works best for her/his students, where they come from, their "disabilities," etc. Every teacher should also be inspiring. When a person's interest is peaked, that person wants to learn more. When our students want to learn more, they make a positive difference in the world.
A teacher should not belittle her/his students through prejudices. My science teacher in seventh grade made it clear that black people were below her. I have never forgotten that woman because of the negative impact she had on me. We're here to teach, not judge. A teacher should also not have grandiose expectations. Nothing and no one is perfect, so teachers should be realistic about what they can accomplish in the classrooms. Have high expectations of the students--challenge them--but don't have such high expectations so that when things don't go the way you want, then you become frustrated because that will spill over to your students.
I'm a realistic person and I have been humbled into realizing that life is in no way perfect. I will definitely have expectations of my students, but I will be realistic about them. I know how to treat people, and I will know how to treat my students. Judging is not in my hands, it's in God's. You don't know a person's background, so a teacher has to show that respect to her students...it's a mutual thing. I want my students to leave the classroom and want to find out more information on their own. My lessons should inspire them to want to learn more, and that's when I'll know I've done my job.
I think that the words “teacher” and “educator” can be used interchangeably; my hope is that either is used to describe a leader who is passionate about children, teaching, and subject matter and communicates that passion in an effective manner. A constructive learning environment and valuable learning experiences are imperative to the performance of a teacher and the education of a student. When I picture a real learning environment in my head, I see a colorful, engaging classroom, rich with literature. I see students actively participating in a range of activities. Most importantly, I see a teacher that is energetic and connected as he/she leads the class. Within this environment, students can experience those moments where they really learn. I believe such learning experiences begin when students are interested in a subject and are questioning and wondering. This opens the door for the teachers to facilitate the students in real learning and critical thinking.
I had many good teachers throughout my educational experience. Having effective teachers that I admired was one of the reasons that I chose education; I understand the importance of a good teacher, and I hope to be that for my students. The teachers that I considered to be some of the best were all passionate about the subject they were teaching – from sixth grade science through an African geography course in college. That kind of passion and interest is contagious in a classroom setting. The good teachers in my past were also interested in me as a person, not only as a student. They saw past the homework and the grades, and they respected me as an individual. These two characteristics are reflective of what I believe all good teachers should have: a passion for teaching and learning and a passion for understanding children.
I have also has experiences with some teachers that were not as good. These teachers were nearly as important to my decision to become an educator as I know the characteristics that I do not want to have. I believe the two worst traits of poor teachers are apathy to their position and a lack of growth and development as a professional. I believe it is incredibly reflective in teaching when educators do not have enthusiasm or excitement for their jobs. Children are perceptive, and as students, they risk developing that same apathy when they are led in that manner. Also, teachers who continue to use the same lesson plans and teaching styles stall their development as a professional and create an environment that is not conducive to learners of all types.
I hope to develop the positive characteristics mentioned above while avoiding the poor traits by dedicating myself to my role as a teacher. Self and outside assessment to recognize both strengths and weaknesses as a teacher is one way to grow professionally. I love learning, and I plan on using that devotion to continually learn more about subject matter and the field of education.
When I read your your first couple of questions I thought, well a teacher and an educator are the same. But as I gave the question some more consideration I realized that almost anyone can teach. My dad taught me how to change the oil in a car when I was 12, I can teach someone how to smoke a beef brisket for some fantastic BBQ. This is not being an educator, however, this is the same as making someone memorize their ABC's. Yeah, it is functional but are they growing as a learner because of what you are teaching them? An educator nurtures, teaches, provokes and ultimately stimulates critical thought and action from their students. I always think of my professor for English who knew I was struggling with Shakespeare. She worked with me and made the text come alive. I was suddenly opened up to a whole new world of literature that I was convinced I would never understand let alone love. Her creativity, flexibility and passion for what she was doing pulsed through the class. She used differing approaches with everyone in the class. She would listen and guide you when needed. She would challenge you to push your abilities and gave you the tools to succeed.
I think the two most important qualities an educator must have in order to successfully reach their students is to be flexible and creative in their approach. I believe the two worst qualities an educator can exhibit is bias or general, rote lessons for all. I do believe that an educators approach effects the learning environment that they are creating. The more inclusive, creative and flexible your class is the more the environment will become a student orientated environment. If an educator ties this in with a well thought out management plan, the learning environment will be well balanced for the student to succeed. If the class is strict and non-inclusive the students will have a hard time responding. Or one could go the other way and have no controls and still leave the students with an impossible situation. An educator who is creative and flexible with a well thought out plan will adapt to the needs of the students and provide them with a learning environment that allows them to grow.
