Reflective Essay: My Journey As A Teacher

The role education should serve in society today is to help develop students into unique individuals. As I read “A Homemade Education” by Malcolm X, I grasped a better understanding of racism in America and felt fired up to continue fighting the unequal system we live in. Throughout my high school career, I read many different books about the history of racism and articles regarding modern day racism. I quickly found interest in the Black Lives Matter movement and I will continue to stand by it for the rest of my life. It is vital for young people to take in the information they read at school and to apply it to real world problems they can possibly help concur.

My eyes automatically drifted to the tall bright palm tree that moved along with the rhythm of the wind. It’s leafs danced as they presented their welcome. The sun shined down and hugged me with warmth, giving my skin a tingling, but satisfying sensation. I had come from Virginia to California, the famous, constantly spoken of state, that finally reached my sight. The state presented its beautiful attributes to capture my wonder and mesmerization. My appreciation for the state kindled a great desire: to implant the seeds of my future into its enriched land.

My journey began when The Deron School hired me as a paraprofessional. I learned so much about myself in a classroom setting of diverse learners. First, my strong qualities, such as patience, flexibility to change, and positivity, were simply demonstrated for this position. I have witnessed staff members resign due to stress from unpredictable circumstances. However, I can simply understand the rough days which strengthens my performance to find a solution. Since the students are learning at different levels, I work with each one to achieve academic skills; in addition to recognizing issues, encouraging socialization and independence. Also, I have earned the title as a Registered Behavioral Technician through training, exams, and BCBA observations. Applied Behavior Analysis is very useful while managing behaviors that interfere with learning. I am invested in knowing the needs, weaknesses, strengths, and fears of all the students. A trustful bond will lead students to feel valued in their abilities. As a paraprofessional, my goal is to

In the chapter “Most Likely to Succeed” in the book “What the dog saw”, by Malcolm Gladwell they talk about how teachers are valued and praised. Studies have proved that a good teacher in a bad school is more effective than a bad teacher in a good school. Gladwell compares it to a football player throwing a football. You can tell if someone will make it to the NFL or is NFL worthy by the way a football player throws a football. This is just as useful as a master’s degree, or bachelor’s degree. Teacher’s have such impeccable abilities such as the ability to engage a class, interact with each student, and encouraging teamwork are much more important

Being an outstanding teacher goes beyond acquiring the competence and knowledge to deliver rigorous academic instruction to a diverse group of students. Outstanding teachers possess a multitude of qualities making them unique and unforgettable to the children they serve. I believe that outstanding teachers are passionate, inspired, creative, compassionate, patient and understanding. They take the time to know their students and know them well. They appreciate what attributes to each child’s story and take ownership of their role in the child’s life for that school year. I feel that I have the skills and attributes of an outstanding teacher because of the pride I take in the love and support I show my students and families. I know teachers have the power to make a lasting difference and I start every year with that mindset. I aspire to make a big difference in the lives of little people.

My writing process is what some might say is the least conventional and probably not the best, but I enjoy the way I write. I write the same way people brainstorm, the same way someone talks without revising in there head. I take the topic given and I think of a few ideas I could go with. Once I believe I have the idea I will go with, I open word on my lap top and begin writing. I first write the base of my paper getting the idea down and all of my thoughts. Then on to the introduction and the conclusion, after all of that I revise and review what I wrote to make all of it make sense. Taking my jumbled decoded idea to something everyone can understand.

Well let me start off by saying English is one of my toughest subjects, my writing process is still in process. I like to read material that catches my attention. If it does not catch my attention I will have a hard time trying to read the material. Also the same with writing. I am not a talker, so writing for me is straight to the point and then I’m done. Trying to generate ideas and other things to write about is a challenge for me. It will normally take me a couple of hours to write a good paper, and I’m only taking about a rough draft. The way I generate ideas is to just freestyle it until I have enough words typed or written down that I can so what play with and try to make sense out it. If I think about a subject

Writing essays and other types of posts has always been difficult for me. But, throughout this composition class, I have learned many interesting and new things about the different types of writing styles. When starting this class, I considered myself to be an average writer with run-of-the-mill vocabulary, ordinary sentence structure and typical finished products. This class has helped me greatly improve my writing skills in a variety of ways. I have learned multiple things by taking this class, such as new ways to approach writing and that there is much that I still need to learn about composition.

Tomorrow’s doctors will face demanding multidimensional health challenges (World Health Report 2007). Doctors are going to need a broad range of essential, core skills to deal and adapt with these concerns. Rational intelligence alone is insufficient to meet these challenges. It has been considered that reflective practice is one tool that can help doctors become experiential, life-long learners, and develop the core skills, attitudes and character traits that will let them flourish in complex medical systems, while maintaining the humanistic side of medicine (Ryan, 2010). The skill of reflective practice included in the core competencies of the doctors in the training and development curriculum (Foundation training curriculum, 2012).

Children remember many teachers who stood out as monsters in the educational world. On the other hand, a few teachers became memorable in the eyes of their students because of their dedication and involvement. These teachers achieved their goal of having students enjoy their class while maintaining a proper school education. Involved teachers who portray professionalism and allow student-teacher relationships entice students to openly participate in class.

I know for a fact that I have evolved as a learner these last few weeks. I not only know that because it has become easier for me to finish paragraphs and essays faster, but I have also learned the paragraph and essay templates by heart. As being a student that's part of the GT Program, I have had to finish two essays in a week, and I’ve had extra work along with my work in regular language arts and reading classes. Throughout the last few weeks I have learned how easy it is to organize an essay and a paragraph, I’ve learned the steps of writing a novel, and I have learned that being part of the GT Program is a privilege, not a right.

I can consider my professional development experience in two parts: Before I became a teacher and after I became a teacher. During my teacher education at university I used to imagine myself as the teacher of that lesson and I used to try to draw some tips for my future job. I observed my teachers’ way of teaching, their rapport with students and their reactions. I always commented on why or why not they behave in that specific way and search for examples to be applied in my future job as a teacher. I believe that these observations provided me with some valuable and conclusive clues for my job. For example, one of my English literature teachers at university was the most outstanding example for me to be considered as an effective teacher.

Academic success to me is achieving good grades and understanding the material to get good grades. Academic success also means to have an good attendance. I already get mostly A’s and B’s, but I am not good at staying on top of things. To improve my academic success I will attend class more often, be more organized, pay attention in class, and not procrastinate.

This internal practical internship offered me an opportunity to focus on using the knowledge and skills acquired during the related courses on behavior training with children and cognitive behavior therapy with adolescents to practice my therapeutic work as a child and adolescent psychologist and a chance to see how psychological therapies (behavior training and cognitive behavior therapy) could be delivered in different settings.

A good teacher should know how to engage students in learning activities and be able to respond to diverse students needs in the classroom. The classroom observations I have seen these past week has shown me examples of good teachers. In all the classes I observed the students sat quietly and were always ready to raise their hands and answer questions. In my kindergarten class all the students were really into their assignments and wanted approval of their work from their teacher. A good way I saw a teacher trying to keep her students engaged was giving them a time limit for how long they had to do the assignment before they had to present their results or move on to the next activity.