Professional Educator Discussion and Reflection

Introduction

Over the last week, we were tasked with peer reviewing our week one assignment
with a fellow student from the course. This paper will cover the experience of the peer review,
as well as both my partner and my thoughts on creating a classroom environment that is
welcoming and nurturing. Additionally, I will be elaborating on my own personal biases, and
how I will handle them in the classroom as well as among my colleagues. Lastly, I will present
my goals as a professional learner throughout this program.

Interview Summarization

My partner for this week’s assignment was Maria Gibson. She and I had our discussion through
email and right from the beginning, I found it interesting that we both had two philosophies
have equal results from the survey. We both had progressivism as one of our top philosophies,
though we differed with my second being perrenialism and her’s being existentialism. Maria
already has ideas for how to teach as a progressive-existentialist, by using principles of
progressivism and creating independent learning centers in her classroom for students to use.
Additionally, she would apply existentialist qualities by giving students responsibilities to
manage themselves, such as turning in their homework into a specific basket or bin, rather than
collect it directly.

Personal Values and Biases

Whether in the classroom with my after-school students or in public, a quality that I value and
have a bias towards is self-awareness. When a student or person is self-aware and mindful of
how what they do affects those around them, I think that is a great quality. On the contrary,
when a student or person is not self-aware, I find it to be one of the most frustrating behaviors
to be around. Implicitly, I have a difficult time not being just a bit less patient with my students
who are not self-aware. Another trait that I feel is of great value is open-mindedness. If I have a
student show immediate disinterest in something, I find it to be challenging to hold back an
explicit negative response to their closedmindedness. Meekness is a character trait that I value
highly. When a student or person, even if clever can keep a respectful attitude towards others
and not be too prideful of themselves, I have a sense of respect for that person. These values of
self-awareness, open-mindedness, and meekness while positive qualities for a person to have,
though if a student does not have these, it becomes a great challenge to not show explicit or
implicit bias towards those students. As it says in point five of principle one of the Association
of American Educators Code of Ethics, a teacher must strive to present information without
misrepresentation, bias, or personal preconception (2015, August 7). The biggest problem is
that these biases favor well-behaved students, but doesn’t reach the students who may have bad
behaviors, but require positive attention and respect in order to grow out of these poor behaviors.

How to Cultivating Caring and Supportive Relations

Taking time to make a personal connection with each student can be one way to show students
that you care, support and accept them. Something I have started doing with my students that I
intend to adapt to my future classroom is greeting each one of my students personally as they
enter the room. Each student is greeted by name and I make sure to ask a question that can have
a brief answer and is relevant to their life. This shows that I notice each one of them and have a
genuine interest in who they are and what they care about. As an example, I recently greeted one
of my students and asked him what he thought of the season finale of an anime show that he
likes, that I have made myself aware of. Additionally, I asked one of my other students how her
ballet routine was coming along because she had mentioned previously that she was having
difficulty with it.

Similarly, I think that making yourself available to talk to with your colleagues is a way to show
that you are supportive and caring. Putting yourself out there as a team player to offer assistance
if another teacher needs help with something, taking time to listen to a teacher that offers
unsolicited advice and generally being willing to be open about yourself are ways to show your
fellow teachers that you are there and support them as your teammates. Something that I do on a
daily basis with my fellow teachers at the after-school program that I work for is gathering as
many as are available, take a group walk to the very close by Starbucks and get coffee together.
I make a point to throughout the week to talk to someone different each day, so as to keep a
healthy relationship with everyone. Making myself available to talk like this allows me to get
different points of view on how to approach a situation that is in my classroom.

Professional Learning Goals

As it states in point three of Teacher Performance Expectations six, a teacher needs to set
learning goals for themselves and be willing to hear advice and criticisms from their colleagues
(2016). One of my professional learning goals is to learn to give my students more control when
it comes to their learning, and transition towards a student-centered class and less so of a teacher
center. I plan to grow in this by finding teachers who operate with this in mind in a high school
English setting, and take time to observe their classroom, and discuss their practices. Another
professional goal of mine is to actively reflect on my teaching. On a daily basis, I want to
summarize my plan for the day's lessons and then at the end of the day write out my impression
on how the lessons went, and what I could have improved on. I plan to develop this throughout
the program by beginning even now with my after-school class, and continue as I have field
experience and student teaching. Even if I am not the one doing the teaching, I can write out the
same notes about the teacher and lessons I observe.

Conclusion

Throughout this paper, I have identified my biases, my plans for how to grow as an educator,
how I will have an effective relationship with my students and colleagues, as well as my
interaction with my fellow student, Maria Gibson. Maria and I have similar a similar philosophy
of being progressive, and moving towards a more student-centered classroom dynamic. My
values and biases favor well-behaved students and puts me at a disadvantage for treating poorly
behaved students with the patience and attention that they need. My plan to overcome this
disadvantage is to strive to make a personal connection with each of my students and show a
genuine interest in something that is important to them. Applying a similar principle to my
interactions with my fellow teachers will be how I cultivate a supportive and caring community
among them. Finally, I plan to grow as a student-centered teacher by observing teachers who
have a classroom set up in this way and to do daily reflections on my plan and performance as a
teacher.

Reference

Code of Ethics:

Association of American Educators. (2015). Code of Ethics for Educators. Retrieved from
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxtbWhhc2FuY2
V8Z3g6NjUxMDkyODAyNmZmNmExNg

California Teaching Performance Expectations:

Commission on Teacher Credentialing. (2016). California Teaching Performance Expectations.
Retrieved from https://www.ctc.ca.gov/docs/default-source/educator-prep/standards/adopted
-tpes-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=8cb2c410_0.