Suzanne Zabriskie, or Mrs. Z for those of us that were too young to pronounce Zabriskie, is not only my best friend’s mother, but was also my church choir instructor. While I attended public school she was often times my substitute and was a large help in getting me the extra assistance that I needed to catch up with my classmates. Yet my relationship with Mrs. Z wasn’t much more than that of a student and a teacher. When I first asked her for an interview I was a bit nervous of how our conversation would go, wondering if I would still be answered like a student. To my relief, not only did she answer my questions without holding back, but she gave me advice for developing as a teacher.
Suzanne had wanted to teach ever since she was a swim
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I believe that this is due to a fear of scaring me away from the career. This is not the case for Suzanne Zabriskie. I was barely able to finish my sentence when I asked what the positive and negatives of teaching are. She started with the negatives. In her kindergarten class, they are beginning to push more academics on the students. With more time being set aside for academics, there is less time for unstructured play and creative projects. In the past, severe behavioral problems were often traced back to the home life of each student. However, with this influx of academia and cutting of play, more students are tending to act out. This behavior not only effects the student, who is taken out of class due to bad behavior, but the entire class who is derailed from the lesson plan. Yet she believes that the best part of being an educator stems from this negative. As students begin to learn how to adapt to class, you can see them grow. According to Suzanne, it’s this growth that makes all of the difficulties worth …show more content…
Something that I’ve always asked when interviewing is how they deal with stress, especially after a bad day. She told me that after one of these days she’ll just try to breathe deep and possibly take a walk. But she says the most important thing is to talk to someone about it. From a co-worker to a friend, talking about the day doesn’t only gives the ability to debrief from a long day, but it also allows a teacher to review the bad day and see if there is anything that they did to escalate it or something they could do to better handle the situation in the
The trivialization of high school in the present educational organization for teens has been posited in the public; however, it is one vital issue that is being debated.
In the article, "Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results", the author, Joanne Lipman, is identified as the speaker. In the past, the author had a particularly strict teacher, Mr. K. In paragraph 3, the author states that research supports the fact that their and Mr. K’s other students’ eventual success is due to Mr. K’s strict teaching style. Through experiencing Mr. K’s rigorous style of teaching, the author gains credibility by experiencing the effectiveness of the aforementioned methods first-hand, but also in observing the success of their former classmates. While others may argue and provide research that would prove that other types of learning are the “most effective”, the author exhibits a bias towards traditional education that may be
In the text, Becoming a Teacher, the author reflects on why gender is included as a dimension of multicultural education, which is defined by Parkay (2016), “multicultural education is committed to the goal of providing all students – regardless of socioeconomic status; gender; sexual orientation; or ethnic, racial, or cultural backgrounds – with equal opportunities to learn in school” (p. 291). These cultural dissimilarities between the genders are created by the expectations society stereotypes them to follow. As Parkay explained in the text, “through sex role stereotyping, families, the media, the school, and other powerful social forces condition boys and girls to act in certain ways regardless of ability or interests” (2016, p. 296). According to this, students are categorized by society standards, which
To teach is to choose a challenging life. It requires passion in the profession, genuine love and interest in children, especially when one opts to teach young children. One must have a heart and needs to be ethical, reflective, caring and hopeful. It requires faith in yourself and respect for individual children, willing to work against the odds in order to contribute to an evolving environment. Ayers’s book, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher is a book, I consider a work that strives for educational reform. Ayers write from his personal experience and then draws his educational philosophy around those experiences. William Ayers writes, as teacher, parent, student and observer, of the children he has known, and of the things that actually
In “The Teacher Wars”, by Helen Goldstein, the book focuses on the historical implications of school policy and how it affects teachers. The author goes into depth with everything from the rise of female teachers to the rise of technology in today’s teachers. As Goldstein argues teachers have an incredible ability to be able to widen equality, yet can also narrow the achievement gap that is created from birth. Her showcase of the constant strife against teachers throughout the ages gives way to multiple ways politics and decisions affect the achievement gap.
In her article “Teachers Hiring Teachers,” Mary C. Clement (2013) describes the benefits of using teachers in the teacher hiring process, strategies and considerations while doing so, and moving past obstacles that may be encountered. She draws evidence from the principal at Berry Elementary and Middle School in Mount Berry, Georgia as she outlines their best practices. This article supports the idea of “cultivating leadership in others,” one of the five key practices of effective principals outlined by The Wallace Foundation (2013). In my opinion, this article provides a worthy example of the benefits realized through advancing teacher leadership.
