I am so fortunate to have this tutoring experience in ABC Elementary School. I explored many teaching styles and techniques, but most importantly, I have discovered the definition of a remarkable teacher. A remarkable teacher is someone who is dedicated, supportive, and compassionate.
Teaching is not just a job for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. It is a job 24/7. When teachers are not in class teaching, they are spending time on lesson plans. When they are not spending time on lesson plans they are working with students' parents. When they are not with parents, they are constantly thinking about what they can do to be a better teacher; to make their students successful. If a remarkable teacher was not dedicated, he/she would simply teach the material in class and be done with it; but that is not how a remarkable teacher operates. They want the students to learn and apply what they learn. He/she is on foot all the time and willing to face challenges that present themselves.
Support is the number 1 way to give students pride in their education. Support must come from many different directions. First, support from parents is key. When parents encourage their students to do well, students feel that they have power and control of their education. When a teacher can piggyback on this support, students have ambitions. A remarkable teacher will do as Ira Shor suggests, encouraging students to question curriculum and ask "why are we learning this?" Teachers will also treat all students equally and acknowledge that differences prove dynamic. Supportive teachers will teach many different approaches to a problem. Teachers will always give constant encouragement so their students know that someone believes in them.
Compassion is must be the initial goal of a remarkable teacher. Why are teachers teachers? It is because they care. They care about students and they want to make a change in their students' lives. Teachers are there because they want to be positive role models for their students. They want their students to believe that everyone has equal opportunities in the world and that it is the students who have full responsibility of their futures.
Dedication, support, and compassion are three qualities that a remarkable teacher must have. I know that I want to be a remarkable teacher. I want to be an inspiration to my students. This tutoring experience has opened my eyes to the many opportunities that teachers have in the world. I have realized that education gives anyone power. It gives people the power to control how they live their lives. It has shaped my identity as a teacher. This world is full of education. I think that one of the most important ways to learn about the world we live in is to expose ourselves to diversity anywhere and everywhere we can.
When we look back at history, we see the millions of people who were rejected an education. The many court cases of Thurgood Marshall that chipped away at the Plessy vs. Ferguson case gave us the most rewarding end result. Brown vs. Board of Education. This was the most important decision ever made about education. It disposed the idea of "separate but equal." It gave minorities an equal education. Today, I see these inner city schools being looked down upon because they are not funded the way upper class schools are. Also, because they are mostly composed of lower class families. Whether a school has lower, middle, or upper class students does not make the quality of an education any better than the other. Education is not only about learning the facts and developing skills, but it is also about social experience. I believe that these inner city schools have more of an upper hand than any other schools because they are the most diverse. The students and teachers are so different. I believe that we learn the most from our differences in each other. Our country is more diverse than ever before. We are the country that offers opportunity. People fought for many years for segregation in schools to stop; so why can we still see segregation today? Once people in this country can accept that whites will soon bethe minority, we will learn to cooperate with other races and build alliances that we never thought were possible.
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Hi Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI am happy that you've written about Brown v. Board of Education. You are right that the ruling ended de jure segregation. It is no longer lawful to set up segregated schools. But, do we have equal access to education? De facto segregation is alive and well. We need to challenge this inequity--Jonathan Kozol argues that apartheid needs to be challenged through social and legal protest.
Let's see if we can make the promise of Brown v. Board a reality,
Dr. August
When I think about education as a whole, I do think that although everyone is entitled to an "equal education," there really is no equal education. I mean everyone is created equal, but we are not actually equal. With the different classes of income in our country, some people have access to things that others don't. For instance, if someone who is extremely smart and comes from a very wealthy family, they have more of a chance of getting into Harvard than someone who is extremely smart that comes from a much lower income family. De facto segregation may not be as alive as it was 40+ years ago, but it still is alive and will always be alive to a certain extent. As more racial segregation is dying, income segregation is taking its place. Money certainly cannot buy happiness, but it can buy things that bring happiness to life, such as a great education. Therefore, I do not believe that we all have equal access to education. Our country is full of opportunity; but unfortunately, sometimes money is what can get us opportunities. Until racial and money segregation are completely eliminated from this country, we cannot say that everyone is equal.
ReplyDeleteHi Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. Discrimination works its wormy way through our social, political, and economic systems. The only way to dismantle de facto discrimination is to name it, claim it, and expose it in our classrooms. Your connection of discrimination to money is also insightful. Discrimination has material consequences.
I am confident that you will work toward justice in your classroom,
Dr. August