In many ways has this experience started to shape my teacher identity. One thing I have learned is that this is nothing like babysitting and entertaining a few kids and no where as easy as it looks!
One thing that I have learned by tutoring is that children are on all different levels no matter the grade that they are in. Josh one of the boys I tutor had many difficulties and could just about read a book. Despite his difficulties he showed me that he was still eager to learn and made wanted to improve his skills. When he would try to read a sentence if there was a word or two there he didn't know how to pronounce he would add his own words. From this I learned to have more patience and understanding for children when learning something new. I feel this way because if you are not patient they may feel rushed and not concentrate and I am more understanding because I now know what it is like to be in both positions (tutor and student).
Other ways the VIPS experience is shaping my teacher identity is by just being able to interact with children on a different level. I'm there for them as someone they can look up too( hopefully) and someone to guide and help them with things they need help with! All of my students always ask me if I go to big kid school or some made up name for college! Then they tell me how thats where they want to go when they get older and thats makes me feel good because I feel like I've made an impact on them to want to continue with their education. Where as at home they may see people who may not have continued with their education or even left high school before graduating.
This experience has also helped to shape my teacher identity because I am able to see from a different perspective how the teacher presents her lessons and handles her kids. From this I have learned to not always give in to every child. That may sound a little mean but some kids do or say things just for attention. Michalya had a small paper cut and was mad that she wasn't able to go first in a game, when Mrs. Goncalves saw her she just told to stop crying and deal with it. Mrs. G then looked at me and told me that she acts like a drama queen over everything!
Finally the vips experience has helped to shape my teacher identity because I have learned a little bit of how I might be as a teacher. It's obvious that I wont know my teaching style until I start my student teaching, but this was definately a helpful experience and a slight insight of whats to come!
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Hi Maeghan, after I read your post I was wondering if you had to deal with any other situations that made you act like a teacher more than a tutor. I wrote in my blog regarding this question, and that I stepped in a little more in certain situations and realized what teaching techniques could help the children. I also took some strategies that I saw my classroom teacher use with the students. I did not agree with all the ways the teacher presented lesson plans to the kids. Did you agree or disagree with how your teacher ran their classroom and did it fit any of the techniques that we had read about. I also think you brought up a great point when you said that every student has a different learning level and they do not all act the same. I also noticed that in the class I was observing and tutoring. I felt that my teacher could have done a better job incorporating all the different levels of learning into her lesson plans. I thought it was great that you had a positive influence on the kids in the class you were tutors. I do feel it is important for a teacher to be a role model and have their students reach over the same or higher goals as they had done. I think this is an important part of teaching especially to students who do not have a positive and educated person to look up to at home. I think I might have taken a little more out of this experience in regards to my teacher identity. I believe some of that is the teacher that I was placed with who had been in the classroom for twelve years and was set in a status quo approach. I was able to critically analyze this approach and learn from it as well as get a good idea of how I want to conduct my class. It seems that you did take some great knowledge out of VIPS to help you begin to build your teacher identity.
ReplyDeleteI wish the teacher I had also tried to incorportate all of the students levels in her lesson plans, but its also hard to tell what she is and isn't doing. I never really had a chance to observe until the other day. The sad thing was the other day when I was in the classroom I asked the kids what they wanted to go to college a for and one of the little boys told me he was not going to go to college that he just wanted a job. How is it that a seven year old doesn't have dreams of going to college and just wants a job? I wish I had more to take from this experience but I think my placement could have been a little better, too!
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