Reflection 1

Well, it's the end of my first week of this class and so far I have already learned a lot. I've been reading Dr. Wong's book, "The First Days of School" and I have been surprised at new things and been reinforced in ideas I have already had.

I don't think I realized how important those first few days of school are in setting up how the class will work out the rest of the year. I guess it already makes sense in that is how you're supposed to raise children. They are like sponges those first few years of life and even though they may not remember it all, they gain the habits and skills that will become automatic later in their lives. It's harder to change something later than it is to teach it earlier. Now that I think about it, I did notice the difference in my high school classes. I had this one teacher, Mr. Wigre, who had order in his classroom. Even if he wasn't there at all times, everyone would still be working on their projects. The schedule was: we start at the desks and he gave a tutorial/gave announcements, then we would go to our computers and get to work. Now that I think about it, he was way more impressive than I gave him credit for. He could have up to 4 levels of graphic design students in one period, yet he still managed to give the different levels attention as a group and as individuals. I don't know how in the world he did it all! But anyways, the scheduel was great and predicatable. I knew where I was supposed to be. I also appreciated the calendar he would put up on the white board that had due dates for each level. I appreciated it because I really need a calendar to look at otherwise I forget everything. There was just a wonderful structure that encouraged you to go at your own pace and was flexible for all learners.

Another thing that was mentioned in the book is that if you expect your students to do well and treat them as such, they will. I already noticed this in high school in different classes I would take. Sometimes there would be a kid who just did not do well and the teacher didn't expect them to do well, so they didn't. It was really sad, because some of them were my friends or had been my friends in the past. You always need to expect the best from people, usually they will try to meet your expectations, especially if you are genuine. In class we talked about taking it a step further and seeing the students as God sees them. They are his sons and daughters, as are we. It's such a powerful perspective to have. We have all been lead to teaching one way or another and Heavenly Father is trusting us to do the best we can do to help our brothers and sisters be successful and happy in life. What a responsibility and a blessing. The students need to feel cared for, we may become the only stability in some of these kids lives as the world becomes a meaner, more dangerous place. Kids now are facing things we didn't have to until much later. More children are coming from broken families and bad situations. We are their lifeline, the light that will lead them somewhere better. We need to reach out for them, you never know the impact you will have on someone.

Another thing I have been struggling with is asking questions to check for understanding. This is not the first education class I've taken, in fact I took the next levels for this class in TEE and Art Ed, and I've always struggled with checking for understanding. But I found a few helpful suggestions in the book. Since I'm making a lesson plan anyways, make the questions ahead of time. Also, taking from relief society, maybe hand out a few of the questions on slips of paper to random students so you KNOW there is someone out there with the answer, because they would have been listening to the lesson with that question in mind. The book says if you give the student more than a second to answer the question, usually they come up with something more thought provoking than "yes" or "no".

Another thing I have been thinking about lately is learning to love being a teacher and if I could ever get past my inhibitions and actually be able to teach. While I was reading about effective and ineffective teachers it talked about treating it as a profession and not a job. It's not just a paycheck, it's so much more than that. Teachers are the next external things after parents (and media) that help a child perceive their world and what they are capable of. I've only had some kinda scary experiences of teaching so far, but if I think I actually was able to think of the individuals I was teaching it would be less scary. I honestly don't know why I have a fear of public speaking anyways... But I know this is where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be learning. I would have never found this major on my own, I know there's something I need to learn here.