Monday, January 24, 2011
My Current Identity
I would like to use this space to define who we are, in the grand scheme of things. How is it that you define yourself? How do you define your character as both a human and a teacher? We will revisit this "identity" at the end of your student teaching experience...The due date will be a week from Friday (February 4th).
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I define myself as a person that is calm, quiet, and patient. I also think I am a pretty sensitive person, the type of person that cries every single time she sees the movie Marley and Me. I have found that when I am in the classroom, I tend to be less quiet even though I would still choose student discussion over lecturing any day. I tend to stay calm in the classroom as well. I do not get mad very easily, even though I think there is at least one class at my placement that will end up testing me. My patience can be both a blessing and a curse in the classroom. Sometimes classroom management problems can get out of hand, because I am too patient and I wait too long to address the problems. Additionally, my sensitivity can result in hurt feelings if I think that students do not like me or the way I teach. But in a way my sensitivity can also be a positive attribute, since I can be sensitive to my students needs.
ReplyDeleteMy background: I grew up in northern Indiana. I came to Purdue in 2002 in search of my undergraduate degree. I made the choice to become an English teacher after a series of excellent English teachers in my middle school and high school career; and, the thought that it would be a wonderful venue to help further my curiosity in education and literature. See, the plan was never to teach high school English for the rest of my life. My life goal has always been to receive my PhD in something…so I came to college for answers. As an undergraduate, I wandered through my first couple of years looking for my inspiration. For a while, I was sure that I would not even receive my teaching license and instead go straight into a graduate program in Medieval Literature. Thankfully, I met Janet Alsup…and found my inspiration. With her support and guidance, I became an English teacher and am now back here at Purdue, four years later, to begin what I have been waiting to start—my graduate program in Education focused in English/ Language Arts. There are so many wonderful things that I can say about teaching literature. I could not have chosen a better content to begin researching teenagers and teaching. The amount of things that can be taught, researched, and observed through literature and composition are endless…morality, existence, purpose, etc.
ReplyDeleteI define myself as curious, and while this definition is still evolving, I find real growth through curiosity. My classroom was the space I first needed to express my curiosity and compassion, as both a character trait and an instructional tool. This curious and compassionate self created a need in me so real that I soon had to resign from teaching and begin researching curriculum and instruction with the students in mind and my curious stance as position. As a graduate student, this curiosity allows me a larger space to explore curriculum and instruction, and allows the pursuit of questions I had to ignore as a practicing teacher (okay, not really ignore, but explore one by one or case by case, depending on the affect the research would have on my instruction time and curriculum implementation). Questions such as, why and how students learn? What is it that makes a student want to learn? How do we, as teachers, inspire our students? How do we make them curious? How do we keep them curious? Why do they even care what we have to say? Can we introduce them to questions that define their lives? Can we teach them how to ask questions and look for answers?
Today, my life has become a journey of research and observation, a direct reaction to assimilation. After a few years of resisting the dominant narratives and refusing to assimilate my students, I realized that my curiosity wasn’t going to change the curriculum for all, but only for my students. As a researcher or student, I aim to blend the differences that exist in American culture to the curriculum. Who knows what will happen from here, some day I hope I will evoke my curiosity in teachers that must or will disrupt the schooling process, and make teaching a career for professional learners. One great place to start? With practicing pre-service teachers…in other words—you!
I would have to define myself as loud, passionate, reliable, and involved. I grew up in an extremely close Italian family that has always challenged me to have my own opinions and beliefs and has supported me throughout my educational journey and every other choice I have made. We are an athletic family and my passion for sports was something that originally sparked my interest in teaching. As a child I was involved in every sport my parents could sign me up for, and both my mom and dad never missed a game. In high school I suffered an injury to my knee and was unable to participate on the basketball team. Instead of totally hitting the bench I was given the opportunity to be the assistant coach to the JV girls basketball team. While participating in coaching I was able to build relationships with girls of a younger age and I also got very close to other coaches and teachers. It was at that point I realized that my interest in teaching English and passion for coaching could combine to make the dream job.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I am better suited to teach at the middle school or junior high level because I feel like I am able to relate to students at this age: especially because I have a younger sister who is in the 8th grade. I have coached kids at this age level and I feel like they look up to me and appreciate the work and dedication that I have to whatever it is that I am doing. I think because I have so many younger cousins and a younger sister I have forever been surrounded by this age group and have always enjoyed helping them with their homework and difficulties in school.
I think in some ways my identity will change when I first enter into the classroom. Even though in my every day life I am flexible and have my own opinions, in the classroom I feel like I will have to stick to my guns and make sure my students understand that I mean business. I will also have to be careful to not push my opinions on my students.
I mostly think that my identity and personality will depend on the students that I have in my classroom and I am looking forward to getting to figure out just who I will be in the classroom.
I'm a closet shut-in (and not just because of the recent weather) who didn't come to Purdue to be an English teacher. As fate would have it, I became involved in helping at an after-school program at a local high school. Since then, I made the switch to English education (though I also want to teach history)and have found myself the happiest when I'm actually in a classroom. That's not meant to be cheesy: I become much less motivated about becoming a teacher during periods when I'm not in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'm worried about is teaching writing. The students at this school are notoriously bad writers, so I will have a lot of pressure to make improvements. I'm not quite sure that I'm prepared to do that yet.
I'm also afraid that my lack of assertiveness will prevent me from controlling the classroom. I'm afraid students will think that they get away with a lot of things in my class.
