The type of school community I’m looking for is one where teachers work collaboratively in order to reach their student’s goals. I have found through my limited experience that a well rounded group of individuals across a multitude of subjects can help each other in many ways when it comes to specific students. Grade teams can help tremendously; by assigning a specific task to a specific teacher, it takes a lot of the workload off for an individual. If another teacher prepares the homework, I don’t have to. If another teacher prepares the tests, I don’t have to. I would be responsible for one thing and one thing only, whatever that assignment may be.
A personal strength of mine is my ability to relate to my students. I am not too far away from their age, but I have the life experience of going through college, working many jobs, and being a parent. I can see things from the other side as well. Hopefully this will help my students to understand why they are in school and what is important in the grand scheme of their lives. I like to appeal to my student’s interests when I teacher, by including video clips and images that I think they may be interested in.
This past semester, I had a student who was talking quietly to someone who sat next to her. This was in the middle of the content portion of my lesson. I asked her if she had a question. She said she did, but she was too embarrassed to ask it. I told her that there was no such thing as a stupid question. We had been learning about the Delhi Sultanate and different factions of religions that had resulted from it. When I mentioned Osama Bin Laden, she told me that she didn’t know who he was. I was taken aback but didn’t show it. I explained to her who he was and why he was important. I then realized that this was the first time they had probably ever discussed 9/11 in detail, as they weren’t alive for the event. Although the discussion veered a little off topic from the actual lesson, the students need to know what is happening in their modern world, as well as the events that shape it.
