The Journey of Becoming a Teacher

On my journey so far on becoming a teacher, I have thought a lot about what needs to be done in order to be the best educator I can be. As a future teacher, my main goal is to create a classroom environment that help my students’ learning in the best possible way. One way that I can attain this goal is by planning and setting goals at the beginning of the year. I have learned much as a student teacher, but the most important concept I have taken away is that the beginning of the year is a crucial time to set goals, manage expectations, and create positive relationships with the students. Each summer a teacher begins to set goals and imagine how they would like to have their classrooms set up for the upcoming school year. But the main goal setting happens with the students the very first day of school. In the classroom, setting goals with your students is very important in maintaining a positive and successful learning environment. Depending on the grade level, students tend to already know what is expected of them at school. Therefore, creating a set of goals, and meaningful classroom rules to guide their learning motives for the year, can be relatively easy.

During the school year is when keeping expectations and goals tends to get a bit more tricky. Based off of my experience in my practicums so far, I know that keeping up with planning and goal setting in the classroom is essential. I have come to learn that by using posters and prompts around the classroom as reminders of behaviour expectations, the students are able to 'FOCUS' on how they should think and act while at school. The below picture is an example of something I would use to help remind the students of their potential in the class.

Through my own practicum experiences I have come to understand the value in planning and goal-setting. Planning and goal-setting have to be done as the teacher gets to know their students’ levels of learning and personalities. Once the students see that they are a part of the classroom, they tend to want to take more ownership of their responsibilities.

Since I am still a new teacher, I realize that there is much for me to learn and experience through my journey. I am planning to continuously learn throughout my profession, as there is always better and unique ways to teach the students. I am proud to be a part of the Ontario College of Teachers because it acknowledges the commitment the members of the teaching profession make to professional learning. This is very crucial to myself because teacher learning is directly correlated to student learning. There is one aspect that I will always remember as an educator, which is that student thoughts and opinions should be a necessary part of teaching. I have come to understand that, “…teachers need to recognize the resources that their students bring to their learning…” (Timberly, 2013, pg. 7) is just as important as the resources they find themselves. Collaborate with your students and your classroom will become a place of endless possibilities.