Today I packed up my desk, handed back my keys, and thanked my classes for having me. I took a last stroll down to the Year 7 open-learning area and watched as two teachers I had met this week team-taught a science class. I had one last discussion about history and the state of modern politics with my mentor teacher. I visited the library and returned the books I had leant out to students in my Modern History class. I said goodbye.
I am (cautiously) proud of how I have done on this, my second round. When we started the semester talking about our 'emerging professional identity' I'm pretty sure I figured I didn't even have a 'teaching identity'. If you look back on my post here, I wasn't even sure about what I believed about teaching. And worse then that, I secretly feared that I would be the only one in my course who wouldn't develop a sense of my own teaching identity. I was scared of coming back to university and saying, 'Well, I enjoyed photocopying things...'
But, miraculously, I have seen glimpses of it! Times when I have felt vaguely professional, times when I realise that the definition of 'professional' is not just 'acting really, really serious all the time', but instead means being well-prepared, confident, friendly but firm and knowing your subject content really well (pedagogical content knowledge, anyone? Anyone?). Times when I have felt such pride in my students, and in teaching as a whole for being the one profession that really, truly challenges and encourages kids to grow intellectually . Times when I have spoken up at staff meetings, or added my own input to unit development (I actually helped plan a whole new unit to be taught at my last placement school), and felt a part of something bigger then myself.
Where has this identity come from? Well, I guess it has been informed by many things, both inside and outside the classroom, including the professional standards and the VIT code of conduct. But as to where it has come from, well, I guess it has come from me. I have been reflecting on my personal teaching philosophy, which I developed as part of an assessment for a unit at university, and realised that I am beginning to live out the values that I have written down. For example, here is an extract from my philosophy on learning and student engagement:
"Learning
can be sustained through challenge and risk. I give students who are excelling
further challenges and encourage them to take risks with their learning, even
if they may get it wrong to begin with. I assist students who are struggling
with encouragement and support to take calculated risks with their work and to
challenge themselves to defeat their own expectations."
In my last round, I have been living out these values, and I really sought to try to pick out the students who were struggling in my classes, and give them as much encouragement and support as I could. I had a student with cerebal palsy in one of my classes, and I set differentiated work for her so that she felt as much a part of the class as any other student. As well as this, I found the one or two who were excelling and often chatted to them after class, or directed them to interesting books, films or questions that would help enhance their understanding of a topic.
And in the end, I think I will never cease to be amazed by the feedback I get from my own students about how they found my classes. And really, that is why I wanted to teach in the first place (no, not for the endless praise and baskets of goodies I would receive *hint* *hint*). I wanted to teach to influence, lead, spend time with, teach and learn from teenagers.
Hi Miss Eduraptor,
Its ****** from your modern history
class. I wont be home tomorrow night to email my project in so I am doing it
now.
Hope this gets to you okay and thank
you for teaching us for the past few weeks I have really learnt a
lot!
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