Reflective_Essay

Reflective Essay Beginning Teaching Experiences My teaching experiences have been quite varied. I began my career as a high school business education teacher in a small rural Midwestern school. Because there were only two teachers in the department, I taught a wide variety of courses. The small setting enabled me to get to know several of the students and faculty quite well and working with students at this age level helped me develop skills in organization and motivation. I found that it was important to have enough material for the entire class period because many students at this age do not seem to know what to do with free time. I was taught a very valuable lesson during my tenure at this school, although I didn’t realize it at the time. At the end of the accounting course I was teaching, students were required to complete a practice set. A practice set is a simulated exercise where students become bookkeepers for a hypothetical company. They have the opportunity to work through the entire accounting cycle—from opening the accounts as the business begins its daily operations to closing them out at the end of the business’ fiscal period. Students are required to record daily transactions, write checks, and prepare financial reports. It is a mammoth project and takes a lot of time both in class and out of class. Students were told that it would count for a large percentage of their semester grade and that if there were cheating, all involved would automatically fail the course. Being naïve and from a middle-class background, I felt sure that such a threat would prevent any cheating. Naturally, two students proved me wrong. Both students were seniors and one of them needed the credit to graduate. He was from a very low, socioeconomic background. College was not even an option for him but a high school diploma might help him land a job after graduation. The principal discussed the situation with me but left the decision up to me as to whether or not to fail the student. Being a young teacher, I felt that I should stick to my principles, no matter what the consequences. I failed both students and the one did not graduate from high school. At the time, I didn’t think too much about it, and although I did feel badly for the student, in my mind, the student had only himself to blame. Over the years, I have come to realize that I must accept some of that blame. In a sense, I set him up to fail. Even though I devoted several hours of class time to the practice set, he was often absent. I knew that he was not doing well in the class and certainly did not have the ability to complete the practice set on his own. He needed the credit to graduate so he did the only thing he could do—he conned a girl into allowing him to copy hers. My first mistake was giving the ultimatum—anyone caught cheating would fail the course. My second mistake was not realizing my first mistake so that I could provide some alternative for this student. In the grand scheme of this student’s life, I know now that a high school diploma would have moved him farther along than completing an accounting practice set. This experience made me begin to realize that it is important to look at life though other people’s eyes. When I was younger, I thought life was pretty black-and-white. As I get older, I have come to realize that the constructivists are right—reality is in the eye of the beholder. I still feel it is important for me to have a basic set of principles to live by and that as a classroom teacher I must set standards for my students but I also realize that it is important to create a classroom environment where students can succeed. With the exception of this incident, I feel that my overall teaching at this school was effective and appreciated. I received good evaluations from both the principal and the superintendent. I even received a couple of special awards from the students. Another valuable teaching experience for me was as a substitute teacher. I performed these duties for two years. Since I was eager to sub, I would usually accept any job that was offered to me. As a result, I got to experience substitute teaching in a multitude of disciplines with a diverse student population. One of the most challenging areas for me was special education because I had no training in that area. However, with some guidance from the special ed teachers, I began to feel somewhat comfortable, at least with the BD (behaviorally disadvantaged) students. In fact, at the high school, if one of the BD teachers needed a sub, s/he would usually request me. At the junior high, I was appointed to a long-term substitute position as a social studies teacher while the regular teacher was on maternity leave. Although I had no formal educational background in social studies, I was primarily teaching U.S. History to 8th graders so the material was somewhat familiar to me. I had total responsibility for the teacher’s classes—she didn’t leave me with anything except a textbook and some instructions on what material needed to be covered. With that age group, though, I found presentation of content to be the least of my worries. I enjoyed the position but it seemed that each day I was faced with a new challenge since many of the students were going through puberty. Both of these teaching experiences—the full-time high school business education teacher and the substitute teacher helped me to grow professionally. I learned things that could never have been taught in a classroom. Because I am now a business teacher educator, I feel that these two experiences were invaluable since they give me insight into what my students may experience when they student teach. Teaching Adult Students Teaching at UAF-Fairbanks in the Continuing Education program was a change of pace from my high school and junior high experiences. I taught many of these courses at the Education