Molded Into a Teacher and My True Self
When I graduate from Manchester College in the spring and begin my
journey as a teacher, I will not be the same Lydia Burton who started Manchester
College. I will carry with me my dreams, expectations, morals, and unique
personality that will impact how I teach. But I will also combine with that, the
knowledge and experience I have gained of what is means to be a superb, genuine,
and influential educator and human being. My education classes have not changed
who I am as a person. They have only reaffirmed, and made me more aware, of how
who I am affects how I want to teach and treat each one of my students. I will
teach my students based on the knowledge I have gained through my classes, and
will always try, first and foremost, to be a teacher who shows compassion,
respect, and understanding to my students. It is a combination of my
personality, views of life, and the many lessons I have been taught, formally
and informally, at Manchester College which shaped me into the teacher I want to
be throughout my life. More than anything else, Manchester College has forever
ingrained in me the knowledge and responsibility I have to make sure each child
is taught and assessed in a way in which they will be able to successfully
learn.
As I began taking my special education classes, I realized the classes
applied to both me a special educator and as a general educator. Everyone
student is unique, and every child, whether receiving special education services
or not, learns in a different way. It is my responsibility, as an effective
teacher, to allow each student to have the opportunity to learn in a way that
meets his or her needs and therefore be productive. By taking these classes I
have learned many accommodations and modifications that could be applied to many
children throughout any class I am teaching. Because I have learned how to
differentiate instruction, I feel I am better able to accommodate the variety of
students needs whether it be a struggling, average, or gifted student in my
classroom.
Through almost every education class I have taken, but particularly
Educational Psychology and Early Childhood Curriculum and Methods, I have
learned that through the use of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences I can
better differentiate instruction in the classroom. By using the multiple
intelligences I believe that I will be better able to accommodate the variety of
different learning styles I encounter in my classroom. It is essential that I am
constantly altering and providing a variety of instruction and assessment based
on individual student’s needs. What one child may get from reading a text book,
another child may need to actually see and experience, while yet another child
may need to make a model to fully understand the concept. By instructing based
on the belief of multiple intelligences, I as a teacher need to be open and
extremely flexible of the concepts and ideas of my students. Both of these
classes have taught me to teach based on the child’s needs in my classroom, not
based on what will be easiest or less time consuming for me. Being a teacher
means constantly being aware of what will best help my students learn, and what
will best assess the knowledge and comprehension they have gained through my
instruction.
As I began taking Literature Block I realized that differentiation in
reading instruction is a key component to being an effective reading teacher.
Each child I work with will be at a different reading level and will come to me
with a different literacy background. It is my job as a teacher to meet the
child at his or her current level and to not only increase their literacy
abilities, but to also increase their love of reading and writing. Reading is
not just being able to read the text, but being able to comprehend what is read
and ultimately fostering a love and enjoyment of reading. Because I have been
taught how to incorporate balanced literacy, literature circles, and writing
workshops into my classroom, I will be providing a type of instruction that will
meet a variety of student’s needs. By incorporating these components into my
teaching, I will be allowing the students to learn, read, and write in an
expressive, creative way, which will ideally promote a love and excitement for
literacy.
My Manchester College education classes have taught me that being a
successful teacher means reaching students in a variety of ways by teaching and
assessing them according to their individual and specific needs. Through taking
the required education classes, I have acquired knowledge of the many important
components of being an exceptional teacher. But I have also realized that it is
how my unique personality comes out as I teach and the reasons for why I teach
that will affect how effectively my students will learn. Through gaining
knowledge of the elementary and special education curriculum, and through
gaining an understanding of myself, I am feel capable and prepared to begin
teaching and start making a difference in children’s lives.