The Spiritual Dimension of Being a Beginning Teacher - Essay Example

 The Spiritual Dimension of Being a Beginning Teacher: A Reflection Piece “If, though, by the conjunction of conditions, someone understands what the Buddha meant, that person doesn't need a teacher. Such a person has a natural awareness superior to anything taught. But unless you're so blessed, study hard, and by means of instruction you'll understand” (Bodhidharma, 2011, pgh. 6). I. Introduction My spiritual dimension as a beginning teacher are: to have a sense of why I’m teaching; to have goals as a beginning teacher; and to have a nurturing philosophy of education (which includes being able to know the politics of difference within my student body’s population) combined in tandem with a solid philosophy of diversity. II. Why Teach My reasons for going into the teaching profession are manifold. First, I want to be a teacher because it is a time-honored profession that I feel suits my personality. Secondly, I would like to teach because I would like to use my skills in this area to help others. Third, I believe teaching is a career choice that is geared towards uniting both people and ideas, which I think are key to my success at a profession in life. Teaching is a noble profession. Notwithstanding, teaching is also a profession that is adaptable to different personalities. My personality is generally very outgoing and people-oriented. I believe that working with others is key as a teacher, and think that I would be able to adapt well to a learning environment situation that requires me to interact with many different people on a daily basis. So much of a teacher’s attention is demanded every day in the smallest of interactions. I feel that I should teach because my personality is suited to meeting those many small and specific needs students have. I think I would be very good at that. Further, I would like to use my skills to help students learn, at varying levels. I have years of experience studying my field. Finally, I am interested in working in a profession that is geared towards involving both people and ideas. I am convinced that the field that I would work in would have to include a human element besides just working strictly with information. So, I like the fact that I get to work with people and have social interactions with students, faculty, and staff. This is a key component to my happiness. After doing my teacher aiding, I realize that I cannot work with ideas and information alone. It is really the people at my workplace, in my profession—whom I will come across every day—who will make my life more enjoyable. That is what I look forward to as a teacher, is the camaraderie and sense of belonging to an organization. In closing, I am looking for many things as I search for my teaching career as I embark on a new journey. In essence, why teach? I don’t just teach because I can, but because I must, for the following reasons. Teaching is a profession which suits my personality. I want to teach in order to utilize my core subject skills to help other people. Last, but not least, I would like to be involved in a profession that includes both people and ideas as part of its schema—following in the footsteps of great former teachers before me. III. My Goals as a Beginning Teacher My goals as a beginning teacher are based on Curtain’s (2004) assertion that “the three characteristics of effective teachers [which are]: [having] classroom management skills, …teach[ing] for lesson mastery, and… practic[ing] positive expectations” (pp. 205). I believe these goals will help me to be a well-prepared and productive teacher. These goals are important to have because they will keep me focused on what I should be striving for within the teaching profession. One cannot expect to be an effective teacher if the classroom environment is out-of-control. According to Helena Curtain in Languages and Children: Making the Match, there are four keys to good classroom management, and the first step, she says, is, “Maintain a positive environment.” If the learning environment is not a positive place in which to be, the kids will not want to be there and they will not want to learn. Among the keystones of keeping this positive environment are: keeping a positive mission; maintaining a sense of mission; having a sense of humor; keeping one’s cool; motivating students; and having availability and visibility to students. Curtain’s second point for effective classroom management is, “Establish clear procedures,” which includes establishing rules, establishing a connection between behavior and consequences, and establishing a procedure for classroom routines. Students need to know that there are boundaries and guidelines for them to be followed, and that if they are not followed that there will be consequences. Students must be aware of cause and effect, and that their actions have meaning associated with them. Their actions cannot be allowed to go unchecked if they are inappropriate. Student inattention, sleeping in class, or disruptions should be dealt with by dealing with the infraction either by directly approaching the student, with silence, or in some cases using the student’s name—whichever is most appropriate to the situation. Whatever the case, students cannot do anything they please, is what it boils down to. As a professional teacher, it is the teacher’s responsibility to be captain of the ship—so to speak—and the mission is learning. Therefore, anyone who interrupts that mission must be dealt with in the proper fashion. The third point that helps with effective classroom management is, “Plan for every single moment—and beyond!” This cannot be emphasized enough. It is better to come to the class over-prepared than underprepared. Teachers should meticulously prepare their lesson plans so that every minute is used wisely, as every minute