Growth of an Educator
When I first started teaching English in South Korea five years ago, I thought that I had learned everything that I needed to learn about teaching through my teacher education program at Michigan State University (MSU). After my first couple of years teaching, I realized that I was being naive and wasn’t quite as prepared as I thought I was. I went back to MSU for my Masters of Arts in Education (MAED) with the hope of becoming a teacher who could assess and increase the English literacy skills of his students. I wanted to learn tips and strategies that I could use in class to help my students improve their English literacy level.
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Now, I am in my last semester of the MAED program and I’m about to finish my masters program. Initially, my goal was to assess and increase the English literacy skills of my students. This is still my primary goal, which is something I hope will never change, but I've also sprouted a couple of secondary goals one of which was to have better classroom management in order to facilitate a positive learning environment. I hope that by having better control of the classroom that I can help students adjust to our microcosm of society as a whole. By having a positive learning environment my students can feel comfortable when developing their English literacy skills without feeling unnecessary stress. Another secondary goal is to incorporate more inquiry-based discussions that will engage students. Inquiry-based discussions will encourage my students to actively participate during class while also reinforcing the literacy skills my students have learned in class.
When I look at my goals and see how it has expanded, I’ve learned new strategies to improve my skill which has helped me grow as a teacher. However, in order for me to ultimately reach my primary goal, I need to take steps to improve myself overall as a teacher. I now know what these steps are and have been incorporating what I learned into my classrooms. I feel like there has been a change and my colleagues have even asked me for advice on classroom management. I know that I’m only beginning to learn what classroom management is and that there’s more to learn through classroom experience but I’m hopeful because I’m not as anxious or scared of classes that are more difficult to control. I’m also still learning how to fully utilize inquiry-based discussions in my classes. There are still times where my questions leave a lot to be desired and students don’t respond but I’ll continue to press on so that I can become more adept at it. I’ve made great strides in classroom management and inquiry-based discussions since the beginning of my studies in the MAED program and I hope to continue to progress in my development as a teacher so that I can help my students reach their full potential.
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