When I read your your first couple of questions I thought, well a teacher and an educator are the same. But as I gave the question some more consideration I realized that almost anyone can teach. My dad taught me how to change the oil in a car when I was 12, I can teach someone how to smoke a beef brisket for some fantastic BBQ. This is not being an educator, however, this is the same as making someone memorize their ABC's. Yeah, it is functional but are they growing as a learner because of what you are teaching them? An educator nurtures, teaches, provokes and ultimately stimulates critical thought and action from their students. I always think of my professor for English who knew I was struggling with Shakespeare. She worked with me and made the text come alive. I was suddenly opened up to a whole new world of literature that I was convinced I would never understand let alone love. Her creativity, flexibility and passion for what she was doing pulsed through the class. She used differing approaches with everyone in the class. She would listen and guide you when needed. She would challenge you to push your abilities and gave you the tools to succeed.
I think the two most important qualities an educator must have in order to successfully reach their students is to be flexible and creative in their approach. I believe the two worst qualities an educator can exhibit is bias or general, rote lessons for all. I do believe that an educators approach effects the learning environment that they are creating. The more inclusive, creative and flexible your class is the more the environment will become a student orientated environment. If an educator ties this in with a well thought out management plan, the learning environment will be well balanced for the student to succeed. If the class is strict and non-inclusive the students will have a hard time responding. Or one could go the other way and have no controls and still leave the students with an impossible situation. An educator who is creative and flexible with a well thought out plan will adapt to the needs of the students and provide them with a learning environment that allows them to grow.
I have always wondered if there is a difference between a teacher and an educator. As I sit here pondering this question I have come up with what I believe is a simple answer. A teacher is a person who teaches something, and educator is a person who makes sure that along with the teaching there is comprehension.
To me a learning environment is a place where a student can come into and feel conmfortable at all times. It is a place where learning and comprehension is developed. Within this learning environment, out students are filled with wonderful learning expereineces. There experiences are so wonderful that they are kept in their minds for years to come.
However, in order for this environment to be wonderful and for these learning experiences to be impresionable, there must be a good teacher in the classroom. This teacher will posses many good characteristics. This teacher will know how to change roles at the drop of a hat. This teacher can be a teacher when needed, a nurse, a friend, a mentor, and even a mother figure at times. This teacher will posses patience and most importantly love for all of his or her students no matter the sex, race, or background of the child.
My third grade teacher had all of these qualities. He was willing to help no matter what the problem was. He made sure to tell us every day how much he believed in us and that we could do anything we set our minds to. He showed us love when we needed it the most, but he was always strict when he felt we needed it. My third grade teacher made me fall in love with school. He made a lasting impression on my life. I definately hope to be a teacher just like him.
I can remember the teacher I consider to be the best of my school career, my high school AP Calculus teacher. Not only was she intelligent and well versed in her subject area, as any teacher should be, but she had more than the knowledge of the subject to share with us. She taught our class with an energy that no other high school teacher had; coming up with activities that required us to bake cakes or move around the classroom to demonstrate the math. Even using these almost childlike activities, she still taught us in a way similar to college professors, making us responsible for our own learning. Ms. K was a teacher devoted to her students who found the perfect balance between student independence and dependence, pushing our entire class to learn at a level we had never reached before and achieving success because of that.
I have also found inspiration of what it means to be a good teacher from my students. My students constantly tell me that a good teacher is one who actually teaches. According to them, teachers who choose not push their students to learn new material are simply not good teachers and students do not enjoy going to their class. They also have expressed that good teachers care as well -- about the grades their students achieve, whether they are learning and understanding the material and how their life outside of school may be affecting them.
From all this, I have found that the two most important characteristics that I think each teacher should have are a passion to educate his or her students and the ability to balance student dependence and independence in their own learning. A teacher’s passion is summed up in their energy and efforts in the classroom. Does the teacher have an excitement about the subject he/she is teaching? Does the teacher plan lessons geared towards engaging his/her students? Does the teacher show his/her students that he/she cares about them? A passion to educate students gives a teacher a leg up in the eyes of a student and shows them that he/she wants to be a part of their lives. Finding the balance between student dependence on the teacher and own independence is of great benefit to students. Students who know when to “ask the expert” (teacher) for help after first trying the problem on their own will be more successful in the future. The balance allows students to take responsibility for their own learning to a certain extent. Of course, they are students, and total independence is not expected, but that is why the teacher is there.
