-How did your personality affect your choice of content area? My personality seems to be one that has and will always be in amazement of stories and characters. I found myself never a huge fan of English class because I always felt that real life was much more fascinating than anything fiction could produce. This obviously made me drawn to History as a kid and I've been fascinated ever since. Later in in my teens I became very interested in the stock market and fiances. After the financial collapse of 2008-2009 I felt that a huge reason it happened, was that our students never receive a solid education and deep understanding of personal finance. I argue, that if our students were given a more complete education in personal finance, at the very worst, the financial collapse would not have been as bad. So, hopefully if everything works out, I will be able to teach Political Science/ Economics with a few units of History.
-How does or will your personality affect your relationships with your students? I am a very calm patient person (I'd like to think) in the classroom, but far from a pushover. I think a good balance of respect and authority is the key to having the students respond. I try to be understanding of students needs. I've found that with students (especially Juniors/Seniors) a little leeway goes a long way.
-How will your teaching and learning style affect your teaching and your students' abilities to be successful? I always seemed to learn best and feed off teachers that did not nit pick at every little thing done in the classroom. So I've tried to carry this over to my own classrooms. Even as a sub, I sometimes read these long list of rules that teachers would leave me and think, how do you have time to teach with all these rules? There are some rules that are just common sense, but other times I think teachers go a little too far and make it more about a power struggle, rather than creating a positive learning environment.
Me at Machu Picchu over the summer
Great Start, Mark
ReplyDeleteProblem w recessions is that people aren't teachable until trouble lands...risk-takers crumble and careful survive...oh well...nothing is harder than subbing...you have already learned much in the profession...I will stretch you a little...I hope!
Mark A.
It is so interesting how you are the opposite of me in your subject likes/dislikes, yet I found your personality to be a lot like mine at the same time! I was always a little frightened of history because I have the WORST memory and did not do well on assessments, but I loved listening to history and thinking of them as stories...albeit, true ones. I LOVE English and if I wasn't an ASL teacher, I probably would be an English teacher. There is so much about "real life" that fiction can teach us, but it takes our creativity and deep thinking to analyze it, and that is something I just love about life and education.
ReplyDeleteP.S. SO jealous you have been to Macchu Picchu!
I too am a working towards becoming a credentialed Social Science teacher. I am working as a intervention teacher currently and enjoy it a lot. The recession also forced me out of the car business and into school, I am and will be forever grateful because I have learned and grown so much because of it. Much like you, I think.
ReplyDelete