Proposal

After reading back on my BlogPost, I have come to see that there are a few subject areas that I constantly talk about. The first area that I talk about is how teaching has to be a passion. If someone enters the profession of teaching and they don’t love the kids and what they have to do, they aren’t going to make a positive and lasting impact on their students. The students are there to learn and they look up to their teachers. Teachers play a huge role in the development of each student. Teachers have to be able to love what they do. How much a teacher cares about his/her students, focuses on teaching each kid, and goes above and beyond to do their job are the qualities that make up a great teacher. Leading off of the qualities that make up a great teacher, is how teaching is one of the most important jobs that there are. Teachers have such a big job and a huge responsibility when it comes to shaping children and their learning. Teachers are shaping the future generations. Since the role of a teacher is so big and important, then the big question that every teach wonders is, why are teachers so underpaid? Since teaching is such a demanding job and it is effecting the future generations, then why is it constantly disregarded? Teachers ask themselves this all the time. Teachers work just as hard as everyone else. They are there from morning to evening teaching kids, helping them if they don’t understand the lesson, dealing with parents, grading, assigning homework, and so much more. What people don’t realize is all o the behind the scenes things that teachers have to do. They have to come up with lesson plans, go to meetings, hold conferences, grade, etc. Most teachers also have families, so after a long day of teaching and hard work, they most likely have to come home and take care of their families. A day for a teacher is just as hard, if not harder, than other workers. Since teachers have all of these responsibilities and duties, you would think that they would get paid more for all of their hard work that they are doing to create a positive and lasting effect on the future generations of the world.

When I think of education, I think of kind, caring, and genuine people who love what they do and want to positively influence their students. I think that those qualities lead to one becoming a great teacher, Teachers are special people who care about others and take the time to help teach their students. If someone wants to be a great teacher, they have to obtain the qualities that make a great teacher. When it comes to teaching students who are planning to major in education how to be a great teacher, I think that it is beneficial to have your students take a look inside themselves and then have them ask themselves “Why do I want to become a teacher?” If there is a genuine response to this question, then that student has the ability to be a great teacher. I think that the philosophy of education is simple; love what you do. If you love and care for what you do, it will lead to great things and great outcomes for you in your field. Especially being a teacher, the most important thing for you is to love your job. Waking up every morning should be easy because you are excited to go and see your students. If you love what you do, it makes you great at what you do.

My hope is that I find a great school with wonderful students who want to learn and respect me as a teacher. I hope to be able to impact their lives in some way because I am good my job. I hope that once I get into the field, I love going to work every single day to see my students and to see what kind of things that my students and I could accomplish that day. Where I get this belief of loving what you do is from my mom and my other teachers. My mom is a teacher and after constantly talking to her, she always tells me how much she loves her students and going to work. The teachers, who I consider to be great teachers, love getting up every day and coming to work. You can tell how passionate they are about their job and how much the students mean to them. I think that it is also important for a teacher to remember that not only can they have an impact on their students, but their students can have an impact on them. Knowing how much their students want to be there and learn allows for the teacher to want to be there. Also, according to a few academic journals I read, it showed that student-teacher relationships are very beneficial when it comes to a student’s learning. This is because a student wants to feel comfortable in the environment that he/she is in and they want to make the relationship with their teacher in order for them to feel safe and like they can trust their teacher. After further looking into this topic, I would like to further investigate how exactly these relationships are beneficial for the student. Whether it helps the student learn, communicate, with self-confidence, etc. I want to be able to identify the main places that student-teacher relationships benefit and help develop each student. I also want to see if the relationships differ based on gender and if it is easier for one gender to form a relationship over the other. The qualities that make a great teacher are the most important thing when it comes to looking at the philosophy of education and the formation of student-teacher relationships. These main key points, also lead back to the big question that all teachers and those majoring to become a teacher ask themselves, “why are teachers so underpaid?”

Annotated Bibliography

Fisher, S. D., J. L. Reynolds, and C. E. Sheehan. "The Protective Effects of Adaptability, Study Skills, and Social Skills on Externalizing Student-Teacher Relationships." Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 24.2 (2015): 101-10. Web.

            In this academic journal, the positive relationships between teachers and students are explored. When students have a positive relationship with their teacher their adaptability to the class increases, as well as, their social skills and their study skills. These positive relationships with teachers move to create a more positive atmosphere between them and their students. By creating this positive atmosphere in the classroom, it becomes a better place for more students to want to learn and feel comfortable learning. I plan to use this article to show how positive relationships between students and teachers create a better learning environment for the students and how this relationship positively effects the students.