Conversely, teachers should not be selfish or uninvolved with the students he/she teaches. I believe that these two characteristics make the teacher disengaged from his/her students and ultimately puts him/her on a completely different level than the students with an inability to connect.
In becoming a better teacher than I already am, I hope to achieve the best and avoid the worst characteristics of being a teacher. I think the way I can do that is to observe my coworkers, interact with my students and simply try to be the best I can be.
A teacher imparts their subject matter. An educator imparts knowledge that goes beyond their subject matter, to help a child navigate through all the challenges that life will throw their way.
Education is not about reciting and regurgitation. It’s not about teaching to the test, its not about college… its not even about the grades. We don’t just want them to jump through hoops. I believe that being an educator is about helping students to explore their curiosities, showing them how to investigate their passions and how to think critically and analytically throughout the span of their being. Therefore showing them not only our subject- but how to apply certain skills toward their life in the future- to make it as interesting, passionate and rewarding as possible.
A true learning environment is every environment. A good teacher can make a learning experience take place anywhere. The energy of a learning environment is of the utmost importance. The students must sense that they are in a comforting, safe, inquisitive place. A place where there are no dumb questions. A place where the teacher is understanding, yet challenging. If possible the learning environment, known as our classroom, should look interesting. It should contain things that inspire and ignite questions and curiosities in our students. They should see a variety of resources by which their curiosities can be investigated and answered. Within these resources, they should find more than one response or opinion on the same question. They should understand that life doesn’t always provide you with ONE answer to things. Learning experiences offer them a lifelong gift. A true learning experience is something that is never forgotten. It is this reason that I still remember my 6th grade English teacher and my 12th grade Sociology teacher. Not every teacher can offer a true learning experience, but it is what every teacher should strive for. I believe teachers should be excited and show this excitement to their students about their passions (which should entail more than just their subject, but also a passion for learning (new) things in general). I also believe that they should be humble people and accept that they are not the only ones who can teach something, among many other things. Students have just as much to teach us as we have to teach them – they should share in the teaching process. The teachers mentioned above gave this to me and I seek to give it to my students as well.
I believe that the two worst characteristics a teacher can have are impatience and ignorance. An educator cannot be impatient because true learning takes time. Memorization and repetition can be immediate, but true learning will take time to resonate and teachers must be patient and understanding. They must help guide students through this process and show them that there are no shortcuts to places worth going. I say ignorance is also a horrible characteristic to have because ignorance of the culture, of the students, of their development, of the social scene, of the neighborhood, of your content area, of biases, and of the world conflicts, challenges and prejudices is detrimental to an educator and students alike.
I will try to convey my passions to my students and try to get them excited and involved in my class. I want to hear what they have to say and by listening to them, I hope to earn the respect needed for them to listen to me as well. I hope to inspire them by embodying the love of learning, not just to learn my subject, but to learn as much as they can about whatever it is that interests them. I also want to involve them and help them discover what their passions in the world may be and have them teach me about these interests. Impatience is one of the most detrimental things you can show towards a student. I will always give my students time to process, to respond, to go about things in the way that they need to. I will show them understanding and love through my patience. I will avoid being ignorant by submersing myself in their world and realities as much as I can. I will try to see things from their eyes and bring things to their attention to assist them in getting through this rough time in life –accepting that my subject is not the center of their world. I will do my best to stay up to date on happenings in the school, in the neighborhood, in the world and in my content area. Therefore being the best teacher I can be in an attempt to meet the many needs of these unique students.
A Educator is one who is paid to teach, while a teacher is one who sees it fit to dispense knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The later, I feel is deperately lacking in this world.
Where the formal classroom is concern, there is too much talk about creating that formal " learning ". Why, the world should be the ultimate learning environment. But, sadly this is not the case.
The reason for my assertion is that we live in a world where the educational process is not really cherish. Constantly, we are bombarded by ready made news and other media blitzes.
Rearly, if ever any engagement and discussion that can lead to learning is present. As for the content of these bombardments, well that another story.
So the question of what makes an educator or teacher is rather redundant. Rather, we should be asking what can we do as a national community to encourage and enhance the whole learning experience?
One contribution, I think is that we need to be more tolerant of others view points.
You don't have to like or believe in someone to give them a listening ear. Just "hear them out."
I feel as if I am just part of a composition pixel's in a larger creation of a incomplete picture.
How can this picture be completed? One way is getting more pixels or encouraging more pictures to join our pictorial revolution.
In plain english, we need to create a larger classroom, our world, which would be condusive of teaching and learning.
“It’s my job as a teacher to help you do the very best you can do.” – Teacher to his student.