Center on Ft. Wainwright. The keyboarding classes and the Business English classes consisted of 100% military personnel. The classes were offered during the work day and my students were given release time to attend. The age of my students ranged from 19 to 34 years old. Some were very strong students and learned very quickly while others required quite a bit of additional help. Motivation was never a problem and of course neither was discipline which was just the opposite of my junior high/high school teaching experiences. Teaching to such a wide variety of students was fun but required quite a bit of preparation on my part. Later, when I began teaching at a private, 2-year liberal arts college in the Midwest, a major employer in the area had just begun laying large numbers of people off from the factory. Funding was made available to the displaced workers for retraining. Since there was no community college in the area at that time, several of them came to this private college either to learn clerical/secretarial skills or to earn an associate’s degree in order to transfer on to Illinois State University. Many of them had worked in the factory since they graduated from high school and looked at this as an opportunity to move up in life. They brought a lot of rich life experiences to the classroom and really enhanced the atmosphere. What I found most interesting about this group was that even though they had stood on their feet for eight hours a day making vacuum brushes while their fingers bled and they had managed finances, a household, and raised children, they had no confidence in themselves as students. In addition, many of them had no moral support from family and friends in their desire to attend college. What they helped me realize was that while it was important for me to have a strong content base, it was equally important for me to help students gain confidence in their abilities. As it turned out, many of them were exceptional students. They were mature, they had good time management skills, and they had goals they wanted to accomplish. However, it was not uncommon to spend office hours with them on matters that weren’t content related—they seemed to be able to grasp that on their own. Teaching adult students also helped me to grow professionally but in a different manner than that provided by my junior high/high school experiences. Working with this diverse population caused me to realize that teaching is about more than providing content knowledge or being a disciplinarian. It helped me better understand that students often have needs which must be addressed before learning can take place. Current Teaching In my current teaching position, the majority of my students are traditional college age people primarily from middle to upper-middle class backgrounds. I have found that most of them are good, dependable students. My primary responsibility has been to teach in the Business Teacher Education program, although I have taught a couple of courses for underclassmen. One of these classes was an interdisciplinary course which was required for all freshmen. It met on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8 a.m. Because of the early hour and because it was a required freshman course, I anticipated the course would be a difficult one. The students proved me wrong. It turned out to be one of the best courses I have ever taught and I would teach it again except that it has been discontinued. The students were rarely absent, they were eager for class discussion, and except for one student, their writing skills were excellent. The other class was a beginning foundations course for all business students. I had two sections of that one and I didn’t know what to expect. The students again pleasantly surprised me. Their attendance wasn’t quite as good as the freshmen so I had to work on motivating them to come to class. One technique I used was to occasionally give an in-class assignment. It would only be worth 5 points but it could not be made up if a student was not in class. The word was quickly passed to those who missed the class and therefore missed the assignment. Even though it was only worth 5 points, I found that the few students who had been missing class were concerned enough that they began coming to class. The other courses that I teach are all part of the business teacher education program. Because they are required for the major, I find the students to be dedicated and enthusiastic. BTE110 is course designed to help students learn proper keying techniques as well as to introduce them to a variety of computer input technologies. ACC/BTE225 is an advanced microcomputer applications course. I have found that it is helpful to give students a brief overview of the lesson and then allow them to work at their own pace as I circulate and act as a resource person. It is imperative that students get the hands-on experience in order to developing a working knowledge of the various software applications. BTE330/FCS330 is a consumer economics course that students find beneficial because it covers a wide variety of consumer topics. We discuss buying a car, home ownership, taxes, investments, managing credit, budgeting, banking, planning for retirement, and several other areas that will impact students. The purpose of BTE322 is twofold—to help students gain an understanding of entrepreneurship and help them develop methods and techniques for teaching entrepreneurship. Teaching Practices All of my teaching experiences have helped me develop a Philosophy of Education. Basically it is a student-centered one where I feel that it is my responsibility to facilitate students’ learning. I have come to realize that teaching involves more than a mastery of content knowledge. In fact, many of my students indicate that they are concerned that when they student teach, their students will be more