Daniel Inners : An Inspiring Sixth Grade Teacher At Spring Grove Intermediate School

The teacher I interviewed for this project was a fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Keith Wolkovitz. This teacher has been teaching at East Rock Community Magnet School for his entire career of eleven years. East Rock Community Magnet School is a Title I school in the New Haven School District. The school has a very diverse population and over 90% of the students qualify for the free-reduced lunch program. As a Title I school, the school is also mandated by the state to implement certain remedial interventions to improve students’ academic scores.

Midlothian High School remains extremely well-known across the country for its intelligent, caring, and dedicated faculty and teachers. As a former student, I can affirm this claim. From History to French to Mathematics, my teachers made my learning experience feel important and worth-while. Despite this, among all these great faculty members, the English Department shines bright because of one teacher and leader that stands out above the rest. Mrs. Sharon Austin, my junior year John Tyler Community College composition teacher has impacted my life in extraordinary ways. Because of her influence in my personal education and growth as a student, I admire her greatly as a leader in the world.

There are various teachers in the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. Grant and Vivian are both caring teachers. Grant is a teacher that likes to fight for his students and communicate with them. Vivian is a person of quality that teaches by example and makes sacrifices for her students. Matthew Antoine does not care about his students. He encourages them to run away while they can. Grant, Vivian, and Matthew Antoine are all teachers that left a significant impact on their students.

Monday, January 29, 2018, was my first day at Saraland High School and it was my first day of observations. Saraland High School is located in Saraland, Alabama where it is a part of the Saraland City Schools School System. Saraland High School has a student population of approximately 1,000 students. The teacher that I will be observing for this semester is Mr. Kendric Cook. Mr. Cook teaches Health to 10th graders. Mr. Cook has been teaching and coaching for 6 years and this is his first year teaching at Saraland. On my first day, I got to observe Mr. Cook and his teaching styles. Mr. Cook told me before he started his lesson that he considers himself to be a non-traditional teacher. He likes to sit at his desk or sit on top of the student desk when he teaches because he really wants to make sure that his students are engaged in the lesson. Mr. Cook told me that when he was in school his health teacher would just sit at his desk and he would not really “teach” and he

This information was gathered in an interview with Andrea Williams, Principal of Theresa Bunker Elementary. In the past three years that Mrs. Williams has been principal of this school she has brought a strong focus onto using data to make appropriate instructional decisions as well as execute strategic planning to help the school progress. The implementation of the PLC process has helped the teachers to gain an understanding of how valuable data collection and analysis can be for their teaching practice. Looking at data also helps the school attain the yearly goals laid out by the district’s strategic plan. One of the first steps taken in developing a strategic plan for the school is to gather and analyze data in order to find the school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for growth as well as any threats to the progress of the school. Early in the year the strategic planning team will review quantitative data collected from student achievement scores, attendance rates, discipline trends, financial records, transportation reports, and so forth. Depending upon the specific issue addressed in the planning process, these types of quantitative data serve to inform decision-making processes. The collection of qualitative data is also an integral part of best practices in development of a strategic plan. Qualitative data collection includes use of surveys, focus groups, and interviews with key stakeholder groups. It is important and useful to

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.

Honest. Honest was the first characteristic that stood out to Superintendent/Principal, Mr. Ambrose Duckett, III. Mr. Duckett has served at Eastampton Community School for eight years as the Assistant Principal, Director of Instruction, Technology, and Curriculum. He also served as the Districts Affirmative Action Officer and Anti-Bullying Coordinator. The 2016-2017 marks Mr. Duckett’s first years as the Superintendent/Principal.While Mr. Duckett holds many jobs and “where many hats”, his most rewarding aspect of them all is achieving students success through improving test scores.

As a teacher, I have seen students who are gifted; students who can hear information once and it sticks. I have also seen students who become frustrated or apathetic; students who think they can’t do something or choose not to do something because it poses a challenge to them. Having just completed my second year of teaching middle school and high school English, I reflect on this past school year and am reminded that I have chosen a challenging career, but those challenges are miniscule when compared to how fulfilling it is to see a student truly excel. As a teacher, nothing is more gratifying than coming across a student who is motivated; a student who isn’t afraid to put in the work to reach his goals; and a student who not only shows academic excellence, but pushes himself to be the best he can be as a son, an older brother, a member of his community, a volunteer, and a captain of the soccer team. That student is Trevor Fancher.

My field experience took place at S Bryan Jennings Elementary in Mrs.Reid 's second grade classroom for a little over a month. During my time within the classroom I observed the subjects: reading, mathematics, and phonics, science, and writing. I also observed a teacher planning period. When I was within the classroom I observed the techniques the teacher used in the subjects, the programs used, the children’s abilities with the subject and/or topic, the students struggles within the subject and/or topic, the teachers struggles with students who did not understand, and the stereotypes that applied and/or did not apply to the classroom, teacher, and students. Within this dissertation, I will describe and focus on these observations in a more specific way following with observed examples.

Teachers working in inner city high schools in the United States face enormous challenges. Their students, most of whom come from economically disadvantaged minority families and often do not speak English as a first language, present a daunting array of educational needs for teachers and schools. Resources and school structures are seldom sufficient for the task. Despite such conditions, some urban high school teachers persist for many years in the classroom and experience success and satisfaction in their work. Through a survey and extended interviews, this study identifies three broad factors that motivated a group of these teachers to remain in inner city classrooms for more than 12 years: (1) the students, (2) professional and personal

There are three teachers in the classroom, one does reading/lesson circle with a small group of students, another does arts and crafts, and one of them circulates throughout the room helping students with their work-plans. The teacher that circulates around the room all the time appears to be the head teacher and when a conflict arises she is the one to mediate it. The way that the teachers speak with the children is as if they are equals, they aren’t talked down to and the students give the teachers complete respect.

Choosing a favorite teacher is fairly difficult when one puts into account all the types of teachers they have known, all of them are important. Teachers are the second most important people in our lives, right after our parents. Teachers are persuasive and have the power to build a child up from an immature student to become a responsible adult; or they can completely and utterly crush a students hopes and dreams.

"Some teachers may work with students to create the class environment; others may force a class environment upon students" (Zawondiak 124). Regardless of the approach the teacher might decide to take, she holds the power even before a student walks into class. The teacher is the one that chooses what materials are going to be used during the school year. She creates and plans lessons that are going to be used during class time. How children are going to be assessed and placed in levels that fit the children's capabilities. And finally, the teacher decides what set of goals she might have for the class, the different set of teaching techniques she would like to use and the set of expectations she might have for each students. The teacher is the one that decides what she wants to concentrate on, how to go about teaching it, and the outcomes she expects from the students.

For some reason or another certain students are drawn to particular teachers while other students are more fond of others. In my life I have studied under three memorable teachers. Teachers with which I was able to connect, to laugh, to share my misgivings. While I may have been close with each of these teachers, it is very clear, in retrospect, that each was very unique, and represented an entirely different class of teacher.

As children, we absorb information and learn from experiences that mold us into who we are. Many individuals impact a child’s life, but the most powerful and influential role lies in a devoted teacher, a teacher provides growth to students as a gardener would to a garden of flowers. Each child can bloom into a thriving flower so long as you water their garden with optimism, love, patience, and guidance. Throughout my educational experiences I was lucky enough to have educators who poured their knowledge and optimism into me, and now I would like to reciprocate that back to students who are in the position I was once in. Balancing life and school is hard enough for a student, but a powerful and caring teacher can steer you in the right direction. In this autobiography you will read about my educational background, experiences that influenced my decision to become a teacher, and what I believe the role of a teacher should be in a student’s life.