I refer to this quote because in one line it really sums up, to me, with elegant simplicity, what a great teacher should be. Just as teachers should encourage my students to find their strengths and use them, they too should want to draw on their potential.
Any learning space should be soothing while keeping students interested, it should be quiet but not too quiet, it should be colorful but not too colorful, it should excite students in a "I want to learn" way and of course leave them begging for more.
When I was in Middle School one particular teacher who stood out from the rest, who is so memorable even to this day, is the only one who listened and took me seriously. He talked to my friends and I like we were people and not just the student he was paid to teach. This, as an educator, is very important to remember.
A great teacher should posses many characteristics but the most importan
I find it interesting that when we are asked to talk about a good teacher and a bad teacher, the bad teacher(s) are who come to mind first. I carry with me today the terrible experience I had with my reading teacher in the 5th grade. I was a new kid in school and was trying to figure out how to manage the schedule and make new friends. In those days they blended 4th, 5th, & 6th grade into sectional reading groups based on your reading ability. Each grade had a 3 level tier. I was tested and placed in the highest 6th grade reading level, in which I was the only 5th grader. I was also placed in the gifted program and pulled out during reading period twice a week. The 6th grade teacher, Mr. U., was not a fan of the gifted program and he made that quite clear. He was so intimidating. When I missed class, I was never given the work I missed, nor was there a place in the room where I could get it. Usually, I missed the vocabulary lists so I failed every vocabulary quiz on Friday. Mr. U would say in front of the class, “I thought you were gifted.” I was so confused as to what was expected of me and so anxious about going to class, that I threw up breakfast every morning before I caught the bus. I begged to be placed down a level so I was with other 5th graders. My mother finally asked for a conference with the principal, me and Mr. U. We came to a certain understanding. Once Mr. U. agreed to give me the materials I missed in class for at home study, I began passing the tests and not throwing up before school. For a teacher to use fear and intimidation is appalling. Thankfully, I’ve never run into a teacher like that again.
Which brings me to the best teacher in my life: Mrs. S. -- my mother. To be honest, I don’t have any memories of a single teacher that inspired me to do better. In fact, I’ve forgotten almost all of their names. I came from a rural school district where there weren’t high expectations of attending college. The teachers were run of the mill and the students and parent community had low expectations of what the school should be and do. Most of the parents worked in the local steel mill and they expected their children to do the same. Why go to college? My mother, however, gave me a passion for reading and history. We read together when I was young and she gave me suggestions of independent reading when I was older. She always picked out great books. She also made me read them with a dictionary so I would have to look up words I didn’t know. It was so much better than memorizing vocabulary words in school. She stood up for me at school as was witnessed with my 5th grade reading teacher. She even would, on occasion, let me skip school so we could go into New York to see a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. She always told me that education was much more that knowing facts. That an educated person was a more compassionate person. That history teaches more than what wars occurred. That math was a series of building blocks and helps you understand science. That art makes your world more beautiful. That sports teach you resilience and how to work with others. That having an organizational plan is the key to managing everything that is thrown at you in life. She said that I could do anything I wanted, as long as I put my mind to it. She encouraged me to take a risk in college and change majors half way through my junior year. She didn’t judge me when I got a bad grade in college because she knew I was taking a heavy load. She was, and still is, the best teacher I know.
So what have I learned from these two “teachers”? From Mr. U. I learned that you must communicate with your students. You must give them expectations and goals, but you have to support them. You should never shame them. You need to put away your prejudices and help that student meet their potential. That fear never works. I know that I will never do to a student what he did to me. From Mrs. S. I learned that there are ways of enriching your school time that makes if all worth while. That there is a whole world out there that is is yours for the asking. That success isn’t measured in A’s & B’s or $, but in how you conduct yourself and how you treat others. To me, that is a very powerful lesson for life.
The question you pose is very intriguing. The reasons I have decided to leave my previous career behind and embark upon a career as an educator have been deeply reflected upon. I am not entering the education field lightly; I am entering the field to be challenged and to provide students with the most positive, successful school career achievable.
My classroom environment will be welcoming, structured, and open. Students will know that no idea, comment, answer, or question will be suppressed. I want my students to actively engage in conversations about mathematics and related topics. I feel respect is the upmost important thing in a successful classroom. I will respect the students as adults and in turn will expect the same respect level back. Even with a light atmosphere in my classroom I will place a great emphasis on the understanding of mathematics. I plan to invite my students into the wonderful world of math and hope all students join the club.