knowledgeable about the subject matter than they. I tell them that will often be secondary to other issues. Assessment of students is one of the issues with which they should be concerned. There are multiple methods I use to assess student work, depending upon the assignment. These methods include tests, quizzes, writing assignments such as research papers, journals, and reflective essays, computer assignments, peer evaluations, and credit/no credit. I believe that my repertoire of assessment techniques has increased as my teaching experience has broadened. I also feel that my assessment practices have improved. As a new teacher, most of my assessment was centered around tests and quizzes. Now I realize there are other methods that can be used to effectively assess students. Assessment of my teaching is something that I do on a continual basis because I believe that assessment should be formative. Some of my assessment is done informally—after I teach a lesson I think about what things worked and what things didn’t. Other assessment is more formal—I actually make notations about my teaching so that I can make changes in subsequent classes. I also value peer assessment although I have not had much experience with it. I feel that teaching should be collaborative and peer assessment could encourage that. Student evaluation of my teaching is very beneficial because it enables me to gain insight into how students perceive my teaching. Administrative assessment is also important. In general, the assessment which gives me suggestions for improvement is what I value the most. Of course I enjoy positive comments from students or administrators because they help me feel that I have contributed to students’ learning but it is the negative comments that cause me to reflect and think about my teaching. These reflections have led me to set some future teaching goals. These include implementing some classroom practices that I found in my reading such as asking my students to do an anonymous, short, informal evaluation periodically throughout the semester. This will give me insight into concerns that students may be having and it will allow me to respond to them immediately rather than waiting until the course is over. Because I thought I might be supervising student teachers, I recently enrolled in C&I564 – Assessment in Teacher Education. I found the course to be very valuable because it gave me a different perspective on assessment. There were several journal articles that I read for the course as well as some research studies which offered some very interesting information. I feel that I will be able to incorporate much of this information into my student teacher assessment. Another goal that I have is to develop a new course that is being offered in the Business Teacher Education program in the fall. It is a course on Entrepreneurship which is designed specifically for the business teacher. Scholarly Productivity I am in the process of completing my dissertation and hope to be finished by May 2006. I will soon be defending my dissertation and because the topic is business teacher education, I have found the review of the related literature to be quite beneficial. The dissertation is a qualitative study on the perceptions of the faculty and administrators at two Midwestern universities on the changes and adaptations of their business teacher education programs over the last 15-20 years. I am hopeful that the results will be valuable to other remaining programs and that I will be able to publish some of my findings. In November of 2005 and 2006, I presented at the Illinois Business Education Association’s annual conference in Springfield. This first year, I gave a presentation on entrepreneurship. The second year, I demonstrated how to create a web page using a wizard in Microsoft Publisher. It was well received and I have been asked to give the same presentation in June at the Illinois Association of Career and Technical Education annual conference. I believe that my dissertation work as well as my presentation at IBEA adds depth to my BTE professionalism. Both have challenged me to learn about new things and then apply my knowledge to my profession. Service Currently I am the faculty sponsor for the Theta Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega which is a national service fraternity. In order to remain in good standing with the chapter, students are required to complete 22 hours of volunteer work each semester. Our chapter is a very active one and meets on Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. There are usually around 40-45 students in attendance. One of our main projects is to host the Boy Scout Merit Badge day. We were responsible for planning the event, deciding which badges to offer, finding adults to teach the badges, scheduling rooms, etc.—basically every facet of the day. I am very proud of our chapter because the members willingly give up an entire Saturday to host this. Some of the other projects that our chapter has been involved with include Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Make a Wish Foundation, the McLean County Humane Society, and Relay for Life. I am constantly amazed at the students in this organization. It is all based on volunteer work—there is no pay involved; no college credit. They do this work of their own volition which I feel is highly commendable. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with them and feel that this experience has also added breadth to my professional life. Conclusion While I feel that I have grown professionally over the course of my career, I realize that I have only scratched the surface. I have so much still to learn and being involved at so many different levels provides me with endless opportunities to continue to grow. I believe that this growth will enable me to be a more effective teacher and a better human being.