is precious. Curtain suggests “sponge activities” such as “I Spy” to soak up any extra class minutes that might have otherwise gone unused, at the end of a class period. The fourth part of good classroom management, according to Helena Curtain, is involving the parents and the school community. As a beginning teacher, I hope to have an active role in students learning, sending home letters, making phone calls to get to know parents before I teach the students, and doing follow-up on students’ progress. Curtain mentions that one should make phone calls regularly, with more “good news” messages than negative ones. As a beginning teacher, I hope to teach for lesson mastery, which means that students will be able to master the material presented in their lessons. It naturally follows from this that all of my lessons will be taught in a manner that directly relates to the material on which students will be assessed. The relevancy of the lesson will not mean much if I am teaching the students about present tense verbs and then assess them on a completely different topic. So I am planning to make instructional validity a priority as a beginning teacher and make sure that what I am teaching aligns with what is being assessed on quizzes and tests, and making sure that students are adequately prepared for those hurdles. Finally, as a beginning teacher, I want to practice positive expectations. Not everyone may be able to get an “A” in my classroom, but I want it to be known in my class that each student starts out with the grade of “A”, and the students can keep that grade by performing their best, completing all their homework, doing the best they can on quizzes and tests, and participating in class. Hopefully, then, students will be able to keep that “A” grade. As a beginning teacher, I want built-in safety nets that drop the lowest quiz grade, and so forth, so that students who don’t perform well all the time are not at a disadvantage. I want all students to succeed in my class, even if their definitions of success may differ. Some students may want to improve their pronunciation but may still get a lower grade, for example. I am flexible as a teacher and must realize that success comes in varying shapes and sizes. My goals as a beginning teacher are simple. First, I would like to focus on having good classroom management, which I believe is one of the biggest stepping-stones to being an organized and efficient teacher. Secondly, I believe that as a beginning teacher I should strive for teaching lesson mastery, which will encourage children to know their lessons well. Last, but not least, I plan to practice positive expectations for my students to let them know that each of them has the potential to succeed in my class, in whatever form that takes. IV (a). Philosophy of Education My philosophy of education includes the ideas that:  every child has the capacity to learn the core subject; every child should be able to do a personal best; the effective teacher’s philosophy is classroom discipline and management; and that I am very eclectic in my views. I believe that all students have the capability to learn some level of their core subject.  My goal as a teacher is to help the student arrive at some level of proficiency in their core subject I am teaching.  For each student, that will be a different level.  Most likely I will be teaching in multi-level ability classrooms.  My effectiveness in dealing with the differing ability levels of students will affect the outcomes of their learning, and so I must be prepared for those situations, and how to effectively assess students on an equal playing field.            My philosophy includes the fact that I want my students doing their personal best.  It is critical that the environment I create is one that fosters risk-taking. I want my students to have the freedom to be creative without being afraid to make mistakes and fail. It's my goal to help my students be independent thinkers who ask questions and "think outside the box". I don't want students to just do what they have to do to get by. To do this I need to create a classroom environment in which students want to be active and want to do their personal best. 
          An important part of an effective teacher's philosophy is classroom discipline and management. I will be a proactive teacher rather than a reactive one. I will try to anticipate problems before they occur and redirect behavior before it becomes a distraction for the class so we don't waste valuable time. Shaming and putting students down is not an effective discipline tool. Rather, I will respect my students and will work for mutual respect from them, for each other as well as for themselves. Another benefit of having discipline and respect in the classroom is students will have the opportunity demonstrate that they have appropriate social skills.             After reading about, considering, and analyzing my educational philosophy, I came to a conclusion that I had already anticipated; that is, that my educational philosophy is very eclectic in the sense that it is unique. My educational philosophy tends to follow progressivism the strongest. The progressivist beliefs that education should be child-centered and active rather than passive are two main attributes of my educational philosophy. I believe there are unlimited ways I can start with a child's idea or interest and expand upon it, stretch it, bend it and even re-form it to teach just about anything in a curriculum. And the expansion, stretching, bending, and re-forming can stem from the children with minimum probing and direction from the teacher. It may not be as easy as following a teacher-centered plan, but both students and teachers can learn a lot on the way. I also believe that schools should help develop social values as long as they are not judgmental, or exclusionary.
