Skip to main content

Blog Entry #9

I am still undecided when it comes to what exactly I want my career path to be. I would love to be a teacher but I am also very interested in psychology. My plan as of now is to become a teacher and do that while I continue my education in psychology. Either that or I implement psychology into my teaching somehow. Until I graduate I plan on being a substitute teacher so that I get a lot of time in a school setting.

I think teaching could be a great career choice for me. I enjoy working with kids, I enjoy making learning fun and exciting, I love making a difference etc. Teaching would be very rewarding for me. In addition to that being a teacher would be a big benefit as I am raising a family. With teaching I would be able to have summers off with my daughter, I could have the same days out of school as her, essentially I could just optimize my time with her while also providing for my family by doing something I love to do. 

The service learning component of this class has absolutely influenced my decision. I was on the fence before but now that I gained that in class experience I am certain that for at least a time or portion of my career I will be teaching in some capacity. I loved getting to know and connect with each of the students in the classes. They are all so different and they all have such broad talents and personalities. I really enjoyed feeling like I made a difference for them even if it was small. 

My next steps are to take the next class in this series of courses while also taking my psychology classes so I can continue moving forward in both areas of study. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Entry #7

In my observations I see teachers striving to meet standards. I have seen this in the timing of their lessons, they have had to work through some things more quickly than intended to stay on schedule with the expected standards. This could be considered a bad thing but to me both teachers still ensure each student is in the best position possible to succeed and provides additional resources as needed. In my observations it seems as though math and science are far more emphasized in my service learning placements. It seems like these subjects get the most time and attention devoted to them. This is the case for both the 6th and Kindergarten classes. I don't see a whole lot of art or creative things going on. I see a few things implemented as part of a reward system of sorts. This was surprising to me especially in the kindergarten classroom, I expected to see far more of that type of learning. I think that teachers are under a lot of pressure to meet certain standards so some of the...

Blog Entry # 4

In my service learning I have seen many examples of the teachers using engaging techniques to help students be more engaged learners. The examples that stand out most include; the sixth grade teacher I am working with did a unit in science on insulators. To help the kids apply the things they are learning the teacher grouped the students and they all worked together to make miniature pool covers. After constructing the covers they then took the temperature of the water inside the "pool" every 10 minutes until they had three readings. The next morning they measured the water temperature again to see which pool covers were the best insulators and had a discussion about why some may have worked better than others. In the kindergarten class I see engaging learning opportunities far more often. It seems as though for every topic they have an engaging component to go along with it. When the students are learning to add and subtract the teacher sets out different objects such as ac...

Blog Entry #6

In both of my service learning placements there is quite a bit of diversity.  In the 6th grade class : there are many students that are currently learning English. This makes it difficult to instruct once and have it be fully understood. To compensate for this the teacher explains things once verbally, then if/when applicable she will do a demonstration and then even go to each grouping of desks and ensure that everyone is clear on the instruction. Fortunately there are many bilingual students in her class so often she will also enlist their help in explaining what is expected if the other methods are proving effective in that particular situation. When it comes to tests and things like that often the teacher will pull out a few students that need extra help with comprehension and gives them a verbal version of the same test.  In the kindergarten class : there is slightly less diversity culturally and linguistically but there is a lot of diversity when it comes to the lev...