“Teaching is the one
profession that creates all other professions.” Unknown. Teaching is
the backbone to all things in life. From the very first step a baby
takes to learning to play a video game with a grandchild, teaching
is right at the forefront. Teaching is where the journey starts.
Whether young or old, previously educated or completely uneducated,
big or small, career oriented or trade seeking; education is where
it all begins, and teaching is how we get there. Life begins with a
teacher.
Professionalism is
defined as the competence or skill expected of a professional. Those
words in conjunction with the teaching profession can vary and
waiver greatly depending on the person, time, place, circumstance
and even generation. Professionalism holds key values with some
additives to put emphasis on those values.
Character, conduct, integrity, reliability, optimism and
competence are a few professional characteristics that hold merit in
any profession out there. The teaching world is slightly different
because you’re not always dealing with adults or other
professionals. Relatability, patience, rationale, geniality and a
high sense of efficacy are critical values when instructing minds.
Every teacher must find their professional niche, let it adapt to
their surroundings and sculpt it into the type of professionalism
their heart desires.
The
course of study is the single most integral part of teaching.
Curriculum is the basis of the everyday classroom. Following the
curriculum and instructional standards mandated by the state is a
requirement for all teachers. With that being said, teachers are the
lecturers, the facilitators, the mentors, the advisors and the
guides. Teachers are the curriculum distributors and administrators.
Teachers are the ones who take that state mandated curriculum and
reshape it into light bulbs flashing on in a kindergartener’s head,
enhance it into future goals for a struggling high school junior and
maximize it into a career for a 45-year-old trade school student.
Curriculum is the core of education but we, as teachers, are
developers.
Teach the way they learn! Period. End of paragraph. Turn the page.
Teaching methods are simple. You teach the way they learn. Step one
would be to get to know the students. Next, figure out how they
learn best. Last, use your high sense of teacher efficacy to teach
them that way! Trial and error, questionnaires, classroom
activities, assessments; the list can go on and on with ways to
determine the best teaching method for a child to not only be
academically successful but to also flourish socially, physically,
emotionally and linguistically. There is no better teaching method
out there than to TEACH THE WAY THEY LEARN!
Classroom management is all about organization. Time organization,
room organization, lesson plan organization, even down to
noninstructional schedule organization. It can be critical to ensure
appropriate behaviors, accomplish timely schedules and follow
structured curriculum. Classroom management is teacher dependent and
teacher specific. Each teacher has their way of managing their own
classroom. It can vary greatly and generally depends on what works
best for the teacher and the students collectively. A teacher must,
again, find their groove and determine what best creates an orderly,
respectful and productive classroom environment for all. Maintaining
a copacetic classroom is imperative to ensuring successful learning.
Assessment is a very broad term. At first thought, it means testing.
In the education setting, it means testing a student to see where
they are academically and/or where they should be in a classroom.
The problem with this term is that assessment in teaching really
means so much more. Academic testing is its primitive tendency, but
a teacher can learn so much about a student, and how to teach a
student, by completing other assessments. Evaluating a student’s
participation during center time can give insight to struggling
areas in their world that may not come out on a pencil/paper test.
Monitoring a student’s daily behavior can disclose the nature of
their home life which in turn effects their school life. Having the
ability to gauge a student’s temperament can help a student shine
even on bad days. All of these are types of more unconventional
assessment that are just as important as basic academic testing.
After all, it is about the whole child, right?
As teachers, we worry about the aforementioned topics. We stress over them and hope we do them right and well. We aspire to be as professional as we can be while providing adequate curriculum using appropriate teaching methods while managing our classrooms sufficiently and accruing valuable assessments. It’s a lot to take in. It’s a lot to give as well. Teachers have lives depending on them just as much as any other profession, just in a different way. Teachers shape minds, build social skills, develop self-esteem, break down emotional barriers, open eyes to new worlds and create futures, and those are just some highlights. Teachers play fundamental roles in every life they touch. Therefore, it is crucial that a teacher know these factors and recognize that they hold a student’s life in their hands every single day that they walk through those school doors. A teacher must embrace that responsibility and live for it. A teacher must search every corner of the world for what can best help that student learn, grow and succeed and then give everything they can to immerse that student in achievement. After all, “It is not so much what is poured into the student, but what is planted that really counts.” Unknown.