I believe an educator has the students learning, emotions, and thoughts as the focus of their teachings. Educators need to be flexible in their methods to accommodate all learners. Also, educators need to be patient and understanding of students’ behaviors and needs. The educator is responsible for creating a positive learning environment. I believe the learning environment is created within the first few days of the semester, which makes it so important to set the class off on the right foot. As a first year teacher, this will be my challenge. As an educator I want to set up learning experiences for my students in which they create new knowledge. I will not feed my students equations after equations without thought behind reasoning why.
Through my classroom observations I have witnessed great educators and educators who could use more guidance. The classroom environments of the good educators is positive, which most students seeming involved in their own learning and motivated to grasp new concepts and ideas. These classrooms also displayed a great about of respect from teacher to student and visa versa. In classrooms which I felt were uninspired I felt the teacher had a lack of control of behavior in the classroom. Students were not engaged in learning and more concerned about social matters at the time. One class in particular was interesting because I felt the students really liked their teacher but maybe did not respect him enough which caused the class to feel chaotic.
The two most important characteristics of a teacher, which I hope to possess, are respect and expertise. Respect goes hand in hand with good relationships with students, parents, and co-workers. As for expertise, I feel teachers need to be extremely knowledgeable in their content area. This does not mean the teacher knows all answers but the teacher should have a deep understand of the material and be able to explain the information on many different levels to reach all types of learners. As for the worst qualities in a teacher, I believe intimidation is number one. All educators should be approachable. If a student is uncomfortable in doing so with any of his or her teachers I find this to be a huge red flag. Another negative quality teachers possess is being righteous or power hungry. I’ve had teachers in the past that seemed to love the domination over students. These were the teachers who always had the right answer and weren’t interested in others opinions.
Next year I hope to begin a successful career as an educator. I want to be remembered by students’ years from now as a great influence in their life. Not only in the field of mathematics, I hope students’ can look up to me as a positive role model. To achieve this I plan on having a structured classroom with open lines of communication. Easier said than done I’m sure, but I’m up for the challenge.
There is a famous William Butler Yeats quote - "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire". I don't typically like to use catch phrases or pop-culture quotes (and certainly expect my students to avoid them in their writing!), but I think it is okay to make exceptions at times. The imagery that comes with the above quote is precise and accurate.
You can fill a bag with sand and you can contain a cup of coffee in a mug, but you cannot force a brain to hold information. A fire, however, moves, changes and adapts to the surroundings – in fact, a common student misconception is that fire is actually alive. It is this quality of fire that makes it a perfect image of education – education is not about how much “stuff” you know, nor how many facts you can spew out onto a test. No, an education is learning how to use those things you know in new and unique ways. To each student, an education may look, move and respond a little differently. Some flames burn slow and smolder, like the embers of a dying campfire. Some flames burn blue and hot and explosive, Fourth of July fireworks. Education, too, can come quickly and in short bursts for some, or education may take the form of a long, consistent progression.
Educations, like flames, don’t spontaneously occur (unless you believe Heymer’s The Entrancing Flame), but, rather, they are sparked by a thought, an interest or a passion.
Yeats’ quote has its own inaccuracies – a teacher not only provides the spark for the flame of education, but also must provide a direction and guidance, because without a substance to burn, a fire quickly dies. A teacher helps a student by igniting the passion with a comment, a project or a question, and ALSO by providing an avenue for that flame to continue. A teacher cannot simply light a spark – a flame and an education need oxygen and substance to sustain.
Typically, we think of this fire occurring in a classroom (the metaphorical fire, of course), but this is not necessarily the only, or even BEST, place for an educational inferno. A good teacher can be a good friend, a good mentor, a good parent or a good seatmate on the train. The unifying quality of all these good teachers is their ability to sense the needs and desires of a “student”, and provide them the spark and the fuel to burn. These sparks and fuel come from passion and curiosity. Without these, a teacher is just a friend, mentor, parent or seatmate on the train.
Of course, there are “teachers” that try to “fill our buckets” with information. Often, they do have a lot of stuff in their own bucket and have the best intentions of sharing that with others. However, they also seem to be looking for the wrong thing – when you are looking for buckets and all you see is gunpowder, frustration comes easy.
I think that Yeats said it (almost) best. In order to truly teach, we need not give our students buckets and stuff, but rather gun powder and substance.
