The Art of Teaching

For the past month, I have been teaching students how to add and subtract, rotate, reflect, and transform objects, and what the economic problem is. While going through school studying economics and elementary education, I never would have thought I would be teaching both elementary and high school economics. I also never thought how difficult teaching would actually be. You hear all the time that teachers are undervalued and how hard it is to actually be a teacher. As a student teacher and a part time math aide, I went along with the idea that teaching is difficult and teachers are not appreciated enough, even though I was not a full time teacher. I experienced how hard teaching can be while student teaching, but even then I had the support of the classroom teacher in the room with me.

I went into this job thinking that I had teaching figured out. I thought I knew the obstacles I would be going through and the challenges that laid ahead. Soon, to my amazement, I realized how much I under estimated the profession. I know I am only a first year teacher and I am just beginning to set up all of my lessons, but no amount of training could have prepared me for the real world. Spending Sundays preparing for the next week or two only to find out that your lessons need to be changed because things didn't go as planned in the classroom or staying up all night to grade papers, to make new lessons, and to create a test, isn't exactly listed in the job description.

Along with staying up late and getting things done last minute, I had trouble planning through the language barrier that many of my students would have to go through. I was taught how to differentiate based on students readiness levels and ability, but differentiating based on language had yet to be covered. Many of these kids are very intelligent. Their readiness levels and ability are among the top in the class, but when they don't understand English, instruction has to be taken down a few notches, which can often lead to the entire class going down a few notches, regardless of language barrier.

This teaching thing had become very tiring with no light at the end of the tunnel, until yesterday. Yesterday we had our first parent/teacher conferences. I was ready to hear the complaints about how their child feel like they aren't learning anything or that their child hates my class. Instead of being hammered down with critiques, I was uplifted by the numerous amount of positive feedback and praise. I was told how much students enjoyed my class, that the new techniques I was teaching were paying off, and the material I presented was interesting. I can't say everything from the conferences was positive, but for the majority, it was. I was even told by one parent that they thought I was a great influence on their child, which really meant something to me. Any teacher in the school can teach their respective subject and give new information to the students, but having a positive influence on a child's life goes beyond the classroom.