           Individual choice is an important part of my philosophy, and I also feel rational theories are as important. There should be an individual and emotional commitment to living authentically but not at the cost of everything else.  Teachers hould help students learn to scrutinize and change the existing social order. This is my philosophy of education which is continually being shaped as I go through the educational process as a teacher. This includes understanding the politics of difference between students in my class. IV (b). The Politics of Difference in Education Dennis Fischman’s article “Getting It: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Understanding” was mainly concerned with the topic of midrash in Torah and how one can apply this to the concept of “getting it,” or understanding another person’s viewpoint from another cultural perspective. This can be applied to education. According to Eddy (1996), “When we find we're just not ‘getting it,’ instead of giving way to frustration, we can ask ourselves: How does the social world look to this person so that what they're doing, saying, or feeling makes sense?” (pp. 36). Here two things will be discussed: the politics of difference and the politics of understanding. The midrash of Torah is very explicit in its politics of difference and its politics of understanding. Within the Torah, we have some rather authoritative people which lend to the politics of difference. The other people coming to the table in this discussion that Fischman invites us into include other major players in the evolution of how the Bible came into being. It all started with the Levites. They were the high priests among the children of Israel and therefore had the responsibility for upkeep and holiness with regard to the temple. And, next, of course, there is the role that Moses’s voice played in the whole evolution of the Torah as a text, which generally we see throughout the Pentateuch. Finally, there is the question of Aaron, Moses’s brother, who had some ultimate say in the final decisions in the sense of having taken part in the politics of difference. And finally, there is God, whom one must assume, in this piece, takes the place of ultimate decision-maker, for, in the end, it is God who makes the calls. Therefore, a theology of liberation only goes so far as much as one believes that the God in whom one is trusting in ascribes to the philosophy that all oppressed peoples deserve to be in their oppressed status. For the sake of Devil’s advocate, let one assume that God is playing the politics of difference. This, logically, leads us to believe that the politics of understanding, or “getting it,” namely, the midrash of the Torah, will be understood by everyone else who is not in a position of power to delegate the power of the Word of God and spiritual power. These people who are “everyone else” include(d) followers of the Torah, the children of Israel, and essentially everyone who is not God who was not religiously connected to God in the personal development of His Word. The politics of understanding matter greatly here, as social location comes into play. Gender, class, race, age, culture, socio-economic status, disability, and a variety of other factors influence how one is perceived in society. A liberal, politically leftist-leaning Bujew lesbian from Long Island who does yoga and is “spiritual but not religious” will interpret the Torah much differently than a politically conservative Orthodox Hasidic Jew from the Bronx who is frum and keeps kosher, almost never missing an important religious holiday. Likewise, a biracial woman of mixed African-American and Puerto-Rican descent will have different life experiences than a male of Mexican-American descent. One must realize how the power play even between these differences affect the politics amongst those with understanding, or who “get it.” So, undoubtedly there is a hierarchy. Just where does one draw the lines? Dennis Fischman’s article, especially in highlighting the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill case, does an excellent job of showing the division between the two groups involved in the politics of difference and the politics of understanding. Those who in effect hold the true power play the politics of difference, while everyone else actually does “get it.” In the same way, politics of difference might cause stress to students who are left out of the educational loop because they are behind due to their socioeconomic status. IV (c). Philosophy of Diversity My philosophy of diversity encapsulates three key concepts which will serve to make my classroom a welcoming environment for all students to learn and to express themselves accordingly. These concepts which will make my classroom a successful learning environment for diverse learners are the following: promoting inclusivity; celebrating diversity; and, as the teacher, using caretaker language to make students feel comfortable. It is a keystone of my philosophy of diversity that the classroom be a place of inclusiveness—whether my students be Black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, or of mixed race(s) or races not named here, and be of whatever socioeconomic status, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or cultural affiliation—that my students feel that they are equals in my classroom regardless of my cultural lens. An inclusive philosophy dictates that each student should have the same opportunity to learn the core subject being taught. This includes being cognizant of striving against favoritism, especially based on gender or race. Students who are from lower levels socioeconomically should be given