In Pursuit

 The most influential adult figure in my life growing up, other than my parents, was my high school Biology teacher. He believed in me, but more importantly he made ME believe in me. He's the reason I want to be a teacher and I know that someday I want to have the kind of effect on my students that he had on me. My service learning this week was short since I'm going to be spending a far more significant amount of time helping in a couple weeks. But even with this short time, I can see the effect the teacher I have been sitting in with has on her students. One thing that I noticed she does to establish a personal connection with every student, is that she takes time to go around to every single desk to check in with them individually. She doesn't treat the class as one entity, she seems to make sure that every student gets one-on-one time every class, even if it's brief. I've also noticed that she recognizes student's skills by offering to let them come up and d...

 The first day of my service learning was... hectic. There was a mix-up in which classroom I would be helping in, and I ended up spending about 30 minutes in one, and then 30 in another with two different instructors. While it was inconvenient, I actually began to appreciate the ability to sit in on two different teachers from the same department. This allowed me to sort of compare and contrast their teaching styles and the learning theories they employed.  Both teachers taught 7th grade math. One teacher had me grade a stack of homework, the other had me file things into students folders. I was able to sit in a corner of the classroom for both which allowed a great position to observe. Right away I THINK I was able to discern that both of the teachers were using constructivism. My biggest hint for this was that they both seemed to be using a reward-based motivation for their students to compete their work. In my first classroom, the teacher opened the lesson by reminding her ...

 The first step of my pursuit into higher education and to dip my toes into the life of a teacher, is to complete some service learning hours in a local school. Service learning is aimed at helping me get experience in the field, to determine if I really want to be a teacher, and provide support to the local teaching community. I accomplish these goals by going into a classroom and assisting basically wherever I can. The support role is super important right now as many teachers are facing unprecedented amounts of stress as they navigate teaching in the covid-focused world. Alleviating even just a smidge of that stress will be extremely beneficial in helping the teachers provide higher quality education to their students. I knew of no better place to start my search for a school than facebook. I posted asking if any of my friends were teachers or if anyone knew of someone that would be willing to take me under their wing and allow me to come into their classroom. Almost immediately...