Education Blog

This semester in education 101, I compiled a list of my top ten takeaways. Five takeaways are from in class experiences and the other five are from my village project placement.

5 takeaways from class:

1. The very first lesson I learned in class is that we must “meet children where they are”. I find this phrase to be extremely insightful because when you are a teacher each year you’ll have a new set of students. I think this helps because it reminds me to not set expectations right away and give the students time to show me what they can do. This way I can build relationships and form bonds that can deeper my connections and understanding of the students. This phrase also reminds me that every child is different and they have different needs. If I focus on where every individual is at, then they will have more opportunities to learn and grow.
2. Another important takeaway is that it’s ok to not know everything and to ask for help. I believe that a big part of teaching is collaboration and is made up of experiences. Teachers are a support system to each other and its ok to ask questions because asking questions makes you a better teacher. I have to remember that learning is a process and everyday you learn something new in this field because it is always changing. Learning never stops.
3. A big takeaway from class is that teachers are people too. This is a really impactful statement because it acknowledges that teachers are human and they make mistakes just like anyone else. And its ok to make mistakes because it gives opportunities to learn from them and continue to grow. You fix your mistake and move forward. This also sets a good example to students because it shows growth and encourages them to expand.
4. My fourth takeaway is the importance of centering yourself. Teaching can be chaotic, stressful, and emotional and sometimes you have to take a minute for yourself to regain control. When you center yourself, you are pushing everything out of your brain to reduce stress and anxiety, clear your mind, and just take a moment to regather. This is something that will definitely keep in mind for my future and plan on using.
5. My last takeaway from class is creating your own teaching philosophy. I have learned that teaching is lot of trial and error and figuring out what system work for you by creating your own philosophy. This would include the inspiration and collaboration with other teachers. But its about what works in your classroom for you and your students. Education is constantly changing and teachers have to be able to adjust and adapt new ideas. In class we were able to listen to multiply different teaching philosophies that I look forward to take parts of and adjusting them to find my needs.

5 takeaways from village project tutoring:

1. The biggest thing I took away from my placement was time management. I was a tutor and at my site, we met twice a week for thirty minute sessions. We had lessons given to us based on our students module. These lessons consisted of 4-5 activities each lesson to do in thirty minutes. I learned how to effectively plan out our sessions beforehand and take this plan into our sessions. When I plan out I can estimate how long the activities will take my student to complete and allow me to fill in the time. I will continue to use this in my own classroom.
2. In order to tutor we had to go through a lot of different training. In one specific area we learned about process praise and effective language to instill a growth mindset. This consisted of different wording and phrases we can use to make our students think a certain way. We also learned about the benefits a growth mindset has on children and how we can sufficiently introduce it in our sessions. I definitely plan on using this on my future students and on future placements.
3. Communication was another big takeaway. I had to opportunity to share a module with 3 other people and it was so nice to be able to listen to each other and give advice to each other. We were able to bounce ideas off of one another and be an outlet. Communication is key. I was also able to communicate with my tutor coach when I had a question regarding my student and they were able to listen to me and help me find beneficial resources. A big part of teaching is effective communication so this was an important skill to learn.
4. Another takeaway is understanding and shifting focus based on different needs. When tutoring, our lessons are planned out for us through the program. However, this doesn’t account for student’s individual needs. When I would notice something that needed a little extra work, I would shift the focus onto that specific topic until my student understood. I learned that sometimes things need more attention than others based on each student. And this can cause you to have to take more time than originally planned out, and that is ok.
5. My final takeaway was building a personal connection and being an outlet. When I first met my student, she were very shy. But the more and more I talked with her, she started to come out of her shell and we ended up having a close bond. Through our bond, I was able to be an outlet for her and a resource that she could always go to and confide in. I would like to carry this insight with me and try to build connections with all my students.

I started my village project assignment the third week in September. From there we had training sessions two times a week for two and a half weeks. The following week, I was assigning my student and began tutoring them and will continue until the semester is over.

When I tutor my student at St. Bernard, I can see myself developing and expanding my skills that will ultimately help my in my career later on. Teaching is such a hard career that doesn’t get enough credit from outsiders, but the accomplishment that I have had in my journey so far has been outstanding.

The student I have been working with was struggling with blends and digraphs in school, so we needed to spend a little extra time after school two times a week to get back on track with where their classmates are. This means that we are working together to close this gap.

Before we can begin to learn in our sessions together, we have to feel comfortable together and create a safe learning environment. So, I have been building a connection with my tutee and giving them the opportunity to come out of their shell, which I see more and more with each session.

I believe support is extremely important in education careers and I have been blessed with an amazing team working beside me and coaches to mentor and guide me through this experience. This can be tricky sometimes, but after each session we have little groups meetings with the other tutors in the same module and it is nice to get so advice of what worked for them and what didn’t work and then we also have the opportunity to talk to our tutor coaches who were actual teachers and get their advice. This creates a better understanding that can then be shared with my tutee.

Another big thing that we have been working on is not only teaching them their lessons but helping to grow their resiliency. Recently we had a training session that talked about the language and phrases we use when talking to our students and how important it is to phrase our words correctly because kids take our words to heart and this can affect them long term. So we want them to have growth mindset and this starts with our words towards them. Not only am I building my tutee’s mindset, I am also expanding mine. Kids can still teach you new things no matter how old or educated you may be.

My most recent challenge was that I missed a session and when I can back I not only had my tutee but two tutee’s because another tutor was sick. So I had to teach two students after school on Halloween. My first struggle was that I was absent so I had to gage what they had done without me at the previous session. My second struggle was that I had two students instead of one and I didn’t know one of them. This means that they weren’t necessarily comfortable with me yet and that I didn’t know his methods. My third struggle was that it was Halloween. They had already gone through an entire day of school and then had to watch as everyone left and they had to be there for tutoring and were very exciting to go trick or treating after. It was hard but we made it through our entire lesson and then I received a text from my tutor coach that made it all worth it. In this text, she had told me that I did a great job and went into more detail. But this made me feel so accomplished and filled with joy because even though it was hard, i got through it and can’t wait until the next session.

This whole process has been very intimidating and a little scary at times, especially because it is all school year, but I can already see the benefits it has had and I can’t wait to see where this takes me on my education journey.