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Wow...these questions really made me think about the realities that exist in the field of education. In a perfect world, a teacher/educator should be interchangeable. However, there are differences between the two by their levels of dedication. A "teacher" is a person who relays information to a student. An "educator" specializes in the academic growth of individual students. I believe educators take the responsibility to ensure that information is retained, which creates a "learning environment." Learning experiences come into play when the teachers/educators encourage their students to do their best and to be excited about what they're learning. In order to motivate students, you have to be creative and praise your students for their efforts. Every child just wants attention so teachers must do their part. As teachers/educators, we have to make a difference in childrens' lives.
When I was younger, sad to say, there were only a few teachers who were motivational in my academic development. However, when you do run across a teacher is dedicated to your success, you strive your best to learn the material. For example, my 7th grade social studies teacher, really motivated me to understand what was going on in the world through current events. She asked our opinions regarding topics which got my brain moving.
I believe there are actually three important qualities of a teacher, which are passion, patience, and persistence. When you love what you do, it shows. A teacher has knowledge and wants to pass this information on. Patience is a definite because we are dealing with adolescents who are going through many changes during this time. We have to be understanding that their bodies are changing physically and mentally. Persistence to changing lives is mandatory because you have to commit to maintaining a productive learning environment. When you don't have any of these qualities, it creates a less effective classroom. Children will not learn and confusion occurs. Without those characteristics, teachers are not giving students an opportunity for growth which will be disasterous in the long run.
My goal as an educator is to display the three characteristics described above but also to maintain a positive learning environment by evaluating the classroom setting. I have to make sure the classroom is warm and inviting. I would also have to maintain order in the classroom with rules and procedures.
K. Lawson
MLE 502
I think teachers should be very well-versed in their content areas. I once was at a seminar and the presenter, a scientist, was saying that teachers should not just be teachers but they should also be a professional within thier content area (i.e. a chemistry teacher is not only a chemistry teacher but a chemists, a history teacher is a also a historian). I think this concept is in line with my experiences as a student. I enjoy that my teacher is so knowledgeable in thier content area and can talk about their content area in an applied setting. I also like teachers who are excited about their subject. A genuine authenticity to their interest in the topic area. You see that the teacher not only knows chemistry but really likes DOING (not teaching) chemistry.
The two traits I like least in a a teacher are teaching like you are always right and not taking command over a class. Teaches only their pespective I am very frustrated. When a teacher can't control the class I get frustrated too because you know that you won't get much of an opportunity to learn.
As a teacher I will try to learn more and more about what chemists really do in order to bring that authenticity to the classroom as well as content expertise. I will try to always listen and hear my students in order to be sure I am not only teaching my perspective. Finally I will try to create a discipline system that allows room for error but chastens or changes the behavior of students who are constantly out of place.
I believe a teacher should lead by knowing how to be a follower. They need to have empathy for the situation their students are in and what they are capable of at this stage in their lives. Secondly, I think that a teacher should attepmt to form relationships with each student- or at least know one thing about their lives outside of school. I've found that by creating some connection between myself and a student that a sense of accountability is then created and helps to pressure them to do work.
I think the two worst characteristics of a teacher are a lack of interest in their subject matter and a lack of professionalism in the classroom. A teacher should be a person the students can look up to. Even if they don't agree with everything said, there should be an environment of respect created that appreciates each different view point. Teachers should be leading their classrooms by example.
I continually try and keep these things in mind when I am teaching. Why should my students adhere to things that I, myself, can't do consistantly? I need to always put myself in their shoes. The expectations need to remain high, but they should be an easy reach outside of their comfort zone.
a teacher is an educator and an educator is one who teaches.
I do not think we should make a distinction between educator and teacher. I say this because when we as a nation talk about education, we generally use the term teacher and not educator. When a child comes home after the first day of school, does her parent say, “Do you like your new educator?” No! Most everybody uses the term teacher. When the media reports on primary education, such as merit pay or strikes, they use the term teacher. I am pursuing a Masters of Arts in Teaching not Educating. Are you asked, “Who is your favorite educator?” No! You are asked who is your favorite teacher. For the members of the educational community to define teacher as something less than an educator demeans all of us in the national discourse on education. For this reason I think teacher and educator should mean the same thing. It may only be a matter of semantics, but in the court of public opinion it matters! Stop giving teachers a black eye!
So what really is a teacher/educator? I think a teacher is a caring partner, facilitator and coach to students. A teacher is someone who meets a student where she is and helps that student move forward to a deeper, more meaningful state of knowledge, understanding, and critical thinking on a variety of academic subjects, and social and emotional issues.
I think there are formal and informal learning environments. Generally a classroom is a formal learning environment and most everywhere else is an informal learning environment. I hope to be able to arrange my classroom in a U shape or a circle to emphasize that we are all learners and we are all teachers in the classroom. Learning experiences can happen anywhere and can be solitary or communal experiences. In a formal setting not only do students learn from the teacher but also from each other. Likewise, teachers learn from their students.
