Esme's Experience

Doing field experience at St.Mary’s Preschool has taught me a lot not only about the educational system but about myself as well. I’ve learned over these couple of months that in order to become a wonderful teacher, you have to have an enormous amount of patience and dedication. Teaching isn’t an easy profession and through this experience, my respect for my teachers have grown tremendously. Many students often take their teachers for granted but they don't realize what they do for us.

The twenty-five stories that are contained in the book, My First Year As A Teacher, are about real teachers and their experiences during the first year of teaching. Each story is different. Some are about memorable students while other stories are about some of the hardships that are encountered as a novice teacher. The diverse sampling of stories in this book gives insight of what kind of problems one might encounter as a teacher, yet they also describe how rewarding the profession can be. I found it rather difficult to choose only ten stories as my favorite but after much consideration and rereading I decided on the following stories because in many ways I could relate to the students as well as the teachers that are given life in these stories.

I have taught students ranging from five years old to nineteen years of age. Hence, being an educator, I have learned that learning is always shifting, therefore I must keep improving with the incessant changes. As a little girl, I have always dreamt of being a teacher and I have carried out that dream. My career journey started as a substitute teacher, a floater between classrooms, an assistant teacher, a teacher, a center supervisor, and an educational supervisor. I presently work as an Educational consultant for Danya International LLC. As an Educational Consultant, I able to review and aid with the learning environment of teachers and educational management in a school

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry B. Adams. For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to play a big part in children’s education, which is why I have decided to enroll for an education course. I believe that educators have a lifelong impact on their students and on the development of resilience. Thus, I aspire to inculcate my love for learning into the next generation, by influencing and inspiring children all through their formal education.

As in the following statement stats “//Kids who need more time to give a good answer it use it. The kids have been very thoughtful since it’s been introduced.”(Cordell, 2009, pg.35). She created this hat to help those students that struggle with thinking on the spot or maybe just answering questions in class a little more time that they may need. The hat also makes the kids want to participate because they know even if they can’t think of the answer of the top of the head they will get to put the hat on an will be allowed extra time to remember. This also allows students to relax and not feel rushed to answer and blurting out a wrong answer because they are taking too long or giving their classmates a chance to make fun of the for not answering as quickly as the rest of the class. Esmé used this strategy in a positive way because by using this method she doesn’t have to call a student out for need a little extra help but instead provide the slower or more timid kids a way to get involved without embarrassing

“Teaching is extremely difficult, but I like challenges and I’m still working it at it.” Mr. Asato is not only a full-time teacher but a full-time student as well. This will be his 10th year as a teacher at Seabury Hall, and his 18th year teaching in general. He is currently working on his E.d.D at U.H Minoa. Asato has previously earned 2 masters, and a bachelors at different schools across the

Welcome to Mrs. Gayle Harmon’s classroom! Mrs. Harmon has been teaching in a classroom since 1994, and has taught in many different states. Mrs. Harmon is a graduate of Concordia College and is a very proud educator. She currently is teaching second grade at Matoka Elementary school in Virginia for 8 years now, and is the team leader of her section at Matoka. Being that Mrs. Harmon has taught for quite some time now my first question was “How have your teaching skills evolved since first teaching a class?” Mrs. Harmon chuckled and smiled before responding, she says that “With time, comes wisdom and learning”. She is not nearly as naïve as

After the twenty hours of observations, my overall personal teaching theory hasn’t changed a great deal. I still believe strongly in my three key beliefs established, which are passion, respect and adaptability. However, I would be lying if I said I haven’t altered my general idea of my teaching philosophy. The twenty hours that I spent at Valley View Middle-school in the seventh grade was quite an experience that made me realize, really just how much time and energy you have to give to the students in order to teach little work.

“I am painfully aware that I am not a superhuman. I do the same job as thousands of other dedicated teachers who try and make a difference” (Esquith, 2007, p. 30). These humbling and nonchalant words were spoken by an incredible man, Rafe Esquith. He is a guy of many, many talents, who most could only dream of acquiring. Rafe stretches the boundaries, and goes above and beyond the norms of teaching each day. He spends the majority of his time dwelling in a crowded, poverty filled, vandalized classroom, where the kid’s primary language is morethan likely, not English. He does not see this as a downfall though, he uses this to his advantage and embraces each student like they are his own. Outsiders looking in would be stunned to find such hardworking,

Michie’s stories help me understand myself better as a teacher because he gives an insight on what is is like being a teacher in and out of his element. In both my past experience with children and my current placement now, that I forget that children are young and naive. In many instances, things that I know are unnecessary and inappropriate, they still deem fun and necessary in their own world. They do not understand that it is not okay for me to give hugs or for me to listen to their own personal narrative while the teacher is talking to the class. With the second graders, they are finally understanding themselves as larger as their own universe, however they are still the center of it. Michie quickly realizes that many of his students needed that extra push in the right direction or needed a person to simply listen to them in order for them to feel validated. In the same way, I notice little things that indicate what bigger issue the student is dealing with and act accordingly.

My first observation experience was eye-opening. Upon my arrival to Providence Catholic High School, I only had basic knowledge about what it took to be an effective teacher. After working with many different teachers at this high school, it became evident that every teacher adopted their own style of teaching. I also began to understand that in order to be a wonderful

The typical course of DBT lasts 12 months and involves weekly group skills training (90 minutes), weekly individual treatment (50-60 minutes), and telephone coaching when it is needed (Goodman et al., 2014). According to Barnicot et al. (2016), DBT has four essential functions: To teach the client skills for more effective emotional and behavioural regulation, to enhance the client’s motivation to use these skills, to ensure the client can use skills in a variety of situations, and help to shape the environment to reinforce use of skills. Moreover, DBT is based on the biosocial theory of BPD, which pertains immensely with Esme’s case. The premise of this theory is that BPD develops when individuals encounter invalidating environments where they feel supressed, punished and ignored for their emotions. Therefore, it is the goal of DBT to help the client develop skills in mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance (Barnicot et al., 2016). Esme will receive

I cleaned up a lot of my dialogue. I wanted to make changes to my scenes that would help the reader to follow Esme’s actions. I noticed some of my scene changes were abrupt. I changed more than half of my story. I needed fewer characters to work with in short story to keep my character focused on one mission. I worked on my overall editing. I think my story does have an authoritative voice now.

This past semesters has been an eye opening experience that has changed my views on teacher. Ever since I was little, I have always wanted to be a fourth grade teacher. However after being placed in a second grade classroom my views have changed. I liked the idea of teaching fourth grade because my fourth grade teacher was my inspiration in life. When I was in Ms. Petro’s class I enjoyed being able to watch the students progress over time. Being able to see the drastic improvements in little children is very rewarding and that is why I want to continue to teach lower grades. I have learned that being a teacher requires a special someone, a person who knows that sometimes you will have to deal with tough situations leaving you exhausted and feeling like you are not able to help more. But at the same time, being a teacher allows one to be a visionary for the world and those who surround you.

In Educating Esme there are moment when we see how she taught positively, but we also see how things had negative consequences or weaknesses. I saw weaknesses in her teaching in the way she is sometimes overly caring with her students. I also saw negative consequences when she went to Mr. Turner about B.B. I also think that there were negative consequences with her conflict resolution meetings. Though there were consequences and weaknesses in her teaching I think there were also positive points. Her teaching also related to Robert Powell’s principle of teaching. Through all the good, negative consequences and weaknesses we can really see that Esme was a great teacher.