Finally, I'm worried about the workload. I'm a very detail-oriented person,and this translates to how I design my lesson plans. I understand, however, that I won't have the time to work out every detail that I would like to. I'm also co-teaching, so I have to coordinate and design lesson plans with two other teachers. This is great in that I'll have two more people to help me out and to learn from, but it also means I have to surrender some of my control in the lessons I design.
I have a very interactive teaching style. Being a parent of four teen girls I know how important it is to keep students attention. I am able to use insight from my children to enhance my lessons since they are around the same ages I will be teaching. Perhaps one of my worst features is that I get easily distracted. Getting off task is something I have always struggled with.
ReplyDeleteI went back to school after working for many years. I live with my husband and kids about an hour from Purdue. We own a house and a business. It has always been my dream to become a teacher. My children were the driving force that sent my back to college. They encouraged me to follow that dream.
I am me. I am Kendra. “Oh, what’s in a name? ” –Shakespeare. Like my name I am arbitrary and yet full of meaning. In my opinion life is like this. I try to live up to my name. Kendra, in the old English origins, means “understanding one with wisdom.” I try to understand. I try to turn that understanding into wisdom. Wisdom is a virtue and I try to live by as many virtues as possible. This doesn’t always work out which makes me thankful that persistence and fortitude are virtues as well. I love learning as I believe knowledge to be scared and I enjoy sharing this with others. I believe that education is an experience and I as a teacher I wish to give my students the best experience possible. I will do this through the continual persistence in the attempt to be the best Kendra I can be. If I expect my students to learn from me I must be willing to learn from them. My philosophy of education can be summed up by this ancient Chinese proverb “Give a man to fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
ReplyDeleteHumm..how do I define myself? I am outgoing, spontaneous, adventurous, friendly, compassionate, and talkative! My relationship with Christ, and the relationships I have with my husband, my family, and my friends largely contribute to the definition of myself.
ReplyDeleteMy relationship with Christ definitely impacted my choice to become a teacher, not because I want to push my beliefs on others but because I want to lead a life where I can give to others selflessly and I want to love on my students and encourage them.
My personality thrives in group settings, around those who are similar to me and around those who are completely different from me. I love new perspectives and I love to hear peoples' stories! My desire to be around others who are different from myself and who can challenge me to keep learning was another incentive to becoming a teacher. I feel the classroom is the perfect place to be continuously learning and discovering new things and new perspectives. I want students to feel and know that their life has purpose and they are capable of doing great things for themselves, for others, and for the community around them.
As a human I want to be a loving, humble servant to others. I hope that I will be a loving servant to my students, and I will challenge, engage, and empower my students with the learning experiences they have in my classroom.
I consider myself to be an outgoing, motivated, caring person. I grew up in a very small town and finally feel like I have been able to evolve into my own person. When I first came to Purdue I did not like to talk in class and kept quiet, but I think now that I have gotten more comfortable and have matured more as a person I am becoming the person I was meant to be. I like to have fun in life. I can be serious when I need to be, but I believe life is too short to not enjoy it. I want to be able to allow my students to enjoy learning in my classroom. Do I know how to go about this? Not yet, but I am hoping my student teaching experience will help show me what kind of teacher I am meant to become.
ReplyDeleteI began playing sports at a young age and have been coaching JV softball for three years now. I think my experiences with sports have allowed me to develop leadership skills that I can carry into the classroom. These skills can help me communicate with the students and hopefully show them that I am there to teach them; not to goof around. My coaching experience has also showed that it is important to get to know the students. In 10 weeks I may not be able to know my students very well, but I want to know why they operate the way they do. I have found that building some sort of relationship (no matter how small) with my players enables them to be more willing to listen to what I have to say. It shows I care about what they are doing and can look at them as an individual. I am beginning to realize that it does not matter whether or not my students (or even my players) like me, but instead what matters is what I am teaching them and what they are learning from me.
I am looking forward to learning a lot from my cooperating teacher, and will hopefully be able to take a lot away from this experience. Of course I am nervous, but I think once I get into the classroom I will be able to be myself.
After reading everybody's comments, it is definitely hard to come up with something new!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I would define myself as open, outgoing, and overall flexible. I think that something that defines a person is the experiences they have, and I know I have said that many times in class. Overall, I truly believe that despite all the learning that happens in the classroom, what happens outside of it is also extremely important. I have had a wealth of experiences including some that are very important to me (BGR). I really felt like I made a difference in that program, and the goals I achieved and overall benefits I received from that are what drives me to educate future leaders/students. As many people know, teaching is currently something I am worried about, and grappling with the decision to attend graduate school, or teach is something that has consumed me the last few weeks. Overall, I also define myself as a motivator and enterpriser. I really want to try to find opportunities this semester to grow, and help my students grow in as many ways possible.
If I am defining myself for everyone, I have to include my family, because they are also what drives me in a huge way. Something I learned these last few years and weeks, is that they always have "my back". They are individuals who have gone through a lot, and have taught me a lot in the process. I think I would like to transfer this in my teaching as well, and be there for my students in as many ways as I can. I know that this is a lofty goal, especially without being fully engulfed in the classroom, but I hope to make an impact with the time I am given.
Overall, I would say defining myself is difficult because I am still learning and growing. What I hope for is to give kids opportunities, because that is what was given to me. I hope to learn a lot about myself throughout this experience, and use this to really define how I can make an impact.
Can't wait to see everyone soon!