Introduction
My name is Sean Williams and I am from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. I knew I wanted to go into professional education ever since the sixth grade. It was at that time that I had a few teachers that really impacted me (most positive and some negative) to become a teacher. It was not until my junior year of high school however, that I knew physical education was the career for me. I had a teacher who showed me how amazing P.E. class can be and how it is so much more than just a “boring old gym class”. He incorporated leadership, teamwork, and other life lessons into the class and made it the one single class I took in high school that truly prepared me for the real world. I hope to be exactly like him some day. Having the privilege to go back and teach high school students physical education is a dream of mine.
A section in the reading really caught my eye when thinking about my own experiences with teachers. It is stated that common sense says that, “Teachers should offer help often” because “lower-achieving students may not know when they need help”. The answer based on research however is the exact opposite. “…when teachers provide help before students ask, the students and others watching are more likely to conclude that the helped student does not have the ability to succeed” (Woolfolk, A. (2014). Educational Psychology(12th ed.). S.l.: Pearson.). The teachers that truly inspired me the most were the ones who let the students handle things on their own and would only interject if need be. The ones that follows the conclusion of the research.
In the scene from Ferris Bueller’s day off, the teacher stood in front of the class and spewed information. He used a monotone voice and did not change his inflection. He never once asked for input from the class and all the questions he asked were rhetorical and quickly answered by him. The teaching example from Dead Poets Society is quite the opposite. The teacher urges his students to engage with him and pushes them to think for themselves and develop their own opinions and feelings. He is constantly engaging his class and very rarely ever just spews information at them or even writes on the board. He tells his class to, “dare to strike out and find new ground”. Most teachers do not speak to their students like that and the teacher in the first video is about as far away from that as you can get. The second video is by far the more effective teaching strategy. The students respond to this style of teaching better and will most likely learn and retain more information that they learn in this class. The teacher has a personal relationship with each of the students that makes them feel comfortable to share about themselves and to open up to learning.
This video is a montage of what I think a teacher should look like. This shows coach Eric Taylor from the TV series Friday Night Lights. Coaches, like teachers, need to posses the same qualities to be successful. A coach who can inspire his players like this is something I dream of being. And the way he carries himself inside and outside of the game is the type of man I want to be.
A good teacher, in my opinion, encompasses many things. A teacher is a friend, a parent or guardian, and a mentor all in one. They are all these things and know when to be, and more importantly when not to be, each. They are knowledgeable about their field, but never satisfied. They are open to more learning and advancing their knowledge through their students as well as their colleagues.