I am only able to give students the amount of respect that they give me. What most students seem to forget is that their teachers were once students too. Although it may seem like we are immune to the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, we are not. We simply recognize the need to continue to endure.
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I embrace equality, while recognizing and acknowledging that each student is so very different in their own way, and that too must be celebrated. I applaud students who play sports, dance, work, look after young siblings and still manage to come to school and learn, and I try to do my best to accommodate the fact that "life gets in the way." That being said, if life starts getting in the way too often, then your education begins to falter and something needs to change. "Extracurricular means exactly that: in addition to, not instead of"
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Although there is information that I must "teach" to students that forms the foundation for my courses, my biggest goal as a teacher is to not provide students with reams of new information that they may or may not ever use, but the ability to interpret and cope with the reams of information that they will undoubtedly encounter in their future.
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I had some amazing teachers in high school, which largely contributed to why I wanted to go into this field. That being said, I do not think that I can remember a single fact, or problem or story that they taught me. Rather, everyday I utilize the skills, attitudes and processes that they introduced me to and modeled for me every day. This too is my focus - thanks to technology, we can learn the "stuff" anywhere, it is what to do with the stuff that we learn that makes a difference!
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Equality versus Fairness in the classroom.
Although I completely appreciate and applaud the concept of equality, it is not always the best way to teach. Some students need more or less support in order to help them experience their best possible success, and if I treated everyone equally, I would not be respecting this diversity. Rather, I strive for fairness. My best explanation for this is to imagine two individuals sitting in an Emergency Room at a Hospital - one has cut their hand off and one has a hangnail. If I was treating them both EQUALLY - I would tell them both to take a Tylenol and go home. If I was to treat them FAIRLY - I would address each individual injury and provide the best treatment and course of action for them to achieve their best possible outcome. The same is true for education. |