Wang, Feihong, Kevin A. Leary, Lorraine C. Taylor, and Melissa E. Derosier. "Peer and Teacher Preference, Student-Teacher Relationships, Student Ethnicity, And Peer Victimization In Elementary School." Psychology in the Schools 53.5 (2016): 488-501. Web.

In this academic journal, the student-teacher relationship is further looked into. It is looked at to see if the students who have a relationship with a teacher are the ones that experience being bullied throughout their time at school. It is also looked into to see if a student’s “popularity” effects the whether or not they have a relationship with their teacher. I plan to use this article to show if there are any positive or negative effects to student-teacher relationships.

Matzat, U., and E.m. Vrieling. "Self-regulated Learning and Social Media--- a ‘natural Alliance”? Evidence on Students ‘Self-regulation of Learning, Social Media Use, and Student-teacher Relationship." Learning, Media and Technology 41.1 (2015): 73-99. Web.

In this academic journal, the idea that social media can effect a student and their learning is examined. Instead of it just being on the effects of social media on a student, it is also looked further into to see if a teacher can have an effect on a student if social media is getting in the way of their studies. It is also examined to see that if students can learn through self-regulated learning through some form of media. I plan to use this study to show if there is any type of correlation between social media and teachers in a student’s daily life.

Thijs, Jochem, and Fenella Fleischmann. "Student-teacher Relationships and Achievement Goal Orientations: Examining Student Perceptions in an Ethnically Diverse Sample." Learning and Individual Differences 42 (2015): 53-63. Web.

In this academic journal, a study was done to see how student who have a relationship with their teachers do in school. Throughout the study, it was found that students who have a positive relationship with their teachers do better in school because they create goal plans and want to achieve in school. I plan to use this article to show how positive effects of student-teacher relationships effect a student and create a more motivated learning style for them.

Mcfarland, L., E. Murray, and S. Phillipson. "Student-teacher Relationships and Student Self-concept: Relations with Teacher and Student Gender." Australian Journal of Education 60.1 (2016): 5-25. Web.

In this academic journal, it is further examined that student-teacher relationships really do benefit a student’s motivation, behavior, and cognitive skills. These type of relationships can play a large role in a student’s social and emotional level throughout their years of schooling. It is also examined that there are three important aspects to a student-teacher relationship. Those aspects are closeness, conflict, and dependency. I plan to use this article to show the importance of and effects of student-teacher relationships.

BlogPost7

It is important for all teachers to know what they are going to teach to the students. Being prepared and on time for your classes are super important qualities for a teacher to have. If you aren’t prepared, then how can you expect your students be prepared and want to learn? There has to be a level of respect between students and their teachers. Teachers should also know and understand their students. It is important for teachers to make connections with their students and for their students to feel comfortable talking with them if they ever need anything.

It is also important for every student to know that their teacher believes in them and that they can succeed. If a teacher shows a lack of interest or belief, it can really hurt a student and how they view themselves. Teachers should motivate and support their students, in order that their students know how much their teacher believes in him/her. Bad things always seem to outweigh the good, so if a teacher doesn’t show interest or belief in a student, it effects the rest of their school year and how they are going to perform for the remainder of the school year.

Going off of these two very important skill sets that a teacher should have, when planning my lessons, I will keep these skill sets in mind. Teachers are very important when it comes to shaping a student and who he/she is. It will be very important to keep the students and how they learn in mind when I begin to plan my lessons for my classes. 

FieldPost3

What kind of relationship does the teacher have with his/her students?
The teacher that I observed seemed to have a good type of relationship with her students. She was able to communicate with them on a level that didn't make her seem very superior to them. She was also able to show that she was in charge and get their attention when she needed to. The students seemed to respect her and didn't disobey her. She had ask one student to stop talking and instead of him making some face or showing an annoyed reaction, he stopped talking and got back to listening and the work that he was asked to do for that class period. She did a great job of controlling of the classroom when she needed to.

Is it beneficial for students to run more of the class?
The English class that I observed was doing a socratic seminar which allowed the students to run the class and the discussion. The teacher did a good job of guiding them through their first seminar without doing it for them. She was very thorough in all of her explanations and then when it came to the discussion, she stepped back and let the students lead it. She made sure that the students discussion points were factual and that they had evidence backing them up. She also made sure that the students were respectful of others opinions and told them that it was a discussion and not a debate. I think she did this because she wants the students to understand how this type of seminar works and how you have to first respect others and their opinions before you debate one another. Overall, I liked the way that the teacher led this seminar. It was different from the socratic seminars that I did in high school, but I found her way to be very beneficial and a way that allowed every student to have a say in the discussion. Just like discussed in Chapter 10 of Educational Foundations, it's not just about test. This socratic seminar set the students up to develop a higher level of thinking and understanding about the material that they were reading.