I intend to create a "culture of success" in my classroom by encouraging my students to do their very best work. I was always encouraged by my parents to do my best. If my best was only a C than at least I know I worked as hard as I could and that was the final result. There is always room for improvement even for students that get straight A's. Everyone would benefit from revising, rethinking, and rewriting assignments, papers, and theories. I want my students to believe that they can do the work that I assign. I have been told by supervising teachers that the students I tutor rise to my academic standards that I set for them, and I set very high goals for all students on all grade levels.
I'll be the first to admit that I am a tough teacher and I expect a lot from the students I will teach. I also do not want to see any student "fall through the cracks" of the education system and feel lost in my classroom. I would offer as much support as needed to prevent students from feeling overwhelmed by my expectations. I would stay after school as late as I would need to for any student that needed my help. I would go to school early if students could not meet with me in the afternoon. I would supply any additional information that they would need to complete assignments. I would encourage them and show them that they could do the work by engaging them in the assignment in a different way than I did in class. Everyone has different learning levels and rewording an explanation can sometimes be the most helpful of all.
Pressure is one of the major issues that students are attempting to cope with today. Therefore I would further make them feel as comfortable as I possibly could that they could come to me with any academic problems they are having. I know what it is like to suffer from panic attacks due to stress. Most often it is the stress that students place on themselves that causes such attacks. I can relate, I do the same thing all the time. Students have outside pressures as well, pressures from other teachers, friends, parents, guardians, and after school activities. Pressure is a main factor of academic success, the point is for a teacher not to add to the already existing pressures that students feel.
A teacher should not compare classes. Students already feel as if they have to compete with other classmates or even their own siblings when it comes to learning. "The worst thing a teacher can do is to compare a class to another class, and put them down" (P. 67 Fires in the Bathroom). Therefore a teacher should not pin students against each other by posting their grades for everyone to see, or try encouraging a student by saying "Look at how dilegantly Melaine is working". Encourage students on their own levels not another student's level.
A few times when I was substituting in a classroom I encouraged students to think. One example was when: the students had to watch a film and answer the questions as the film was being played. All of the students waited until the film was finished before attacking the questions. I walked around and saw one student copying all of the answers from a student that had all of the questions completed. I asked the student what he learned from the film. He told me that he knew everything that there was to know. I told him if that were true than he could answer the questions on his own. I took the paper he was copying and turned it upside down returning it to the owner. I thanked her for her efforts to help but that he wouldn't learn anything from just copying the answers. I then sat with the student and asked him the questions in a different way then they were being asked and he was able to answer the questions on his own. He thanked me for caring and taking the time to help him. He realized that copying the answers got him no where. He found satisfaction in a job well done and my praise for him doing the work on his own.
The text claims not to favor the best students, yet I was faced with a situation when I was tutoring 4th graders on reading and writing. These students were failing their classes and I worked with them to improve their learning levels. One boy that I was tutoring was very bright. He would correct the other students if he thought they mispronounced a word, he read exceptionally well and wrote profound stories. I couldn't figure out why he was in the program, but when his mother asked me what should she be working on with him at home, I realized he needed constant verification that he was on the right path doing well, he needed encouragment and a lot of "hand holding", not literally. He needed to be walked through his assignments. I had 7 students and he was just one out of the 7 that I was responsible for tutoring. I had other students that I needed to diverge my attention to, and I found that I would pay more attention to the students that needed more help than he did. I felt like I was ignoring him. In my mind I was allowing him the time to work on his own because he was capable of doing the work on his own. He might not have seen that he was capable of doing the work. I kept taking the time to explain to him that he was ahead of the other students and I needed to help them with their work. Every time I directed my attention to another student, he would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to check his work, to pay attention to him and what he was working on. Academically speaking I don't think he needed as much help as he claimed he did, he just liked the attention. There seems to be a lot to say about not favoring the best students. I did help all of the students rise in their levels of learning and it was extremely satisfying to see that I made a difference in their lives and they recognized it too and thanked me for my efforts.
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