Monday, March 30, 2015

What Kind of a Teacher are You?


I loved this challenge to reflect posted by Laura Sexton on her blog.  I wanted to define my teaching styles and influences in a concrete way, and I thought this was a great way to do so.


  1. I am a good teacher because:  I am a good learner.  I am curious.  I hate to be stagnant.  I revise, reflect and revise again.
  2. If I weren't a teacher I would be: A full time student. Probably getting my master's at a university abroad and never wanting to come back. 
  3. My teaching style is: Relationship-oriented.  My classroom management, my report, everything is centered on how well I get to know my students and how much they trust me.
  4. My classroom is: MESSY.  Blue walls, travel maps and pictures, papel picado, magnet manipulatives, student work, library books and magazine...learning is messy.  And I'm unorganized.
  5. My lesson plans are: In an adorable polka dot planner.  I write/plan in that over the weekends and then I transfer them to a large calendar at the front of my room and a day-by-day agenda on the marker board. Each night, I also update my Teacher Webpage.
  6. One of my teaching goals is: To grow our program to reach our elementary schools.  I want to show and convince our community how vital language learning is even BEFORE kindergarten, but especially in the primary years.  I hope I get to see the program trickle down to all grade levels. 
  7. The toughest part of teaching is:  imposing things on students that I do not personally agree with. When I know something negatively affects them or their learning of Spanish, it is hard for me to put any amount of effort into it.  I know there will always be things that we must do simply because we must do them, but for me rationale behind the duty is everything.  If it is not there, I can rarely fake it.
  8. The thing I love most about teaching is: character development.  Helping students to become better people, not just better language learners. 
  9. A common misconception about teaching is: that one should teach the way that one was taught. Times are changing. Students are changing. We must change, or become irrelevant. 
  10. The most important thing I've learned since I started teaching is: I know much less Spanish than I thought I did. I have not "arrived." I am not "accomplished." I continually have a long way to go, I just happen to be helping others come with me.
I would LOVE to hear your answers.  Share them with us!

2 comments:

  1. Great job, Alison! You are such a special teacher. You ROCK!!!

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  2. Thanks so much for reading through this, Sandy! You have been such a good example to me through IMAP meetings and mentoring. I would love to read your answers if you do it.

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