A Treasure : A Good Teacher Is Always A Treasure

Teachers should advocate for all students’ backgrounds and cultures to better their students’ learning. To accomplish this, teachers should be informed about their students’ home lives, be conscious of how and what they should be taught, and ultimately make their education a priority. Students from poverty in a multicultural classroom need the correct tools and teaching approaches from their teachers.

A teacher needs to be flexible and adaptable due to schedule changes, adapting lessons, gaining new students, adapting to various behaviors and various academic levels of students. A teacher needs to be assertive when advocating for the needs of their students, themselves and for their peers. To be outstanding you have to have compassion towards your peers, your students and their families. A teacher always need to be prepared for their day including designing lessons, creating materials, writing IEP's, knowing students levels, handling any behavior, that anything can happen and always have extra work. A teacher should be able to Multitask, you have to wear lots of hats in this field such as a mother figure, nurse, friend, disciplinarian, enemy,

This essay contemplates my individual development, skill acquisition and exploration of teaching approaches; throughout and beyond the International Teacher Training Organisation (ITTO) program. The problems I encountered will be discussed; and their relation to establishing where my wealth of primary teaching experience aligns with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching approaches. For example; efforts to reduce my teacher talk time compared to primary school education was important, correcting pronunciation in an appropriate manner and correctly pacing both my speech and activities were areas of development that were observed, reflected on personally and subsequently acted upon.

As Connell, White and Johnston (1990,p.9) state, 'There is not a “culture of poverty”, nor any key “deficit” that makes poor people different from everybody else and therefore and educational problem'. Teachers and Education Assistants need to adapt into the culture of poverty and be sensitive and understandable to the extensive bar of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom and they need to consider the cultural values of these children as they arrange their learning. The basis of Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's opinions in the article is they position readers to view that the teachers dispositions low income students and that rarely the educators offer the same level or enough aid and attention than the other students and they are less likely to succeed in school when compared with the more advantaged children. According to Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's and Geoffrey D. Borman and Laura T. Rachuba they both state that students from lower income families may not have as high expectations from their parents, teachers or their peers within the school. The students may also not be confident in their own abilities and

Gloria Ladson-Billings spent time observing teachers in public schools that were located in predominately low-socioeconomic school districts to figure out what makes them successful with typically low performing students. Some of the things she observed are all the teachers “shared pride in and commitment to their profession and had an underlying belief that all children could be successful” (learnnc). Furthermore, these teachers established trusting relationships with their students that allowed the students to take responsibility for their own learning. Lastly, these teachers also went beyond the classroom to show support for their students such as attending community events. These observations led Ladson-Billings to realize that in order for “teachers to use culturally relevant pedagogy successfully, they must also show respect for students, and understand the need for the students to operate in the dual worlds of their home community and the

I think that is positive support for the children learning, and spread the positive environment or atmosphere around the classroom. The teachers successfully achieve the Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession, which are (5. 5) that say, teachers maintain an environment that is conducive to learning for all students. Also, (5.3) that say, teachers motivate students to work productively and assume responsibility for their own learning. In addition, (1. 3) that says, teachers expect that all students will achieve to their full potential.

Unfortunately, the school's lack of appropriate education results directly from poor government funding. So even with hard work, the lower-class student is still held down by his socio-economic status. Poverty-stricken parents are unable to offer their children the same attention and motivation as parents of a higher-class can, therefore never providing these children with the mindset that they are able to accomplish the American dream. According to Mantsios, 40 million Americans live in poverty, and the mental and physical affects the low standard of living has on them is undeniable (Mantsios 328). Citizens who live in poverty work long hours for little pay, yet return to a household that in no way symbolizes the hard work put forth. Within this environment, very few people have the positive outlook to mentor children successfully.

I believe there are many skills and attributes that are necessary to an outstanding teacher; one’s ability to keep students engaged, the desire to see all students achieve, and knowledge of the content taught are attributes of an outstanding educator.

Hunger and poverty are global issues that American is not an exception to. As of 2012, statistical data provided by the government reported that "46.5 million people were in poverty, including 16.1 million children under the age of 18" and households with children are hit disproportionately with hunger (Feeding America, Hunger). This disproportion results in an equally startling deficit in the quality of education for our children. These alarming statistics attest to the fact that poverty has become an epidemic. Educating all students to ensure they become productive and successful citizens cannot just be a desire, but a need. The required reformation to fix this epidemic requires government and community assistance with teacher involvement.

