Social Relationships Of A Teacher 's Environment

| |An Experiential Study of Elementary Teachers with the Storytelling Process: Interdisciplinary Benefits Associated with Teacher Training | |

Mr. Rose presents many descriptive vignettes of teaching professionals in his life who have influenced him both positively and negatively and whom he has retained for emulation or distinction. These characters in his life include teachers from grammar school throughout his college experience. All have in one way or another left a considerable imprint on his recollection of school and learning.

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.

Despite the many challenges I face daily, remembering that I significantly influence the lives of each my students will help me in becoming a better teacher leader. Reason and Reason (2011) states that a mission will not come to fruition without ownership and ownership cannot be stimulated without consistently reminding everyone why they come to work each day. It is my mission every day to transform lives in my classroom and school environment. I have chosen a career in education because I believe that it is one of the most important functions performed in our culture. I believe that teachers individually and collectively have the ability to not only change the world but to improve it.

A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind is an amazingly touching story for any future teacher. It gives hope to every student who is trying to make it in life. It enforces the importance of teacher expectations, human capital, and cultural capital. It touches on funding issues and the irrelevance of standardized testing. Cedric Jennings' life was everything but easy. He never had the opportunity to take the short, easy path, instead always being forced onto the long, winding road; in Cedric's case it gradually led to a world of success. Everyone, future teachers and others alike, should take the lessons in this story to heart, both as an example and as inspiration.

Educating Esmé is a book of journal entries of a first year teacher who faced and overcame so many instances on both sides of the spectrum of good and bad. These first person experiences show us how she grew not only as a teacher but also as a person. It also allowed her to see the other side of the school system but from the other side of the desk as the teacher. This inspirational teachers name is Esmé Codell who wrote this to show her thoughts without all the sugary coating but with in-depth feelings and emotions which really attracts the reader’s attention because they can relate to these instances because they either are going through them themselves or have seen it in their educational experiences. She expresses and demonstrates multiple

Throughout this last semester, I have been student teaching at Shawswick Middle School where I was able to take a critical look at myself as an educator. Though the teacher and I did not see eye to eye, this disagreement helped me to better form my own pedagogical beliefs and establish confidence in myself as an educator.

“No number of classroom observations will enable a teacher to demonstrate the skills of maintaining records, communicating with families, or engaging in professional growth.” (Danielson, C. (n.d.). Handbook for Enhancing Professional Practice.) Domain four of Danielson’s Framework of Teaching represents the “behind the scene” work of teaching. Mrs. Clevinger was gracious enough to share some of the elements that she encounters in this domain.

After hearing Kristina’s background of her road to becoming a teacher, I began to ask her questions about her teaching experience. The first question that I asked Kristina was what influenced her decision to become a teacher? Kristina’s response to this question connected greatly to my own influences. She had known that she wanted to teach from about second grade. Kristina nannied and babysat for multiple kids when she was younger. The experience she had with watching kids had an impact on what she wanted to do in her life. Having the opportunity to relate to children

The Life Lesson Trough a Teacher’s Eyes, is a book written by Dr. Jillian Laderhouse. This book is like a journal where Dr. Laterhouse tells personal experiences that have shaped her life. The book commences off with a strongly affirmation where Dr. Latehouse states that be a teacher is her life’s calling. In the introduction of the book Laterhouse establish her foundation as a teacher, she mentioned many experiences that shape her as a teacher and recall the fact that she lived in a teacher profession family. She mentioned stories about her childhood, stories that have shaped her life into the teacher profession; she stated “I grew in a teacher’s home”. As I read the book I noticed that I have not had the same opportunity as Laterhouse to live in a teacher’s home. However, as I continue reading the book I saw that the lessons learned by the author can help me even though I did not grow in a teacher’s home. It is evident in the book the spiritual life and God centered life.

A person can have multiple identities for when they are in different social situations (Stets & Burke, 2000; Akkerman et al., 2011). This is true for teachers as they often reconstruct their identities to fit the workplace (Woods & Jeffery, 2002; Akkerman et al., 2011). The factors which influence a teacher’s identity has been extensively discussed by academics, as the dynamic is important to understand for developing effective professional learning programs, and what causes career changes into and out of teaching careers (). These influences this paper is discussing includes external pressures set from governments and schools, internal values discussed as people’s emotions and beliefs, and contextual factors such as the teaching

We began our first year of self-study with the guiding question of: “What can we learn about our teaching by critically discussing the texts of our teacher education practices?” We learned that our teaching experiences could become engaging texts open to multiple interpretations leading to new knowledge. Our culminating take away was a renewed commitment to model for teacher education students how to textualize, share, and grow from their own and each other’s experiences (Cameron-Standerford, et al., 2013).

In order to develop strong relationships with my students, colleagues, and parents, I plan to do a variety of little things to yield big results. The relationship that teachers have with students is vital to the classroom environment. In “You’ve Got to Reach Them to Teach Them,” Mary Kim Schrek writes that “the human encounter between teacher and student is often a more powerful teaching tool than the academic content, the grade, the data analysis, and the hours spent picking apart the curriculum” (Schrek, 2011, p. 5). In order to establish such relationships, I plan to follow a four-step procedure that I read about in an article by Nina Sears on the National Education Association’s website. Sears’ article suggests that a teacher “get to know their students, individualize the curriculum, watch what they say, and keep trying to reach students” (Sears, 2014). As an attempt to get to know my students, I will create a little survey on the first day of school for each student to fill out; questions would include asking my students what their favorite color is or what type of books they like to read. By doing this, I will learn about my students’ likes and dislikes and how to use their answer in the curriculum.

School begins at age five, or for some even before that, and so begins the excruciating routine of waking up at an early hour to be ready to be at a place where you didn’t ask to be, and have an older stranger teach you about something you don’t understand. However, in the life of a human being this routine that goes on for years is essential to our lives, as well as those older strangers who teach about subjects that you don’t understand. Those older strangers have the responsibility to pass on knowledge to their students and the given knowledge, whether taken or not, will determine their future. Is everyone comfortable or willingly to accept the teachings of a total stranger? Of course not, therefore this total stranger has to have an identification to the students, but not necessarily just a name. Teachers must develop a relationship with their students because teacher-student relationships affect a student 's academic excellence.

To be an effective teacher in the future it is important to be aware of yourvalues about teaching. Write your mission statement or philosophy that you willuphold with conviction. To each your goals do the following tasks.