This semester I completed well over fifty hours of service for my service learning projects. The hands on experience I received doing field work was unforgettable. I remember being so nervous my first day working with Janessa Edwards, one of my teaching mentors. We were taking a group of fourth graders out to Antelope Island to conduct an environmental education field trip. Janessa provided me with all of the background information I needed to feel comfortable and well rounded presenting the curriculum, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I had to lead a group of 20 kids around an island I knew little about. I only knew what I had to teach.
My biggest fear that morning was, “What if they ask a question that I don’t know the answer to?”.
On the hour drive out to Antelope Island State Park, I confessed my fear to Janessa. She just laughed at me.
“It’s perfectly okay if you don’t know everything. If they stump you with a question, tell them, ‘Hey, that’s a really good question! You stumped me! Let’s Google it and find out!’”.
It’s okay if you don’t know everything. That was the best advice anyone could have given me. Growing up, I always thought that my teachers just had this unlimited vessel of knowledge. They always seemed so sure of everything they taught. I could only imagine how many hours they spent reading and researching and absorbing content. Rarely did a question go unanswered.
“Honestly,” Janessa said, “That’s how I know most of the random facts I know about that island. A student asked me a question that I didn’t know the answer to, and I Googled it. Just getting out there and prompting those questions to be asked, that’s our goal.”
Working in the field with Janessa taught me that my job as a teacher is not to get students to hear, memorize, and store information in their brains. My job as a teacher is to help them start “turning the gears”. My job is to show them how a process works, and allow them to formulate their own conclusions in a way that makes sense to them. The students are teaching themselves and retaining what they learn through their own personal experiences. My job as a teacher is to help them turn their brains on, engage their curiosity and explorative nature, and formulate conclusions based on what they can observe. My job isn’t just teaching students what they need to learn. My job is to teach my students how to learn.
This insight inspired me. Recently, I found a quote that reads, “For the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” The origins of this quote are widely debated. Most researchers and historians attribute this philosophical idea to the Greek philosopher Plutarch, who lived between 50 and 120 A.D.
This philosophy inspires me to invoke a sense of curiosity in my future students, and to try my hardest to pique my future students’ interests. I want my students to enjoy learning. I want them to desire to learn more. By creating interesting and engaging lesson plans and activities, I can inspire my students to continue to kindle their flame.
I also completed field work with Mrs. Bryner’s third grade class at Crestview Elementary School. Mrs. Bryner was so wise in the way she managed her classroom. Her students never seemed to lose focus, even during direct instruction.
Mrs. Bryner had a very organized classroom.
“Organization is key.” She told me many times. “Teachers do not have time to shuffle through or search for materials. In a classroom, every second wasted is one second less of your class’ attention. It is much easier to maintain the focus of your students than it is to try to lure it back in.”
Mrs. Bryner was exactly right. Each morning she would prepare her classroom for smooth transitions. She strategically placed her supplies and materials around her classroom in a way that she could access while still holding the attention of her students.
Mrs. Bryner also believed in gentle, quick behavior corrections. She never spent more than a few seconds correcting distracting behavior. If a student was talking, instead of yelling, or explaining that she needed her students to listen, she would simply call the student by name. The student would look up and make eye contact, and she would put her one index finger up to her lip, simultaneously, as she continued her lesson. The student would immediately understand the gesture and quiet themselves. If this behavior correction did not work, or the talking picked back up after a few seconds, she would walk over and stand by the student and calmly place her hand on his or her shoulders for just a few seconds. Still, she continued to teach her lesson.
She did not allow a distraction to turn into a classroom-wide disruption. She used calm, respectful cues that her students clearly understood.
One other thing I really loved about Mrs. Bryner’s classroom management is that she always incorporated movements into her activities. She would take her class outside as often as she could. When seasons changed, she would walk her students outside to make observations. When they returned to the classroom, she would have them write their observations in a journal. Later, she and her students would incorporate those observations into each subject area.
During math, which tends to be a subject that is taught mainly by direct instruction, Mrs. Bryner would have her students count by hopping. When working with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or times tables, she would use her students as her “counters”.
All of Mrs. Bryner’s activities involved movement of some sort. One morning, I asked her why.
“I have thirty third graders in this class. I have to have them moving, otherwise they will become bored. When they get bored, they start chatting. When they start chatting, they start playing. One teacher can not lure in the focus of thirty hyper third graders, especially at my age. I like to get them moving around to burn off a little bit of that energy. Think about it. The public school system expects 8-10 year olds to sit in a desk for almost 6 hours straight. I don’t even want to sit in the same place for six hours straight!”
