Passion In and Out of the Classroom

In the classroom, students succeed when they see that their teacher loves what they are doing and are teaching the class in an interesting way. When teachers have a negative attitude and are not excited about what they are doing, that attitude rubs off on the students. When a teacher is excited about what they are teaching, the students become excited well.

I know that my sixth grade teacher has a true passion for teaching. She always made class interesting and fun. At that age, students need help staying on task and they don't want to work if what they are doing is boring. That was never the case in my sixth grade class. My teacher was always excited for the school day and about what she was teaching. Looking back, whenever classmates were asked who their favorite teacher was, her name was always mentioned. When asked why, many said it was because there was always an activity that we did that was related to the lesson. She made the classes that she was teaching so much fun. We did a significant amount of our learning through creative work. There are two activities that stand out in my mind from sixth grade which were meant to help us with our writing and math skills. For one of the activities, we were put into groups to write stories which we presented to our class, after we each made puppets to go along with our characters. Around Christmas time, we also made gingerbread houses and the lesson in this project was to learn how to measure perimeter, area, etc. of the house that we built. She was always going above and beyond what was expected to find interesting ways for us to learn the information.

I was also able to see her passion for teaching from a different perspective than the other students because she is my mom. Most students don't realize the amount of work that teachers put in outside of the classroom, but with my mom, I saw everything that she did at home to get ready for her class. She taught herself how to use the new Smart Boards and began teaching other teachers how to use them. Some teachers did not put the effort into learning how to do it, but I think that when teachers put the effort into learning new teaching methods, they are truly benefiting the students because the lives of the students in this generation revolve around technology. When teachers are willing to put in the work to enhance their way of teaching, I believe that shows true passion for teaching and for their students.

Every year, at the end of the school year, my mom has a picnic with all of her students. They have a big field trip that they go on within the last week of school and after the field trip, the whole class comes to our house for a picnic. Not only do they have picnic, but she always has games set up and has activities organized for the kids. Many teachers would not want to do something like this with 25 sixth grade students, but she enjoys it every year. I think that a passionate teacher is involved in their students' lives and are willing to go out of their way to learn various ways of teaching to benefit their students. Students see the passion that their teachers put in during the school day, but most don't see the passion that occurs outside the classroom.

Genuine Teachers

At a young age, we all learn that everyone is different. We each have our own personality, interests, goals, talents, etc. As adults, we learn that those differences make us unique. As teachers, it is important for us to be ourselves and to show our personality through our teaching. If all teachers were the same, had the same personality, and had the same teaching style, I honestly would not want to become a teacher. If I had experienced that as a student, I would have been bored in school and I would have no interest in becoming a teacher. The interesting part of school was having teachers who were all different in their personalities and teaching methods.

I don't really think that there are limits on how teachers express their authenticity. As a student, I enjoyed the class more and I got more out of the class if I had a good relationship with the teacher. Students are able to learn better when they are able to relate to their teacher and if they have a good idea about who their teacher is. I believe that the teacher and student relationship is very important because it shows students that their teachers are people just like them. When students are able to trust their teachers, they are more comfortable in the classroom which helps them become more engaged in the classroom. I think that students can also tell if a teacher is not authentic or being themselves. Their teaching methods would probably be very simple and the creativity and variation that the students thrive on would not be present. Students can tell when a teacher isn't really into what they are doing and when they aren't showing their personality in the classroom. It hurts the students if their teacher is not being authentic because they will not learn to trust their teacher. They will also not form that relationship with their teacher. Students will not learn if they think that their teacher is not truly interested in their learning.

I think that it is very important for teachers to be able to express themselves through their teaching. It would not be interesting for students if all of their teachers were similar. As teachers, we are role models for our students. They will learn to put their personality and creativity into what they do as long as we demonstrate how to do that in the classroom.

