My Personal Experience : My Favorite Student In The Classroom

As we pulled up to the massive elementary school building, I begged my mom to let me stay home from school, just once. As usual, she said no. Realizing my attempt to get out of school was futile, I shouldered my backpack, swung open the door, and trudged over to the front door. I would rather be anywhere else than here. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether.

This semester, I was a teacher assistant for Dr. Finley’s psychology 101 course. The experience to TA has been a really valuable, and rewarding experience. I’ve definitely gotten the chance to develop skills in the professional context. The variety of tasks and the workload pace was very enjoyable for me. The opportunity of being a TA at times proved to be challenging but I find ways to successfully manage some of these adversities. Overall, there’s a plethora of things that I can take away, and I plan to utilize some of these tactics into my future goals and career aspirations.

My new assignment moved me to be with the fifth graders in Ms. Bolds’ room. I had heard of each of these students but hadn’t met them. It took some adjusting, and more adjusting, but I got to know each of these new fifth graders. We also invited some “pull out” students to our room every day for some extra help with Math and Writing. This made our room crazy at times. One of the things I love about this job is that I never have the same day twice.

Learning can be difficult, especially in a class like history, but lucky for me my 7th , 10th , and 12th grade teacher made history one of my favorite classes. Coach Fowler is the best teacher and coach that I have ever had. He really knew how to make class fun and keep me focused. He was also my football Coach, which also resulted in me wanting to do good and act right in his classroom. He knew when to joke, and he also knew when to take things serious. Having a teacher and also a football coach that you look up to and respect really encourages you to do good and not let him down.

Working alongside peers who were very different than me, but were also similar. In Kindergarten, I was placed in an experimental classroom that was designed to integrate students with special needs into the mainstream classroom. I remember students receiving extra attention, but the teachers were always focused on each and every one of us building that connection. I still talk to Mrs. K every few years. She built a very special connection with her students.

I had just graduated high school and was still trying to sort out what I wanted to major in. Over the summer, I volunteered at a boy scout camp as a lifeguard. During the week, I taught boys how to swim, how to correctly use a paddle, and what to do when someone needs help in the water. With so many boys, varying in age and easily distracted, it was a challenge to wrangle them all in and get them to focus. But at the end of the day, I felt accomplished. I had effectively taught the boys something that many of them did not know before. I thoroughly enjoyed that

One of the best things you can do before entering the teaching business is to have experience. Throughout this course I had the chance to work in an actual classroom setting, create my own lessons and teach them to the students in the kindergarten classroom. It was an amazing experience and helped me become more comfortable working with early childhood students. Each lesson was recorded and showed my strengths and weaknesses in being in front of a classroom. The three of my strengths and what went well in my microteachings are; creativity, student engagement, and preparation. The three components that I could work on are; redirecting the students, lesson management and time management.

Let’s be honest, thinking of a teacher that was memorable for reasons that don’t include, giving F’s, giving homework, or giving detentions … is kinda tricky. But there was one teacher who impacted my life in ways I never thought were possible.

I had been put in an Intro to Teaching class last year, and was asked to help pioneer a new class that allowed students to get real teaching experience by going to a real classroom and working with real students for half a school day. I jumped on this opportunity, and had an amazing time working with my Cooperating Teacher and her amazing first grade class.

I volunteered at my EF's house where she helps her students for my Service Learning project. My duties were to help EL students who needed help with their work.and help her with her gardening. The EL students were all from the same country as me. It was interesting to help them because I remembered myself. I didn't know English like them when I first came here, so I saw my old self in them.

When I was in middle school, a new girl joined my class during the last trimester. As I was sitting next to her I was asked to help her get used to the new school environment.

We thought today we would go to the same class, and do the same things, but we did not. We actually started the class by interviewing Cullen Chaffin, our librarian, Mrs. Tammy Chaffin's son. Cullen is an actor and a college student that is about to graduate in December. When we first walked in the room he introduced himself and we all said "Hi!". It was kind of different to see myself on the laptop and on the board but it was a good experience. Cullen seemed kind of tense and nervous, but it went very well. Shortly we all got settled in our seats and began. We asked questions such as where do you want to be in ten years, who is your role model, and how his choices leading up to where he is now has made him grow up and come of age.

that so many teachers in my past had a big impact on me. It was clear that this was for me.

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.

All it takes is seven seconds to completely assess and categorize a person you’ve barely met. This has happened to everyone, especially as a student. Small visual clues such as one’s expression, their race, gender, demeanor, and clothing, set the precedent for how the teacher will view their students from the beginning of the school year to the last day. Most favoritism teachers dole out is subconscious. The reason they may gravitate towards and dote on particular kids could stem from the initial assessment they made or even bias. Humans tend to gravitate towards others similar to them. While there is the belief that teachers playing favourites is natural, necessary, and unavoidable, this behavior is harmful to the student, harmful to their peers, and is often completely irrational.