Chapter 1Becoming a Teacher: Looking Forward

and Backward at the Same Time

So You Want to be a Teacher? Teaching and Learning in the 21st CenturyJanice Koch

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Introduction

• What do you already know about classrooms, and how can you apply that knowledge to the complex experience of being a classroom teacher?

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• You have within you everything you need to create the kind of teacher you want to be.

• The information in this class will challenge you to identify the attitudes, skills, and dispositions that are required by the field of education.

• You will need to make a commitment to being a lifelong learner—expanding your ideas by what you learn from your students, research, and your own personal growth.

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• Donald Schon, and educational researcher, used the term reflective practitioner. This is a teacher who consistently reflects on classroom events(both successes and problems) and modifies teaching practices accordingly.

• The field of teaching, which requires such a heightened sense of self and a commitment to the social good, demands nothing less of its professionals than an ongoing examination of their authentic motives for teaching.

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Looking Backward: Talking About Teaching

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• When I recently asked a number of new teachers what made them decide to enter teaching, some of them remarked that they had always loved school.

• School was, for them, their happiest place to be.

• They decided to go into teaching to make a difference, to teach others in ways they wish they themselves had been taught.

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• They “fell into” teaching because they needed a job and teaching presented itself.

• Still others try to see if teaching is for them.

• Men are needed in early education so that children can see that men are able caretakers.

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• An educational autobiography is your own story of your life as a student. It has no definite length but usually responds to the following questions:

A. What do you think of when you think of school?B. Where did you attend school?C. Whey you walked in the building did you have a sense of comfort? Fear?D. Close your eyes and imagine you are back in elementary, middle, high school.

What was school kie for you? Do you remember what school smells like? Sounds like?

E. Try to imagine specific teachers. What grades did they teach? Who were your friends in those grades?

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What Is Your Metaphor? Establishing a Personal Philosophy

• Being a Tour Guide: a good tour guide takes travelers to new places, interprets experiences and sites, helps travelers understand and appreciate these new experiences, and develops a group atmosphere to maximize positive experiences for the travelers. A good tour guide has general goals in mind but is flexible and allows for exploration of ideas that arise from the group.

• The teacher sets the itinerary and takes the students through the lessons to many new places.

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• Being a Sailor: sometimes when you go sailing, you think you're going to reach a certain island. You set out for that island, but you find it doesn't have a dock. The dock is simply mot there. So you need to have an alternative plan.

• One other day's you have a destination in mind, but the wind is blowing in the wrong direction and the sailboat just will not go there.

• Yes on many days, teaching is like sailing, and the teacher changes course in midstream as he or she determines a better direction and more feasible destination.

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• Being a sculptor: sculptors are fond of saying that they don’t “make” their art, they uncover what is already hidden in the material. Similarly, teachers uncover the ideas emerging in the minds of their students.

• Climbing a Hill: teaching is a constant process of ascending an incline. Every once in a while your stop, take a breath, make sure everyone is comfortable, and then you start climbing again.

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• Philosophy of Teaching Statement outlines your ideas about teaching and learning, sets out techniques for being reflective about your practice, and describes how you will teach. It may also include your goal for yourself as a teacher. If you decide to pursue a career in teaching, your philosophy of teaching statement will form an important part of your teaching portfolio.

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What Qualities are Needed to be a Good Teacher

• “Attributes of Good Teachers.” How do these qualities match up with the ones you just listed for your favorite teacher?

• Goodness of fit a term generally used in descriptive statistics to describe the match between a theory and a particular set of observations.

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• You are always growing and changing as a person, and you certainly may develop qualities you don’t have now.

• You may also recognize areas of weakness that you want to work on.

• You are always growing and changing as a person, wand you certainly may develop qualities you don’t have now.

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Looking Forward:The Profession

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An Essential Profession

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Every child needs—and deserves—dedicated, outstanding teachers who know their subject matter, are effectively trained, and know how to teach to high standards and to make learning come alive for students.--President Bill Clinton, 1998

• Hence, it is you, the teacher, who will bring to life the ideas, the attitudes, the learning experiences, and the joy that are possible in a classroom.

• It is the classroom teacher who enables the curriculum materials to have personal meaning for each learner.

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• What teachers know an are able to do has such a profound impact on the future of education, you need to understand how it is that people come to learn.

• You need to spend time in classrooms to become familiar with different contexts for teaching and the diversity of students in our schools.

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• Yet we often expect students to become teachers after a period of only several weeks of in classroom training.

• This is why many teacher education programs(and yours may be one) require early field

experiences during which you observe and participate in the life of a classroom at the grade level you are thinking about teaching.

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• People have debated for years whether teaching is technically a profession in the same sense that, say medicine and law are.

• On the one hand, teachers do not get paid as much as doctors and lawyers, nor is teachers’ training as extensive.

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• Also, to many people, the knowledge that teachers posses about teaching and learning does not seem as complicated and technical as what a neurologist knows about the nervous system.

• On the other hand, teaching does share a number of attributes with other profession.

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A Code of Ethics

• The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest organization of teachers and other education professionals, headquartered in Washington, DC.

• It has 2.8 million members who work in preschools through universities.

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Teacher Characteristic

Ethical ConductEthical ConductResource: Reaching, To TeachResource: Reaching, To Teach

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Ethical Conduct

• Honesty

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Ethical Conduct

• Responsibility

T25

Ethical Conduct

• Fairness

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Ethical Conduct

• Respect for individual differences

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Ethical Conduct

• Compliance with the spirit and intent, as well as the letter of the law

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"An ethical leader demonstrates concern for the welfare of students by placing

it as the chief value that influences all decision

making.”

Quote from the American Association of the School Administrators Code of Ethics

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“Supporting and protecting every individual’s civil and

human rights is a key element of an ethical leader’s

behavior.”

Quote from the American Association of the School Administrators Code of Ethics

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"An ethical school leader abides by and carries out

the laws set forth on a local, state, and national

level.”

Quote from the American Association of the School Administrators Code of Ethics

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The Workplace:

School Climate and

School Culture

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• The day-to-day working of a school influence how you enact your philosophy of teaching.

• Schools are constantly in flux, depending on student enrollment, collaboration among colleagues, pressures from the local community and the vision of the school leader.

● Others think school climate as the general social atmosphere or environment in a school.

• The social environment is the sense includes the relationships among students, between students & teachers, among teachers, between teachers & administrators.

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• Students experience their environment differently depending on the rules and protocols set up by school administrators and teachers.

• School climate included the orderliness of the environment, the clarity of the rules, and the strictness of the teachers in enforcing the rules.

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• A school climate may be described as nurturing, authoritarian, or somewhere in between.

• We can also ask whether a school has sa healthy climate, one in which students are made aware of expectations of their behavior toward one another and their teachers.

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Concluding Thought

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Although teaching is an important and essential profession, idea about it are often oversimplified.

Our memories of our teachers are sometimes selective and misleading.

However, the interpersonal nature of teaching demands that those interested in the profession

take account of their own attributes and dispositions, school experiences, and future goals

for themselves as teachers.