Evolving Educators Teaching Teachers for a Better Tomorrow
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[Applause]
when i started my freshman year of
college as a journalism major
i figured that teaching would be kind of
my fallback
i figured well if all else fails i guess
i’ll just be a teacher
like the old adage says those who can’t
do teach
when i switched my major to education
sophomore year i quickly realized that
what i thought was the easy route
took a lot more work than most
anticipate
in a perfect world every classroom would
be exactly like the ones in education
textbooks
but with the ever evolving american
education system
this usually isn’t the case social and
cultural change is what drives change in
classroom culture and climate
and in order to keep up with the times
one of the most important traits for a
new educator to have
is adaptability adaptability quite
simply comes from experience
now when a student doctor starts their
residency
they already have countless hours
of field observation under their belts
they’ve spent time on hospital floors
and in doctor’s offices they’ve done
observations they’ve worked with both
cadavers and live patients alike
sometimes the first classroom experience
that a future educator has
is when they set foot in the classroom
for their first day of student teaching
in the final semesters before they
graduate
now i’d like to argue that teachers are
just as important when it comes to
raising a child
as a doctor in fact teachers are some of
the most important adults in a child’s
life
so why is there such a discrepancy why
do we put more effort into getting
experience for our doctors than our
teachers
first we’ll look at some of the things
that are changing these classrooms in
the first place
that are causing the need for
experienced future educators
one of the biggest and most prevalent is
the evolution of technology
we have seen unprecedented technological
growth in the past 20 years
and while this has provided many
learning opportunities and resources for
teachers to utilize
it doesn’t come without its faults one
of the biggest is now that we are
constantly competing for the attention
of our students
according to university of california
irvine study it takes
23 minutes to regain focus from
receiving a smartphone notification
that’s half an hour where we have to
regain our undivided attention to the
task at hand
it adds up after a while and you begin
to see how precious little
focused learning time we get both in and
out of the classroom
a very harmful effect that technology
has had on our classroom culture
has been cyber bullying the spreading of
hateful words and images across the
internet
now not only affects our older students
but as access to technology improves
now we are seeing young middle schoolers
and sometimes even elementary schoolers
that are the targets of cyber bullying
these hateful words and images often
times lead to hateful acts
on the forefront of many people’s minds
when it comes to what changes classroom
culture and climate
is the prevalence of violence in schools
prior to columbine
mention of violence in american schools
was practically non-existent
now it seems like we can’t go more than
a few weeks without hearing about a
violent act in an american school
when people think of violence in schools
and how it affects classroom culture and
climate
they think of the precautionary measures
metal detectors at school entrances
frosted glass on cafeteria windows so
potential intruders can’t see in
and clear backpacks so teachers can see
what students are bringing into their
classrooms
when i think of violence in schools i
think of a tweet i read once
that said quote american teachers cannot
give their students
tylenol but they’re expected to perform
combat medicine
this was attached to an article about
how
some teachers pre-school year training
now
includes how to staunch the blood flow
from a bullet wound
not only in our schools do we have to
worry about those inflicting violence on
others
at an alarming rate we are worrying
about students who are inflicting harm
upon themselves
from 2000 to 2007 the suicide rate in
those ages 10 to 24
was 6.8 per 100 thousand
as of 2017 that number
was 10.6
that’s a rate that has almost doubled in
less than two decades
and these heavier hitting topics are now
the responsibility of teachers to tackle
as the roles of parents change and
family structures change
now more than ever we have students
sitting in classrooms that are the
product of single-parent homes
that are the product of foster homes
that have working parents who may not
have time to not only help their
children with their homework
but to discuss things like violence
cyber bullying
suicide so it may seem like the odds are
stacked against us
the world of education may seem like an
impossible wall to climb
the key to success here really is
experience
this means getting students in
classrooms doing observations working
with kids one-on-one
working in small groups being a
teacher’s aide all
well before student teaching through
lakeland
i have spent countless hours in a
variety of classrooms
doing observations and i’ve also spent
time in two
separate second grade classrooms and it
has been some of the most helpful
experience in shaping how i’m going to
teach my future students
but there’s another component
this could be working in a before after
school program
being a playground monitor getting
involved with a boys and girls club
a scouting organization a youth group
because
when we look at kids outside of the
classroom we don’t see them
just as students we see them as
kids we get to learn things about them
as people
what their favorite movies and music are
what sports they like to play about
their siblings their family their
history
no longer do we see them as just test
scores on a page we now see them
as individuals and that
is one of the most important things a
teacher can do
is make sure their students see that
they know they’re individuals
i spent four years working at a summer
camp and while i didn’t formally learn a
lick of teaching techniques or human
growth and development
i learned some of the most important
lessons i could ever learn when it comes
to working with kids
five years from now i’m going to be in
my own classroom
and i hope my students know that i trust
them on an individual level
so that they trust me to come to me for
help with homework
if they’re being bullied to prevent
tragedy
and this can start small this could be
as simple
as attending a local school board
meeting suggesting a partnership with a
local university
reaching out to those who are in charge
of youth groups or scouting
organizations and encouraging them
to reach out to local universities
so when you sit back and you think of
the ed majors you see
working in the campus center cutting out
their cute little shapes and thinking
like i used to think
man i really wish
it were that easy because
education goes so much further beyond
the markers the glue
the scissors
one of my favorite sayings of all time
is that teaching is the profession that
creates
all others the teachers of today are
shaping the students of tomorrow
into the next generation of successful
adults
and i hope that with the right
experience
arming teachers with that experience
will be able to help them
with students for generations to come
thank you
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