My goal as an educator is to incorporate a hands-on, practical approach to learning through Home Economics. I have recognized that education can go beyond the formal definitions. As a result, there are various ways to be a successful educator and to provide a thriving learning environment. I hope to give students the opportunity to excel in a practical learning environment and help them to understand there are many ways to define success in education that can be converted to success in life. I believe in supporting students while they push themselves to be reflective and self-sustainable, whether that is achieved through learning to cook a meal, grow a garden, sew buttons on a shirt, or maintain healthy relationships. I will strive to create a supportive learning experience where students can consistently achieve success whether they excel or struggle.
After graduating high school, I took 3 years away from formal education to work and travel across 5 continents and through more than 20 countries. Through my travel experiences, I reflected back on my time as a high school student and recognized the variety of teaching and learning styles that exist. I feel that the conventional teaching style and a lack of community in my school made high school years a struggle. In my personal experience, I believe a different learning environment would have impacted my success. It is through this reflection that I have found a personal passion for alternative learning, and for working with youth who struggle in traditional or academic education. I have had the opportunity to volunteer with an incredible alternative outdoor education program for at-risk youth called ‘Take a Hike’. I have seen youth that resist the traditional classroom setting, transform and shine in a practical setting. I have found this to be an extremely rewarding experience and I hope to provide the same in my home economics classrooms.
My volunteer teaching experience, in the classroom and in alternative education, reinforced what I learned through my travels. I experienced numerous cultures and interacted with people from various walks of life. Traveling provided me with the opportunity to see different value systems. I hope to be able to pass these values on to my students and encourage them to be open-minded and progressive. I was also introduced to a variety of foods, which led to my passion for food knowledge and its relation to health and wellness. From a young age, I was fortunate to have access to fresh, local and organic produce that came straight from my great grandparents farm. Those family values of cultivating farm fresh foods, and the importance of healthy produce, were passed down through generations. My cousin now operates a local organic farm on the family land where I have worked. There is a natural connection between this practical experience and teaching youth life-long skills to better their own health through food education.
As far as what I think it means to educate. I like the exercise done by David Coulter and John R. Weins in “What is Educational’. They ask people to think of someone that they consider to be educated and, in short, people often described their educated person to have a certain attitude, enthusiasm and willingness to learn from others (1999). I believe that a person does not have to attain a PHD to be deemed educated, nor do they need a degree, but they do have to possess some basic life skills, have the ability to adapt, and the ability to reflect on their experiences and make changes based on those reflections. A big part of what students should be learning through school is the skill sets to be successful once they are out in the real world.
Being that my aim is to generate students who are prepared for their future, I think it is important to assess similarly to how they will be assessed after high school. While receiving a letter grade may be an easier way to categorize students across the board, it does not teach them how to improve, or provide reason for their placement in that specific category. In their future job, they will not be given a letter grade, but will be given feedback and asked to improve. “Education’s purpose is to develop ability, not to sort people according to whether or not they already have it” (Gilbert, 2005). Therefore, I think, as teachers, we should be giving ample amounts of feedback. Students should be given multiple opportunities to be successful and teachers should create assessment with feedback in such a way that students have an opportunity to reflect and improve. We should be establishing ‘personal relationships with our students, and [appraising] their growth’ (Eisner, 2002). Teachers should be evaluating students’ progress through the year and that should include the students’ own reflections on their improvement and effort towards improvement. “The kinds of schools we need would not hold as an ideal that all students get to the same destinations at the same time” (Eisner, 2002).
I believe that through student engagement, teachers can lower their requirement for classroom management. The material and curriculum being taught should be relevant to the students and up to date with society. If we have engaged students, they are more likely to be attentive in class, ask questions, and absorb what they are learning. In ‘Student Engagement for Effective Teaching and Deep Learning’, by Jodene Dunleavy and Penny Milton, they discuss that student engagement is multi dimensional and that we should be aware of how our students are fitting into all dimensions of social engagement, academic engagement, and intellectual engagement (2008). This is a collaborative feat and through the engagement into each dimension we can see overall improved learning outcomes. I believe that if we can engage our students and make the content relevant and interesting, we won’t struggle with classroom management and will have better learning outcomes.
As a new and young teacher, I am aware of my naivety and bias towards what my ideal classroom climate would be, as described above. I am conscious of my battles ahead and am eager to learn from my failures. I recognize that my first experiences as a teacher may not encompass all of the previous, but I look forward to learning from all of the competent teachers I will get the pleasure of working with and I hope to one day have my own classroom that encompasses student inclusion, engagement and learning.
I look forward to refining my skills through the Education Program. I am eager to see my new expertise blend with my personal experience to build my confidence as a successful educator.
References
Coulter, D., & Weins, J. R. (1999). What is Educational About Educational Leadership?. Education Canada, 39(2), 4-7.
Dunleavy, J., & Milton, P. (2008). Student Engagement for Effective Teaching and Deep Learning. Education Canada, 48(5), 4-8. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://www.cea-ace.ca/sites/cea-ace.ca/files/EdCan-2008-v48-n5-Dunleavy.pdf
Eisner, E. W. (2002). The Kind Of Schools We Need. Interchange, 15(2), 576-583.