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My Beliefs about Teaching and Learning.
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I didn’t always want to be a teacher. In kindergarten, I wanted to be a police officer, so I could be friends with the firemen and catch bad guys. But I think instinctively that I was teacher, even at age four. I met my best friend in kindergarten; I offered to teach her how to remove a Band-Aid at the water table. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be just like my grade five teacher, Miss ____________. She was my favourite teacher. She made me feel like I was special and intelligent. I remember her mostly because the summer after that school year ended, she moved away to the East Coast, but she wrote each of her students a postcard. I still have it.
I believe that every student needs to feel special in some way.
In grade six I discovered the joys of science. I wanted to be an astrophysicist. I didn’t really understand what that was, exactly, but that’s what I wanted to be. My grade six teacher, Mrs. Clark, encouraged me to pursue this interest and work hard in my math and science classes.
I believe that students should be encouraged never to limit their possibilities.
Grade seven was the year that would shape the path of my life. We started taking instrumental music classes that year. I learned to play the viola. I was determined to the play it better than anyone else. I took it home every night (much to my parents’ delight) and practiced. Despite the ruckus I caused in my house, my parents encouraged me to practice and do my best. I went on to take music throughout high school.
I believe that parents should be involved in their children's education.
In high school, I had several teachers that shaped the way I think about teaching and made me want to teach as well. Mr. Stewart was my OAC English teacher. He was a very liberal person in his philosophies and in his style of teaching. He had long white hair and sometimes wore Japanese sandals to school (with socks). He taught me to write. He introduced us to the MLA and insisted we follow that format in our writings for him. He was determined to prepare us for the world beyond high school. Mr. Stewart wanted us to succeed in life, even if it meant failing first. I wanted to have the same kind of impact on other people’s lives. Someday, I hope I can teach half as well as he did.
I beileve that students can succeed, if their teachers want them to succeed.
Mr. ------------- was my least favourite teacher in high school. I despised him. He was very political and very involved in the teachers’ union. He would leave class to discuss union issues with other teachers, in the middle of lessons. I hope that as a teacher, I never am like him. I was in grade nine when the OSSTF union went on strike. As a student, I was annoyed. The strike didn’t hurt the board; it didn’t hurt the union; and it didn’t hurt the government. The only people who were really hurt in the strike, in my opinion, were the students.
I believe that union politics should be left out of the classroom. On Strike!
As I mentioned, I took music throughout high school. My music teachers, Mr. Hu-A-Kam, Mr. Hill, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Wrigglesworth, Mr. Sinclair, and Mr. Corrigan were the best teachers I have ever had, by far. I decided to study music at York and become a music teacher because of their influence on my life. They looked at the whole student. They were demanding of our time, before and after school, but that never bothered me. I respected the amount of time and commitment they devoted to their students and their music program. They were at school at 7:00am and were there after school until 9:00pm for rehearsals. They invested their own personal time to their students and worked hard to make sure that we had fun while we were learning.
I belive that learning can be fun, and that committed teachers make the difference.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of teaching and having some great students. I’ve received pictures, letters and cards from them. It’s nice to see that they appreciate me as a teacher.