Una Maestra Excelente

In school, it always helps when you have a teacher who truly cares about all of their students and their success in and out of the classroom. The teachers who stand out in everyone's minds are the teachers who go out of their way to help their students and to make their class more enjoyable. One teacher who stands out in my mind as being a compassionate teacher is my high school Spanish teacher. For the two years that she was my Spanish teacher, there was never a dull moment in that classroom. You could always hear what was going on in her room from the other end of the hall because it was such an energetic classroom. She was able to make learning a second language so much fun for the students.

We not only learned the language, but we also learned about the culture by cooking, celebrating holidays, and learning about different Spanish speaking countries. One of the most interesting ways that we learned about other cultures was having amity teachers come into our school each year. We had amiy teachers from all over South America and Spain. About once a week, our amity teacher would teach us about their home country and culture or we would do some kind of activity. One day we even learned different kinds of dances! My Spanish teacher went out of her way to expose us to as many different Spanish speaking cultures as possible.

She did more than just teach us in the classroom. She was always willing to help us outside of class and a few days a week she set up a time for students to get together to practice having conversations in Spanish before the school day started. She did whatever she could to help us succeed in learning a second language. She is such a friendly person and she always seemed to put a smile on everyone's face. She always had students in her room, even when she didn't have class. She was so much fun to be around and everyone loved having her as a teacher. She did so much more than just teaching us the vocabulary and giving tests. She challenged us, but helped guide us through those challenges so that we could succeed on our own. She taught us so much more than I would have ever expected.

After my sophomore year in high school, she decided to leave her job at Zumbrota-Mazeppa High School so she could spend more time with her family. After that, Spanish was not the same without her and it was not nearly as exciting and interesting. Even though she no longer taught at my high school, she always kept in touch with our other teachers in the high school so they were always updating us on what was going on in her life. During my Junior and Senior year, she came to all of the big events at our school like our graduation. We were all so excited to see her at our graduation because she was such an important part of our high school years and she showed us that we were still an important part of her life. We all continue to learn from teachers like my Spanish teacher, even when we are no longer in their classroom. We remember all of the things that they did for us and when going into a career in teaching, I want to have the compassion for my students that she had for us.

Teaching Respect By Showing Respect

As adults, concepts regarding good character may seem relatively simple to us. To elementary school students, concepts like being respectful, trustworthy, and thoughtful may be difficult to understand. None the less, these concepts are important parts of our lives and it is most beneficial to children if they are taught these components of good character at a young age.

Respect is most commonly described as treating others how you would want to be treated. Respect can also be defined as being open and willing to listen to other peoples' ideas, opinions, beliefs, cultures and valuing who they are as an individual. Respect is understanding that we are all unique. Children can show respect by being kind towards each other and showing that they are sincere with their words and actions towards their fellow students. To show respect, they can be polite and courteous to anyone they come in contact with. Before students can grasp and demonstrate the concept of respect, they first need to be able to respect themselves. Once they are able to accomplish that, it is much easier for them to have respect for other people in their lives. Respect has a huge impact on the classrooms because students are able to create better relationships with each other if they are able to respect their belongings, ideas, opinions, and lifestyles. When respect is present in the classroom, students receive a more positive experience in school and in life. It is unsettling when children are constantly bullying, judging, putting their classmates down, and not showing any concern toward the other students. When students learn how to show respect at a young age, it ensures that they will respect others later in life.

Children need to understand what it means to have good character and they need to begin displaying that character at a young age The best way that teachers can help children understand how to show respect is through modeling. Children learn concepts like these best when they can see it in action. They have a better chance of showing respect if they are receiving it in return not only from children their age, but also from their authority figures. Teachers can demonstrate respect by listening to what their students have to say and being interested in their ideas, opinions, and problems. Teachers can also show respect to their students by being honest, polite, and displaying a positive attitude. In order for students to show respect, it is important for teachers to show their students that they truly care about them. Sincerity plays a huge part in showing respect for others and when teachers are truly interested and involved with their students, they are more likely to understand the concept of respect and are able to apply it to their life. Being a good role model to children is the best way for teachers to educate students about displaying good character.

http://www.havefunteaching.com/educational-videos/character-education/respect-video

http://www.havefunteaching.com/songs-for-kids/character-education/respect-song