Friday Reflections Part One

1. Describe one thing that you learned: Well, if nothing else, I learned how to Blog. I have always resisted setting up a blog, both for privacy reasons, and also because too many people blog without having anything important or substantive to say, including me. But I also have learned that many teachers and education professionals blog, and they can be of great value, especially to a student teacher. So I approach blogging with a cynical yet open mind, if that is not too much of a paradox.

2. What questions do you have and/or what do you still want to know: Probably most important to me is learning and knowing good classroom management techniques. Hopefully I will be finding out a lot more about that in the next few weeks, but I am also concerned that I am only being exposed to one classroom management approach, and I really want to hear from my classmates as to how their master teachers manage their classrooms.


3. What are you anxious about regarding student teaching/ teaching? I am fairly confident in my academic and scholastic abilities, particularly with regard to social studies and language arts. I have always been adept at math, although a bit unsure about teaching it. My greatest anxiety has to do with science, because I never really excelled at it while I was in school. I understand some basic concepts of science, and I have a great intellectual appreciation for science (particularly in a society that seems to be increasingly hostile to scientific principles), but I feel somewhat inadequate in trying to teach it to a class of fifth and sixth graders. We shall see how that goes (my master teacher told me that he would gladly give up a portion of his paycheck if he didn't have to teach science).

4. What are you excited about regarding student teaching/ teaching? The idea that I will, in no small way, play a part in shaping young minds, both in terms of substance AND style, is very exciting but daunting. I realize that it is an enormous responsibility, and that parents, children and even society at large are looking to me to discharge my responsibilities in a professional and exemplary manner, but I also know that I have my own style, personality, and yes, values, that I feel are important and appropriate to communicate to students. I certainly don't believe in indocrination, but I also don't believe in being shy or neutral in what is important to me as an individual and a member of society. I am excited at the prospect of preparing young minds to be most receptive to all of the world's possibilities.