And It Beings
Late August has arrived and it is a
new school year. Not just for myself at Gardner Webb University, but also
Statesville/Iredell County Schools, which includes my beloved East Iredell Elementary.
Each academic year I enter with a refreshed mind. The trend is to set a high
bar for myself, even though I have a very active life outside of both schools.
A 4.0 semester is always the expectation and has happened a few times in my
life. But as I’ve learned as a teacher assistant, you must set wildly
imaginative goals each year for what you expect to happen. You must also set goals
based off your previous work and make them achievable with steps. The goal for
the 2017/18 academic year is to reach the level of accomplished or distinguished
in all area within my job description. With this being a yearly part of my life
academically, I can see how it would be one of the best practices I can use in
my future classroom with my students. If you look at the North Carolina Teacher
Candidate Standards, the first standard states teachers must demonstrate
leadership. By making sure that I set goals for myself yearly, I should be able
to instill a similar process in my students. To have a sense of achievement for
themselves in the classroom but also in their current and future lives outside
of academia. If I'm not mistaken the 21st-century mandate is calling for
students to be built for success academically but also in the world abroad. “Begin
with the end in mind,” as my Seven Habits training rings in my head now.
This week is also brought in a new
learning path for myself. For the 2017/18 year we embark on implementing more
blended learning within our school. Over the last few days we have sat in many
a meeting, sometimes grasping immediately and other times feeling bewildered
and lost in the jungle. It is a stark reminder of how some of my first-graders
feel every year; when it comes to counting to 100 and then going past 100 the
first couple of days, LOL. These new practices that are being installed within
our school, will help to make sure that learning is facilitated properly, make lessons
diversified for all the learners we reach, and give the potential for adequate
growth for all. Like we were discussing with Dr. Clark this week, it’s exactly
a tie-in to standards I-V we have as potential candidates. Well, this is the
first of many post I will be doing this semester. I hope not to bore your
patience but to enlighten you to all the connections that I encounter in the classroom
and for my future classroom. Until next time my friends.
Always learning, Always
Growing;
William
B. A. Alspaugh
Hey William! I think you did a great job on your blog. I definitely agree with you that by being a leader as teachers in our classrooms we will be able to influence our students to be leaders in their lives as well. I love how you talked about helping your students to feel a sense of achievement in the classroom so that they can strive to feel this in their lives outside of school as well. I feel like many of our future students may not have a positive role model to look up to in their homes and we need to strive to be a positive influence and a positive leader in our future students lives. I know in my own experiences in school, I was able to have many positive role models that were teachers that I still admire and strive to be like today. I hope I can help students be successful in their educational pathways but I also hope that I can instill in them life lessons to help them to be successful in their everyday lives as well. I also am excited to hear more about how incorporating more blended learning within your school works and how the students adapt to it.
ReplyDeleteWilliam,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I love the family pic! Keep sharing! You made great connections between what's going on in your school and how you are feeling beginning the new semester. You also made good connections with the NCTCS. Next time, try to connect to specific indicators within the standards. Also, don't forget to incorporate outside research and to make connections to the weekly content.
Hey William! I also started back with Iredell-Statesville Schools at Troutman Elementary. The summer break is always so short! I agree it is nice to go back with a refreshed mind and I look forward to getting back into the routine of everything. I think it is good for you to set goals for yourself yearly. Each teacher should do that so they have a place in mind that they want to be for the year and they can improve it as needed. As a TA we get the chance at the beginning of the year to set goals for ourselves and I believe teachers do as well. At the end of the year we sit down and see if we have reached that goal and then know how to improve for the next year. I enjoyed your first blog!
ReplyDeleteHey William! Hope you had a great summer vacation. I enjoy reading that you have such high expectations for yourself and you students, it is a great quality to have to be a future teacher not everyone is gifted with that ability due to self-conscious. I think since you are a teacher assistant you will get to experience great opportunity and learning techniques which will help you along the way to become a better teacher.
ReplyDeleteHey William! Hope you had a great summer vacation. I enjoy reading that you have such high expectations for yourself and you students, it is a great quality to have to be a future teacher not everyone is gifted with that ability due to self-conscious. I think since you are a teacher assistant you will get to experience great opportunity and learning techniques which will help you along the way to become a better teacher.
ReplyDelete