In Jane Tompkins, A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned, Jane uncovers flaws in the American education system and how poorly formal education prepares pupils for careers after schooling. She describes how her teachers at P.S. 98 used authority to form the person she is now, teaching at Duke. Her experience dabbling in alternative teaching methods established the path she took throughout her career. Although Tompkins experience is atypical of most students, I agree with her argument about how fear is a successful means of motivation for those that can succumb to it, but alternatives exist that have been demonstrated and are successful.
I am an African American female who attends the University of Chicago Charter School, which is located on the South side of Chicago. I am seventeen years old and I live and attend school in a predominantly Black neighborhood. I have seen plenty in my seventeen years of living. My goal is to go to college and become a teacher, so that I can return to Chicago and help the people in my community. In six years, I will be giving back to the community and helping the world become better place. I will help teach kids not to live in stereotypes and let them bring them down.
Throughout our lives, we have the opportunity to interact and learn from scores of individuals. Whether it is our friends, family members or co-workers, each person has the ability to make an impact on our lives, both positive and negative. One individual who has had a positive impact on my life is Mrs. Shannon Winchester, my former Advance Placement United States History teacher at Weddington High School. Yet, after I concluded my time in her classroom, she not only became a person I deeply admire, but someone who I aspire to become one day.
On Being a Teacher by Jonathan Kozol is divided into two parts. Part one is about the actual issues and the actions teachers can take. Part two covers how to organize people into a support system for teachers. Kozol advocates a more honest and successful type of teaching throughout both sections.
...ause I have see over the past four years how I have transformed my own beliefs about teaching. I have learned from professors and cooperating teachers how to handle difficult situations, this has made me a stronger teacher in the classroom. I am able to quickly adapt lesson plans to the needs of a classroom, and know when something is not going to work by the response of my students. I have also seen changes in how I respond to students. I have learned that students really do want to learn; they just need to know that their teachers want to help them. This has been played out in many different situations. Some of the classrooms I have seen have been very open and comfortable classrooms. The students want to learn because they know that their teachers want them to succeed. I have thrived in these situations because I gain my energy off of the energy in my classroom.
This paper is a reflection of our group study on how the change frame of teachers learning impacted the new initiative of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) introduced in a secondary school as part of its “ICT Master-Plan 3” (MP3). This reflection shows that the findings from the interview conducted, in conjunction with literature review, have challenged and changed my assumptions on teachers learning and provided many insights into how teachers learning could be effective in schools. I have learnt that teachers learning as a change frame could not be understood as a simple instrumental and mechanistic tool but as a complex dynamic and organic construct that could not be effective without the necessary conditions and structure, and positive interactions with other change frames.
There are many reasons people decide to enter the teaching field. Some enter because they enjoy working with people or children, others because they like being off during the summer months, and still others because of their love for a particular subject. Although all these reasons are valid, I feel my reasons are much simpler. The bottom line is that I love kids and enjoy working with them. My desire to make learning a more positive experience for them has only increased with time.
Based on this she can structure a learning environment that addresses a variety of learning styles, interests and abilities . Then we start talking about how Mr. Kennedy grew up she grew up as an only child she only had her mother in her life because her dad was always moving because he was in the army. As she grew up she was determined to become a teacher because she loves to help students. Now Ms.Kennedy has 2 she hopes they can follow there dreams and never give up this is what she expects from her students to never give up and follow their dreams. Before ending the interview she told me to stay organized and learn what works for you and your classroom lastly give it your ALL EVERY
A good education has always been drilled into my head ever since I was a little girl. Boy did I hate that, all I wanted to do was goof off and have fun with my friends. But as the years went on I started to realize how important it was to have a good education. Not that that made me like school anymore than I did; but I was realizing the different ways I was learning and how different people taught. I remember saying one day, when I was a freshman in high school, that if I was teaching this class I would have never taught it that way. Unfortunately, my teacher overheard me and I was forced to go to the front of the room and explain to the class the way it should be taught since I knew so much about teaching. Needless to say I did an awful job of it. That is when I started thinking about becoming a teacher. I know that does not make sense because I did such an awful job and was humiliated doing it. I did not like the way that man taught and I was determined to take his job. However, the reason I am here today is not that I want to take a teacher’s job; it is because I have the desire to make a difference in the lives of many students. I hope I will be a good teacher so that I will never have to hear a student say something bad about my teaching.