Essay Example on Career as A Teacher
Demonstrating professionalism is witnessed throughout all stages of life. Professionalism can be seen in how our teachers dress and interact with us. I will demonstrate professionalism by dressing appropriately for my future career, creating appropriate relationships with my students and colleagues. Integrity is critical to the education field, being honest about your students’ grades and curriculum. Dishonesty creates distrust with those around you. Students need to know their accurate grades, so they can get assistance where needed. Teaching the curriculum is part of integrity, you are given a list of requirements you must teach. If the curriculum is not met, students might fall behind in other courses. Integrity will be demonstrated in my future classroom by actively reaching out to students on how I can assist them and their grades. I plan to actively collaborate with my peers to ensure I maintain on track with the curriculum and create my calendar to follow. Professionalism and integrity are key essentials to being an educator.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. As a future educator, I am excellent at ensuring those around me understand the material. I work at Walmart as a team lead, my job is to make sure my associates know how to do their job. I use Walmart’s idealogy of tell, show, do, and review. I first tell my associates the importance of the topic they will be covering, so they know not to misuse it. Showing is my chance to teach, I explain everything in detail while I go over the training topic. Once I’ve shown my associates how to do the training topic, I then allowed them to try from the beginning while I watch them. This ensures if they mess up on the process that I can guide them back on track. I then allow them to practice by themselves for a while to ensure understanding. If they have questions they are more than welcome to ask. Reviewing happens a day or two after I have taught them their new skill. This time I let them show me how the task is to be done. I love teaching new things to those around me. I often say “If it does not make sense, feel free to ask me a question,” followed by “Does that make sense? If not I can explain it differently.” My associates often tell me, I remind them of their teachers. Which is ultimately my end goal to be an impactful teacher. Impactful teachers have many great strengths, not just mine. Teachers have to be leaders, learners, helpers, and many more. Many teachers that have touched me were amazing at tons of things. This is one of the reasons I chose education, to be as great as those I once had.
With strengths also come weaknesses. My weakness is presenting, which is essential to teaching. I am not sure why I have awful stage freight but I am working every day to overcome this obstacle. I plan to overcome this weakness by pushing myself to present and speak out more. I realized this was an issue in my junior year of high school, since then I’ve worked hard to challenge this. I became president of Educator’s Rising and held a bi-weekly meeting this helped a lot because I became comfortable speaking in this group. One time we went to compete and I had to present a book I wrote to a panel of judges, I was terrified. I practiced for days, but once it was time I was not scared anymore. Furthermore, I force myself to speak at store meetings and give insight as to what is going on in my area. I struggle less than I did in high school, but it is still a challenge I face daily.
Skills as an educator can always be improved upon. Many people can help mentor your skills, such as a department lead, a fellow teacher, principles, and teachers of your past. A department lead is in charge of their education department, typically holds meetings, and is nominated by peers. This would be a great source to go to if it was a department-specific skill that needed improvement. Fellow teachers are great collaborators, they often give feedback to each other to learn from one another. I tutored for sixth grade my senior year, often I would see other teachers come into the classroom and listen in. They would also give feedback to the teacher about what they could improve on or what they did great on. Principles would be an excellent resource to help with disciplinary issues. Not knowing the correct path to take, principles deal with disciplinary actions daily. They would be able to mentor you till you understood the process. I’ve had amazing teachers in the past and they are great mentors too. Mr. Dildine was my most influential teacher, he would work with students one on one to help them in his course. Remembering those of our past can mentor us into the educators we want to be. There are resources everywhere for a teacher if they look for them.
My skill set can always be improved as an educator. I plan on developing my skills by asking for criticism and using it to my advantage. Many people see criticism as an attack on their skills, however, I view it as an opportunity to grow. I will also sit in on my fellow teacher to develop my skills. Learning from those around you is a great way to make sure you’re doing your best. Furthermore, I will ask my students on a survey how well they are understanding each topic, that way I know if I need to go over the topic again. I want the best for my future student and I will work hard with the surrounding resources to ensure they understand. My skill set will always be adapting and growing with more knowledge.
Children are known for acting out in the classroom, however, there are steps we can take to avoid these behaviors. Most schools have a “chill zone,” in place where the student can sit quietly by themselves till they’ve calmed down. I would also take time and speak to the student about their behavior and how it is not appropriate for the classroom. Some students might not know because of their home lives, so speaking to the student will help them understand their behavior is not appropriate. I will also set boundaries in my classroom, personal and professional boundaries. I have witnessed students try to be best friends with their teachers, which is not appropriate. Setting my boundaries will help my students know that I will not pick favorites and become best friends. Boundaries are set by when a student asks a personal question, that I do not feel comfortable sharing, I will tell them that my personal life is not available for questions. There can also be issues with other teachers, if I were to have an issue with a teacher I would tell my immediate supervisor for them to handle the situation. Gossiping and spreading lies creates a lot of issues, so it is best to report them before it gets too serious. Taking the right steps is crucial when dealing with inappropriate classroom behaviors.
Being aware of your behavior is also important. If you teach with a bad attitude, your students will also develop the same attitude and not succeed well in the class. Having a positive attitude toward everything you teach will allow your students to enjoy the class more. Furthermore, it will show your supervisor you are passionate about your career. Every teacher I’ve met that has become “Teacher of the Year,” was passionate about their teaching, and students’ success. Positive attitudes show that we care, if we do not care why should our students. Some days will be a challenge but remaining positive will help us become the best we can be.
Communication is critical to the educational environment. Communication with students about how they can improve their skills shows compassion for students and their success. This works both ways, I often tell my associates at work, “I am not a mind reader, please come to me and ask if you need help,” which is true for students they must be able to communicate they need assistance because sometimes it is not obvious. Communicating to parents about assignments and their student’s progress in the class is also important. Parents can assist children away from school, but if they are unaware then there will be no progress being made at home. Peers communication allows you to know what part of the curriculum is being taught, sometimes teachers fall behind too and need to be caught up. Ultimately having an open line of communication with everyone is essential to the success of future students and me.
