Top 10 Takeaways from Education 101

As my first semester of college comes to a close, I am looking back on what I have learned, specifically in my Education 101 class.

1. Meet students where they are at: We talked about this on the first day of class and I was able to use this idea multiple times throughout the semester. Whether it was in my village project placement or while planning and creating our charter school, I made sure that meeting students where they were at was at the top of my priorities. As a teacher, I think this idea will be an especially important part of my teaching philosophy as it will help my students to feel like I are about them as individuals and help them to succeed in their academics.
2. Help students to “own” their own learning: We also talked about this concept on the first day and I was able to see it transferred to other parts of the course. When we were creating out charter school, this idea was one of the main components of our design. We wanted the students at our school to be able to decide what career classes and what path they wanted to take so that they would be passionate and enthusiastic about school and “own” their own learning. I want to transfer this mindset to my own classroom some day as well to help my student be enthusiastic about their learning and excited to be there.
3. It is ok not to know everything as a new teacher: Another thing that I learned this semester was that it is ok not to know everything right away as a new teacher. I think that it a common misconception that teachers have to know everything right away their first year. This can seem scary and daunting for a new teacher or a pre-service. They might feel like they do not know nearly as much as their teachers did. However, I learned from some of the speakers that a teacher continues learning throughout their whole career, and it is okay to ask more experienced teachers for assistance.
4. The importance of mentors: This year I also learned how important it is for new teachers to have mentors for them to lean on during their first few years of teaching. Our group considered this when creating our charter school and came up with a new teacher mentor program. I hope that when I am a new teacher the school I teach at has a mentor program to provide support my first few years.
5. Relationships with students are important: Lastly, I learned about the importance of caring for students personally and seeing that all their needs are met, no only their academic needs. Sometimes, you may have to create a relationship with a student before they open up to you and allow you to teach them. I think this will be helpful to know as a teacher so that I can form relationship with my students and show them that I believe in them and believe that they can succeed.

I also learned a lot from my experience as a volunteer at the after school programs of two local elementary schools thorough the Village Project.

1. Older elementary aged students: From working at both schools, I learned that I enjoy working with older elementary aged students. I really enjoyed helping in the 4th and 5th grade classroom. Since my goal is to teach middle school some day, I am excited to get experience with middle schoolers in the coming years as well. If I do not end up teaching middle school, I think that I would want to teach the older elementary grades because I like working with that age group of students.
2. Smooth Transitions: One of the students at one of my village project schools has a very difficult time transitioning from one activity to another. Through working with her and the staff at the site I learned techniques for helping students transition between activities more smoothly that I will defiantly be able to use as a teacher in my own classroom.
3. Teaching Science: Another takeaway from the village project was how much I enjoy helping students to explore science and nature. At one of the schools I went to, I was able to go with on a field trip to a nature preserve with the students. The students got to learn about different animals and interact with them. Back home I had worked as a youth apprentice for the STEM department in my school district and helped teach students about science. At the nature preserve, I realized how much I have missed doing this and how much I enjoy it. I love seeing students become excited and enthusiastic about science. This helped me to solidify by goal to become a science teacher.
4. Trauma Informed Care: During our pre-village project trainings, I learned about how to work with students who might have experienced trauma. This was an interesting and helpful subject to explore as I had never learned about it before. I think that this will defiantly be a good thing to have learned about in the future when I am a teacher and will likely encounter children who have experienced trauma.
5. Students with differing ability levels: My last takeaway from village project this semester was that as a teacher, there will be students of many differing ability levels in your class, and you have to be able to meet all of them where they are and ensure that you are meeting all of there needs so that they can all learn and grow. It was so interesting how there was such varied ability levels within the age groups I was working with, when all the kids were only a year apart in age. In the classroom, I will have to consider this and work to ensure that all my students are challenged and guided in the specific way each of them needs.