Practicum Engagement

As teacher’s we are committing to a life time of learning and development of ourselves and our learners.

As a student of education, I have been able to gather many ideas and opinions about practices and ideals I want to implement in my future classroom. My philosophies about education are still being formed and continually change with every class I visit and with every educator I encounter. My ideas, admittedly, come from random experiences and intangible texts, but as I gain more experience in the field through my courses, my philosophies about teaching will become more clearly defined. These few ideas I have now will undoubtedly be added upon as I enter student teaching and my professional career, nevertheless, they are concepts of which I hope to never lose sight.

Your main role as a teacher should be to teach in a way that involves and engages your student every session. You should also make sure that each individual is learning with consistent assessing of their progress and keeping records of this, to help we have a teaching and learning cycle (Gravells, A. 2012).

Teachers should be continually learning and assessing their teaching practices through reflection and collaboration with other teachers. It is the role of the teacher to use these teaching practices to develop in students the abilities and skills that will remain with them throughout life. Teachers should be role models for their students, to provide encouragement and praise, reassuring their students that they can achieve their dreams and reach their goals. Teaching should not only focus on academics but it should also focus on character education. Students need to be prepared to enter into their community and have the ability to interact with people from different backgrounds, cultures, religious backgrounds, social status, and values. It is important that teachers work with students to help them learn the skills of cooperation, patience, communication, empathy, understanding and teamwork, these skills are extremely important for the successful integration into further education, the workforce, family life and other social interactions. Teachers can achieve this through focusing on and encouraging group work, peer tutoring as well as games and activities that focus on social behaviors.

Education will always be the primary source of student’s success in the workforce, community, nationwide and globally. Teachers carry the weight of ensuring students are learning what is required to become productive members of society. As a teacher, the success of my students is the most important goal. There are so many pedagogies, philosophies, strategies, and materials teachers are able to use to be productive in the classroom. Every teacher has their own preferred

Rita Pierson, an American educator, once stated, “Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be” (“Every Kid,” 2013). Her comment is reflected within my philosophy of teaching. One’s philosophy of education defines who they strive to be as an educator; it clearly forms the way one will teach and guides their expectations for their students. Children are the future of our country. Therefore, I believe it is the responsibility of a teacher to strive to be the best educator possible by having cultural competence and pedagogical knowledge to effectively teach their students. This can be done by motivating students to learn through self-discovery based on their interests and what is relevant to their lives. It is a teacher’s responsibility to guide students towards their own goals to grow intellectually and personally as a unique individual. Accordingly, students will be inspired to use acquired skills and knowledge towards the real world.

As a teacher, one of my main roles is to motivate my learners, to develop their ability to learn also to develop my learner’s aspiration to learn. When you train to teach you read about delivering training and how to facilitating learning, but in reality you do much more than that, your role as a teacher is not just about teaching your subject or preparing learners for assessment. The focus of your role as a teacher I feel relates very much to inspiring your learners to change and develop their personal, social and professional skills to the best of their

My practicum was a good learning experience of practical public health work and exposure to how zoonotic disease is handled by multiple public health departments. I appreciated my experience giving me the knowledge of day-to-day public health work and what it means to be epidemiologist. My classes in epidemiology prepared me well for understanding terminology and the process of outbreak response. Particularly, my Applied Epidemiology course provided me with the critical thinking skills to evaluate published literature. In reviewing my work I used multiple public health competencies including biostatistics, epidemiology, communication and informatics, leadership, professionalism, and program planning.

As an educator, it is my job to find new ways for my students to learn that coincides with their particular learning style and takes advantage of their strengths. In all practical terms, this will mean finding new ways for each of my students to learn in their own particular way. As a whole, my students will need more reason to learn with authentic experiences, hands-on

One of the most essential aspects of the educational process is to know how to motivate students for learning. A challenging part of being a teacher is to know and learn how to motivate students. First of all, a good definition for motivation is as Byrnes quote “Motivation is construct

Successful teaching occurs when the teacher is able to select the most efficient method for reaching out to each student’s individual style of learning and inspire students to rise to their highest potential. While the responsibilities of a teacher are extensive (as one can serve as a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a disciplinarian, an entertainer, a facilitator), I believe that students should play a big part in shaping own education as well.

I have been fortunate enough to have a variety of supervisors in my practicum placements. I had several female supervisors and one male supervisor who have all contributed to my training. The books and discussions in class brought up a discussion that I have never thought about before, which was the gender of the supervisor. However, one thing that I could say with certainty is that gender does play a role in the way supervisors conceptualize things. At my practicum there are gender misunderstanding that occur. The questions that are asked to me are different and more geared towards possible sexual countertransference, which makes me feel like I am treated with “kid gloves”. From my point of view there is a gender misunderstanding because

The teacher’s role is to value all of their learners as individuals and to treat them equally and to create stimulating and effective opportunities within the class that enable the development and progression of all students. The

As a teacher, one’s role and responsibility should be towards the learners’ ability to learn and for learning to be as tailored made for the individual learner.

As a teacher, I believe that I play a crucial role in the success of every learning process. To guarantee that learning will take place, I make sure to create a learning environment that is relevant to the students’ background. Throughout my teaching experience, I learned how to love my students,