Since my first day of grade school I have dreamt of becoming a teacher. It was not until my junior year of high school that my dream grew into a passion for wanting to teaching in an urban environment. During a field tip to a Chicago Public School, I observed that the students where clearly in an underfunded and disadvantaged environment compared to my own experience in school. The moment that I saw that teacher earning respect and influencing her students, it was obvious to me that these teachers were the most influential factor in the classroom. The teacher’s attitude and ability to influence was more important than any other resource.

The issue of teacher shortage today is continuing to grow. The effects of the achievement gap are reaching the teachers, not just the students: “...good administrators and teachers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances, will be driven out of the profession…,” (Boyd-Zaharias 41). The achievement gap is part of the reason teachers feel they are underpaid, which happens to be one of the leading cause in teacher shortage considering, “Teachers were paid two percent less [than comparable workers] in 1994, but by 2015 the wage penalty rose to 17 percent,” (Long). Being a teacher requires passion in order to stay in the field, especially if the money in teaching is decreasing. Money is an important aspect for people when it comes to their careers, therefore, fewer people want to become teachers. This lack of teachers and the lack of college students studying to become a teacher leads to unqualified teachers and larger classroom sizes (Ostroff). Both of these causes are eventually affecting students’ learning environments. I chose this issue in education for my project because I have personally felt these effects, and I know others who have as well. As a future educator, I want to see better wages and better benefits, but this can only happen with qualified, passionate teachers. I plan on being one of them, and I plan on sparking a change. I am a future educator fighting to end teacher shortage.

I am attending Concord College to further my education. After graduating with an Elementary Education Degree, I would like to teach in an elementary school in Southern West Virginia. Preferably, I would like to teach in a kindergarten environment. While teaching I plan to further my career with a Master’s degree. I would like to be able to reach those children that aren’t as fortunate as others. As a teacher I will not only teach the children, but they in turn, will teach me. Education is one of the most important aspects to the success of the country. It is important for everyone to feel a part of that success; therefore, I feel strongly about teaching students to succeed.

In order to establish an effective role in high school student lives, teachers must create a positive environment in the classroom, engage the students with a variety of materials, and provide different variations of learning techniques that will accommodate the needs of every student (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010). While also, displaying the personality of a culturally competent teacher that is able to effectively incorporate diversity in her curriculum. On the other hand, some teachers lack the ability to influence their students, and cultivate a positive learning environment. These teachers typically do not incorporate theorist ideas and techniques for creating a meaningful classroom environment (Flinders & Thornton, 2013). For that reason, students lose interest

“What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.” 1A teachers objective should not be to shape the students as a reflection of that educators image, instead they should see themselves as the medium of which the information in communicated, they should see themselves a person who elevates that students to higher concepts of learning, aspiration and liberation. A good teacher must recognize the strength and weaknesses in skills of the individual and class and reflect on how to leverage strength amongst learners to

Teaching children of poverty can be very challenging. These children are more likely than their peers to experience poor nutrition, parents with low educational attainment and underemployment, broken families, child abuse and neglect, drug abuse, teen-age pregnancies and high rates of dropping out (Holt & Garcia, 2016). It has been my experience that these students are a little rough around the edges which may cause an educator the inability to see beyond the exterior of the child thus treating them more harshly than their peers. Being employed in a Title 1 school, I have had the pleasure of working with students and families whose major source of income is welfare. They often came from a single-parent household and arrived at school improperly dressed and usually hungry. I found that meeting the child’s basic needs helped them focus on school and took some of the stress off of their parents as they knew their child was in a safe, caring place. One thing that was vital in our classroom was firmness and consistency. Unfortunately, many teachers and schools do not possess the knowledge and experience required for success in these more challenging schools. Impoverished students often do not care about their education nor did their parents seem to care how their children perform in school (Holt & Garcia, 2016). I feel this can be attributed to distraction from just trying to survive. In order to have greater success in the classroom of impoverished students, teachers need to