Hi, I’m Bryce Winnen and I am looking forward to becoming a teacher. I want to teach secondary education so middle or high school but I learning towards high school. I specifically want to teach history or social studies as it has been a passion of mine for quite some time. I only recently wanted to become a teacher because of a teacher I had in high school. He was my history teacher and he taught the class in a way that made me learn the material in a better way and made history even more fun than it already was. After going through his class, I realized what I wanted to do in the field of history because I wanted to impact future students and get them motivated to learn about history as much as he motivated and impacted me.
When I become a teacher, I want to be a great teacher just like he was, but what makes a good teacher? From class, we talked about what makes a good teacher and there were many great answers. Things like being respectful, knowing the content, patience, organization, communication, etc. If a teacher has most of these qualities, the students will get the most out of the class and be better prepared for the future because of it. The video from Dead Poets Society is also a great example of what teachers should want to be. Making the content interesting and getting everyone involved is part of becoming a great teacher and my favorite teacher did just that. According to Woolfolk, she talks about what it takes to be an expert teacher and one of the first things it highlights is the knowledge of the subject. “The academic subjects they teach- their content knowledge is deep and interconnected” (p. 562). My favorite teacher was very knowledgeable about history and from that he was able to give the content to the students in many different ways which I think is important in order to reach all the students.
In an article called “Five Top Reasons People Become Teachers- and why they Quit” by Sarah Marsh, a writer for The Guardian. The reason why I want to become a teacher is in the top five. According to Marsh “37% of trainees were inspired from former teachers themselves” (Marsh 2015). There are many reasons people want to become teachers and I think that each reason a person has will motivate them to build on their past school experiences and continue to make an impact on students in the future.
Marsh, S. (2015, January 27). Five Top Reasons People Become Teachers- and why they Quit. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
Woolfolk, A. E. (2014). Educational Psychology: Active Learning Edition (12th ed.). Boston: Pearson.