She had a point.
Mrs. Bryner’s philosophy about classroom management was to never let things get out of control, and to keep your students engaged. She believe that teachers had the prime responsibility of maintaining the focus of their students.
“A lot of teachers will want to blame their students for not paying attention, or say that their class is full of “bad” kids. They’re kids! If you have a problem maintaining focus in your classroom, you should question your teaching methods before you question whether or not a student is a “good” or “bad” kid.”
Mrs. Bryner helped me mold my philosophy of classroom management. Her classroom management philosophy goes hand in hand with my teaching philosophy. Engaging students’ interests and making lessons fun and exciting for students is one of the best ways promote learning. When students are having fun and are interested, they want to participate. The want to know how to learn.
One thing I didn’t get a lot of experience with during my service learning was assessments. I often helped grade assessments and homework, but I was rarely in the classroom when an assessment was taking place. In the future, I plan to interview teachers about their methods of assessments and why those methods work. Personally, I am a terrible test taker, and I fear that my test anxiety may be noticeable to my students. I want to assess my students in the most effective ways possible, while making them comfortable with testing at the same time. I feel like testing is really unavoidable in schools because of state standards. Because test scores are being viewed as a reflection of teacher efficacy, I must learn to become comfortable with testing, and figure out the best ways to prepare my students.
Before beginning this semester and beginning my service learning projects, I really had no idea what to expect in a classroom. I knew I wanted to teach because I feel personally compelled to educate future generations. Our public school systems are in an “era of reform” as our textbook describes. Things are changing; as they should. I want to be a part of the changes that occur during this era of reform. I want to influence the importance of education, especially at a young age. Early education is what is creating the basis for a student to be able to learn in the future. The most important concepts are taught in elementary school: problem solving, the alphabet, writing and grammar, the scientific method. Without these basic concepts, learning at higher levels would be completely impossible. I wanted my field experience hours to be spent with elementary aged students, so I could observe the ways that they were being taught. I also wanted my service hours to include alternative ways of learning. I chose environmental education because I wanted to see how students would react to learning in an outdoor environment.
Teaching environmental education influenced my teaching demonstration because now, I want to include teaching about our environment in every lesson that I can. Whether it is incorporating the environment around us, or taking students on environmental field trips, I want some aspect of our environment to be integrated into my “big idea” lesson. When students learn and create these positive experiences with nature, I believe they begin to form a bond with it. People tend to avoid destroying the things that they have bonded with.
Jim Henson said, “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember who you are.” I want to include in each of my lessons a part of me and the things that I care deeply about. I care deeply about the preservation of the Earth and the preservation of our environment. If I can instill a little piece of that into every student I teach, maybe one day they will care about the environment just as much as I do.
One thing I didn’t get a lot of experience with during my service learning was assessments. I often helped grade assessments and homework, but I was rarely in the classroom when an assessment was taking place. In the future, I plan to interview teachers about their methods of assessments and why those methods work. Personally, I am a terrible test taker, and I fear that my test anxiety may be noticeable to my students. I want to assess my students in the most effective ways possible, while making them comfortable with testing at the same time. I feel like testing is really unavoidable in schools because of state standards. Because test scores are being viewed as a reflection of teacher efficacy, I must learn to become comfortable with testing, and figure out the best ways to prepare my students.
During this course’s discussions, we discussed a lot of opinions pertaining to licensure of teachers. We discussed whether or not taking teacher exams was enough to ensure that you are competent enough to teach. We discussed different paths to licensure, whether it be through a teacher certification program, or through a bachelor’s degree.
Some people feel that teaching exams are a good way to measure teacher competency. Others disagree. I feel that exams for particular areas of expertise may be necessary. For instance, you would want to have your children taught math by someone who can do basic algebra and you would want your children to be taught chemistry by someone who understands covalent bonds. For particular expertise teachers, I do think exams are a good way to understand a level of competency of a particular subject area. However, I think there are better ways of finding out if a teacher will be a good teacher. I think an examination of a portfolio would be helpful and hands on experience in a classroom setting would be a good thing to require. I think it is hard to really measure what makes a good teacher from a paper exam. What makes a good teacher, I think, depends more on what motivates that teacher, personal organization, time management, and patience levels. I don’t think those are skills that can be measured on a test.
I think that licensure is great. I think it absolutely should be required to teach. I just think that the way to obtain licensure should be different. You take the courses. You take the test. I think it is starting to become more evident in our society that education and learning is much more than that. Education and learning are processes. These processes mold character. These processes mold not what students think, but how students think.
a student's guide to teaching students. 