My Impact As A Teacher Essay

I decided to interview a friend of mine who just started her second year of teaching. She works for a Middle School in Westchester County, teaching 6th and 7th grade math. I asked her a series of questions about her whole experience on becoming a teacher. I was relieved to hear what her first few days were like being a new teacher, because that could be nerve racking for any new teacher. She explained to me that she was shocked on her first few days, and overwhelmed with the respect she immediately received from her students. They greet her in the hallway, and thank her as they leave class. I could just imagine how good that would feel to get that reaction from your students. When I asked her why she decided to teach the grade that she is in, she explained to me that she chose to do middle school because it is a crucial time for development in an adolescents life, and also a challenging time.

Assessment and data driven instruction are a vital part of teaching. Assessments are used frequently to guide the proceeding lessons. I am interested in learning more about the different types of assessments and the appropriate uses of each. I think it is critical as a future teacher to have many resources to back up my techniques, especially with the growing interest in data and tracking students’ progress. Gathering information about assessments will allow me to broaden my own techniques and strategies that I use in the classroom, more specifically the ways in which I grade and provide feedback on assessments so that students can use that feedback in a positive way. In my past experiences I have noticed my cooperating teachers providing grades on all assessments with no feedback because they want the students to correct their own mistakes. This may work on summative assessments but I think that there needs to be comments on formative assessments so that students know how to correct their mistakes for the end of the unit tests.

Students have their own best way in effectively learning the lesson. With the diversity of students, the problem is each student has a preferred learning style. It becomes undeniably one of the reasons that make it difficult to achieve the best expected outcome out of teachers’ effort. However, teachers try to incorporate various teaching techniques to make every learning opportunity become productive, meaningful, and relevant for the learners.

Student assessment is something we take very seriously. It is our duty to make sure our educators are doing what they are supposed to be doing and our students excelling. We have diverse learners attending our school district so this is something we take into consideration. Every child has a different way in developing and each student has a different way in learning. How they learn is what makes them unique. Coming up with the right methods to reach our students is something our educators do best. They

Ch. 1 – What are my classroom assessment responsibilities as a teacher and how can I fulfill them in ways that maximize the success of my students? This chapter speaks to the nature of what sound assessment is, and the importance of really involving students in this process. Assessment is, of course, FOR the students. The idea that assessment is used by the students, and that teachers should “demystify” assessment and the meaning of success in their classroom is a very simple one, but one that is often forgotten in the context of high-stakes test-ridden classrooms, and schools that view letter grades as the only evidence of learning.

By believing that instructors are the most important influence in a child’s education, teachers are given an unrealistic responsibility. Many policymakers believe that holding educators accountable for student success is the best way to improve public education. This asks educators to overcome these outside variables that are far outside of teachers’ control. Policymakers suggested linking teacher evaluations to student achievement, measured by standardized tests. This is not a beneficial way to hold teachers accountable because of the many outside factors that affect student achievement. A better way to hold teachers accountable is to stem out of a realistic perspective on what teachers can and should do for their students. Each part of society holds an important responsibility in increasing student achievement. Teachers should not be asked to be responsible for more than they can handle.

The third choice of the required reading that I read for my internship is Fair Isn’t Always Equal written by Rick Wormeli. This book is written to help schools and school districts transform their standard grading on assessments and homework to a standards based grading system. The book reasons why schools should look to change to a standard’s based grading system, and the benefits and the amount of information that this type of grading can give us about our students. Not only does this book give the benefits of the grading, it discusses ways to rewrite tests, how to use attendance and effort to give grades, and how to differentiate instruction and assessments to get a true picture of our students and their knowledge of the materials. Wormeli uses quotes from teachers and educational leaders in the different section of the book that have opposite views of standards based grading and the process they used to get to where they are at. This book was assigned to me to read over summer break to begin to prepare us for the change in grading formative assessments using standards based rubrics and the reasons why the change in necessary to truly see if students are learning.

Effectiveness of Strategy one has been proven to be effective with consistency. This strategy will be effective when students understand what is expected and it is constantly reinforced in a positive manner. When positive reinforcers are given it can have a constructive influence on student’s behaviors.

As in every profession, roles, responsibilities and boundaries are set in order to define the line indicating the acceptable limits.

The teacher I interviewed has taught for more than ten years at the same school. She started as a fourth grade teacher but she now works as an interventionist.

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.

I believe education is one of the most important tools a person can have in life. Every child deserves to receive the best education possible.  It has always been my passion to help each child discover their individual God given gifts and talents and to reach their full potential.

Teaching is a profession that is considered to be a rewarding challenging and complex role.  An effective teacher does not simply teach knowledge their students and instead aims to arm students with the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes that will prepare students for life-long learning. The constructivist theories developed by Piaget and Vygotsky have impacted on the way that teachers teach and this has changed the approach of teaching to place a greater importance on the teacher instead to act as a facilitator of learning in an open, constructivist environment and providing students with the tools to challenge themselves to develop both academically and personally.  The education of students within classrooms of today is

My greatest contribution as an instructor has been the time I have spent off the podium. There are several subjects that I may not be familiar with or maybe seen as the tougher subjects or perhaps even boring. The time that is spent preparing outside of the classroom is extremely important. As an instructor first and foremost you have to spend countless hours researching a subject, analyze it, and anticipate questions. It is not a comfortable to be in front of students and not fully knowing the subject. Not only does the material have to make sense to you, you then have to take that material and think about how to explain it so that every different Soldier from every different background can make sense of it. Practicing teaching methods using different comparisons, developing training aids all takes a lot of time outside of the duty hours to deliver the best level of instruction possible. Then there is the time spent improving on the lesson plan. The lesson plans we receive are often times missing information, they order they are in doesn’t make sense and sometimes they are completely blank a give use nothing to go off of. That means dedicating the hours outside of the class room to improve or even completely build that lesson plan. Time must be spent to ensure that every piece of information the students need is included. This is not always possible we could easily spend an entire week breaking down the components of an automatic transmission and go into

Why am I a teacher? When I was a child I always had to pretend play school with my friends and I always had to be the teacher. My mom was a preschool teacher at the local day care center and I grew up seeing her cut bulletin boards and plan lessons. My best friend in middle school 's mom was also a teacher. I never wanted to be anything else and didn 't really have a back up plan if this teaching thing didn 't work out. In this paper I will take you on a journey through my educational years in elementary school and middle school, my time high school, delve into my time in college and then into my career as a teacher.