No one teacher stands out as “the best teacher I every had.” I do look with fondness on my 4th through 8th grade teachers. These women cared about me as an individual and were supportive of me on a social-emotional level.
One important characteristic of a good teacher is to care for each and every student, from the low achieving to the average to the gifted student. Teachers should care enough about their students to help them learn. Teachers need to meet their students where they are and help them move forward through differentiation and motivation. Another important characteristic of a good teacher is her ability to engage students in the learning process through student-centered, problem-solving methodologies. If students do not find what they are learning to be meaningful to them and their social realities, they will disengage from the learning experience.
One of the worst characteristics of a teacher is to yell at or in any way embarrass a student. There is no place for sarcasm in the classroom. This only serves to deflate a student’s self-esteem and create an unsafe learning environment where all the students will be unwilling to take academic risks. Another bad characteristic of a teacher is impatience. Students need time to learn and assimilate new information. Spoon feeding students content to meet some arbitrary deadline or worst yet, to teach to the test (and we know to which test I am referring to!) treats students as passive receptacles of information.
I plan on developing relationships with my students, understanding their social realities, and assessing their learning styles to differentiate their instruction where needed and motivate them to want to learn. I think this will be very hard to do as a new teacher but with experience I will improve my skills. I also plan on taking a student-centered approach to instruction and engage my students in activities that are relevant to their lives.
Finally, taking a deep breath and counting to ten will help me avoid two of the worst characteristics of teachers -- yelling and impatience. This too will be difficult as the demands of teaching and covering the curriculum may seem overwhelming as a new teacher. However, with experience I hope to avoid these two pitfalls as well.
When entering a classroom, the environment should radiate trust. The students have to trust each other and the teacher, who in turn trusts the students and their ideas. This allows teacher and students to share ideas equally and use each other’s ideas to progress forward. A trusting environment breeds respect which in turns fuels further learning by both teacher and student.
An educator is not just a teacher, but also a mentor and a supporter of the students. We, as educators, push the students to do their best as much as possible. We help and excuse them from class when the student has had a rough occurrence at home. We ask why they are not feeling well or why they have their head down. An educator needs to build relationships and trust between himself/herself and the students in order to take teaching to an effective level. Many times, the students that I don’t have a relationship with tend to act up an do not care as much about the information than students that I do have a good relationship with.
A good teacher knows how to create a trusting environment where everyone feels comfortable to participate and contribute as well as receive information. This is the most efficient way that students and teachers interact to get the most amount of information out of each other. I have seen a few teachers at my school that are excellent in breeding this environment due to the following reasons. There is always an amount of authority that the teacher has to present, especially in classes where behavior can be an issue. The students many times perceive this authority as control and rebel because they don’t want someone to control their every move. This creates resistance between the educator and the students and creates a tense learning environment where information is often not shared but given but also not welcomed as readily by the students. I have seen teachers that are great authority figures and often use humor to relieve a tense situation, the students laugh, get over it and move on to education. This allows the students to see that the teacher was angry about an action but used humor to relive the situation, therefore also relieving the negative atmosphere in the classroom. I still struggle with this, but good teachers are capable of being very strict when necessary but also knowing how to approach a situation politically and redirect the classroom culture to a positive one after a student does something that he/she should not have had.
Some very important characteristics of teachers are being caring for the students and knowing how to present the information in the best way possible by connecting with the classroom. The students don’t care to listen when they don’t have a positive relationship with the teacher but they also don’t care to listen when the teacher doesn’t connect the information to the student’s lives in some way. There must be a connection or reason for the students listen and that reason has to be brought to their attention by the teacher. I try to achieve these two characteristics on a daily basis. I care very much about the students but they don’t always see that because I have to be very strict with them. I therefore have to work hard to build relationships with them on a daily basis and every free second I get with them. I try my hardest to target the students that either have a large influence in a classroom (students that are strong leaders) and also students that I naturally don’t connect with that easily. These are the most important students to reach as they make a large difference in classroom culture. Connecting classroom objectives to the students is also very important and can be achieved through thorough pre- planning. I try to understand my students on different levels so that I can use that information in the lessons to better connect the material to their lives.