a fair chance to succeed by providing them with the tools they need to succeed in an environment which has typically favored the dominant culture’s hegemonic social strata. A level playing field is key. Stategies include having class materials available such as extra paper and pens. I want students of various national origins and religions to feel comfortable enough to express themselves within the dynamic of their own backgrounds. Especially with students who have ESL/ELL/bilinugal/multilingual backgrounds, I want to make sure that my class is accessible to their language capabilities by supporting their learning with extra attention in order to check for understanding so that they don’t fall behind. Additionally, I would like to extend my help to students of different genders and sexual orientations who may suffer discrimination from other students—and try to combat that discrimination within my classroom by having an open-door policy. I wish to facilitate a learning environment in the classroom that fosters language learning to all students, regardless of what groups to which they belong. Part of this inclusivity can be achieved with the celebration of diverse learners’ backgrounds. Allowing students to use their own method and style of speaking, dialects, and rhetorical devices when expressing themselves should be key when teaching them their core subject—although an effort will be made to show students a variety of dialectical, methodical, stylistic, and rhetorical devices used, providing a contrast to their own. This is not to diminish students’ own experiences; rather, it is to provide students from diverse populations the opportunity to be introduced to the Spanish language in its many forms and reinforce the beauty of their own cultural, religious, and especially linguistic, traditions. Celebrating students’ diversity includes the necessity of allowing for various questions and responses according to students’ cultural lenses, viewpoints, and global worldviews. As a teacher, I cannot make generalizations about students. Rather, I must be aware, or become aware of, the unique differences and similarities in my students’ backgrounds and then make my students feel welcome—regardless of that background—in order to make them feel that they are in a learning environment which is as safe and nonjudgmental as humanly possible, in order to promote the curriculum in a fun and engaging style accounting for those differences and similarities. Additionally, I will accentuate the importance that students must learn to appreciate each others’ differences and similarities and be sensitive, polite, and respectful individuals who are model citizens both inside and outside my classroom—which will help foster learning across disciplines. Thirdly, I plan to utilize caretaker language in order to help students of whatever background feel at ease in my classroom to be part of the learning process—which includes students from all levels. In lieu of the parent(s), the teacher takes on a role of authority responsible for students’ affective filters. How much learning they absorb depends upon the care with which they are spoken to in the classroom. I plan to use caretaker language so students feel like members of a classroom community and mini-culture of its own. Students navigating the classroom culture will achieve mastery. Inclusivity is the classroom is key. As Norwich and Kelly (2005) state “There are clearly common interests between different groups and individuals at risk of exclusion, that can give some force to the case for a broad inclusivity in education” (pp. 52). Diversity is necessary in education as well. Dietz (2009) states, “The current debate about interculturality, diversity and their repercussions in the educational system broke out in the eighties...” but is still relevant today (pp. 11). Caretaker language is similarly necessary. As is noted by Saracho et. al. (1983), “Caretaker language presents language in a form that can serve as input for the child's language acquisition” (pp. 71). My philosophy of diversity includes: inclusivity, celebrating diversity, and using caretaker language. In addition to the rationale behind why I want to become a teacher, lies the deeper necessity to inform younger generations about what came before and this knowledge that I have which must be passed along. My goals as a beginning teacher will serve to highlight the discrepancies between how I student-taught and what is actually happening in the classroom that I will one day take over as my job. Finally, my philosophies are guiding lights, which illuminate everything in the light of what I believe in and how I was created and what was my purpose of creation. These are all parts of my spiritual formation and dimension as a beginning teacher, for which I have: reasons why or rationale about “why teach”; goals as a beginning teacher; and a philosophy of education including the politics of difference including a philosophy of diversity. REFERENCES Bodhidharma. (2011). Buddhist quotes. Online. Available: . Curtain, H. (2004). Languages and children: making the match. USA: Pearson Education, Inc. Dietz, G. (2009). Multiculturalism, interculturality and diversity in education. Germany: Waxmann Verlag. Eddy, R., Ed. (1996). Reflections on multiculturalism. “Getting It: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Understanding.” USA: Intercultural Press. Norwich B. and Kelly N. (2005). Moderate learning difficulties and the future of inclusion. USA: Psychology Press. Saracho, O., et. al. (1983). Understanding the multicultural experience in early childhood education. USA: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Read More