It’s the end of the school year – my first unofficial year of teaching. The great opportunities I had this year to student teach and then fill a long-term substitute position require significant reflection so I can move forward into the next stage of my teaching career.
When I began in the fall, I knew how I thought I would be as a teacher, and I knew what I believed about education, but I didn’t know how that would affect how I taught or what I would look like in the classroom. Working everyday has shaped and molded me as a teacher. Now I can very clearly explain what my classroom would look like on any given day – very busy, group activities, me roaming and guiding, somewhat loud and chaotic, but things are getting accomplished – and what my role is in that classroom.
As a lifelong learner and high achiever, I have several goals for my teaching career floating around in my head as the year winds down. Some things I want to continue doing: connecting and relating to my students. I got lots of feedback from my students that that is one of my best qualities as an educator, making it easier for my students to feel comfortable and thus take active control of their learning. Another thing is keeping the goals and objectives of the course, the state, the national standards, the school and my students in mind when planning and doing an activity or unit. Keeping the material relevant for students keeps them engaged. They dislike busy work – it has to have a well-established purpose for me to assign it.
Some things I would like to work on: finding the balance between being a friend and being an authority figure. A few seniors suggested that although I did a fairly good job of keeping a rowdy group of them controlled, I could use a little bit more bite to keep the class in line and reign them back in. This is true. Others said that my respect for them and their respect for me is what made the class function, and part of this was connecting with them and giving them some freedom in the class. This can be taken too far, though, and I need to be careful how much freedom I give my students. Another thing I want to work on is creating challenging activities, especially for my college-bound students. I think what happened is I became more relaxed with the assignments as they became less willing to work because they were graduating. It was a downward spiral, then, that I couldn’t reverse. I would also like to read more resources and gather more materials for developing more creative and engaging lessons that meet the needs of all types of learners.
So, as I move forward to my first “official” teaching job at Clinton High in Iowa, I will continue to strive to be the best educator I can. My goals as a new teacher are very large, but accomplishable. I hope that I have a circle of support like I did at Sheboygan Falls so that I can grow and learn more every day about how to meet my goals and the needs of my students in an English classroom.
By: 