The worst characteristics as a teacher is an unprepared teacher as well as excessive sarcasm. I have seen teachers try to use humor in classrooms through sarcasm and the students don’t pick up on it but instead find this teacher mean and insulting. This creates a bad culture and students begin to not trust the teacher or each other which in turn does not breed a learning environment. Another bad characteristic is poor preplanning. If a teacher is not prepared for a lesson, he/she is wasting the student’s time as he/she is not pushing them to be the best they can be. A prepared teacher has worksheets and materials that not just pertain to the student’s live and the objective, but that is also rigorous and an hour well spent in the classroom. I can try to stay way from these bad teaching characteristics by being careful how I use humor in the classroom but also make sure that I am prepared for lessons.
Now that I'm a teacher, I feel like I've spent a great deal of time reflecting back on my own years in school. I actually keep one of my old teachers in mind all the time, as kind of a "What would Mr. L do?" in that certain situation. Funny (or maybe sad) that I can list off my "good" teachers without hesitation... I could also list off my "bad" teachers. And then the majority of my other teachers just float in a mediocre limbo-land. Shouldn't my "good" teacher list be so large that I can't remember it? (Especially since I went to a "great" public school. What were the teachers like at the non-"great" school?).
I personally think that a teacher and an educator are pretty similar, and that we're just playing with words. The connotation that each gives, however, is a bit different. I would have to ponder quite a bit more to determine the differences between the two. (I'll get back to that).
More importantly, a good teacher/educator is someone who does SO much more than just "teach." My good teachers were ones that were like family to me -- I knew they cared, they loved their subjects, they put passsion into everything they did, they did anything for their students, they were nice, they were genuine and caring and fun and supported the students and treated us with respect. They provided good learning environments...
I've come to realize in my short time teaching how important a "good learning environment" truly is. I worked quite hard to be sure that my classroom was welcoming and safe to my students. I have a "BE NICE" rule that I actually enforce, and the students actually follow. Sure, at first they mocked it and laughed about it, but now they actually stick to it and call each other out on it. Being nice to each other is a simple form of basic respect, which helps my students to feel ownership in the classroom. Once they are a part of the classroom, they start to feel safe and at ease, which allows me to direct the focus on learning. I think that without that environment, kids can't learn.... and I can tell when the environment has changed (physically or in any other way). If the classroom is too hot/cold/smelly/messy, my students are distracted. If I allow people to be mean, or if students fight or if something happened in the lunchroom, that needs to be worked out before learning can actually begin. I remember someone telling me to avoid "teaching at all costs" (i.e. going forward with things as you planned no matter what, even though something else has disrupted that original path) and I've found that it was some of the best advice I've ever gotten.
As I mentioned briefly, my best teachers were those who took the time to know me and cared about who I was as a person and as a student. This doesn't mean that they were emotional or made exceptions for me, but that they often pushed me to my limit and forced me to work as hard as I could. One of the best teachers I've ever had is notorious for saying that he doesn't like kids and he punishes them through calculus -- which we all knew was a lie because he gave us the most incredible projects, stayed after school tutoring for hours, created fantastic calculus field trips (who knew you could take a math field trip??) and other things that SHOWED us he cared. In the same vein, I've had teachers that are "cool" with the kids but were terrible teachers because they wanted us to like them. It's a fine line. I also think that my best teachers exposed me to either a new way of thinking or a new idea/perspective. They opened the world to me in some little way, whether it was my 5th grade teacher organizing a grade-wide Ellis Island simulation or my high school English teacher bringing us to a mental hospital while we were reading "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
The two most important characteristics of teachers are passion and flexibility. Passion for kids, teaching, the subject, the school... whatever it is, it has to be there. The passionate teachers were the ones who were never satisfied with how things were, and would always push themselves, their students, or their peers to new levels. Flexibility is the other very important characteristic of teachers -- a good teacher needs to be able to roll with the punches, whether its a challenging student or a fire drill or a computer that broke a minute before the lesson.
The two worst characteristics would be setting low expectations and not believing in kids. When a teacher sets low expectations, the kids also learns to set low expectations, and then if the kid doesn't meet those expectations, they fall way shorter then they should be. I think as soon as a teacher starts accepting excuses and reasons why things can't be accomplished, that student learns that he or she can get away with less. This connects directly with the lack of belief in a child. If a teacher doesn't think a kid can do something, that kid KNOWS. If a teacher doesn't believe in his or her kids, I don't think they should be one.
For me to actually BE a great teacher, I need better time management. I think I have the passion and the flexibility and the role models and the support... but I need practice and experience and I need to be able to have the time to reflect and better myself. I think I can become a great teacher, but for right now, I'm definitely just a "good, beginning" teacher. If I managed my time better, I could reflect and use that precious spare time better.
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