Chapter 1

Becoming a Teacher: Looking Forward

and Backward at the Same Time

So You Want to be a Teacher? Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century

Janice Koch

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 Introduction

• What do you already know about classrooms,

and how can you apply that knowledge to the
complex experience of being a classroom
teacher?

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• You have within you
everything you need to
create the kind of
teacher you want to be.
• The information in this
class will challenge you
to identify the attitudes,
skills, and dispositions
that are required by the
field of education.
• You will need to make a
commitment to being a
lifelong learner—
expanding your ideas by
what you learn from
your students, research,
and your own personal
growth.
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• Donald Schon, and • The field of teaching,
educational researcher, which requires such a
used the term reflective heightened sense of self
practitioner. This is a and a commitment to
teacher who the social good,
consistently reflects on demands nothing less of
classroom events(both its professionals than an
successes and ongoing examination of
problems) and modifies their authentic motives
teaching practices for teaching.
accordingly.

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 Looking Backward:
Talking About Teaching

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• When I recently asked a number of new
teachers what made them decide to enter
teaching, some of them remarked that they
had always loved school.

• School was, for them, their happiest place to

be.

• They decided to go into teaching to make a

difference, to teach others in ways they wish
they themselves had been taught.
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• They “fell into” teaching because they needed
a job and teaching presented itself.

• Still others try to see if teaching is for them.

• Men are needed in early education so that

children can see that men are able caretakers.

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• An educational autobiography is your own
story of your life as a student. It has no
definite length but usually responds to the
following questions:
A. What do you think of when you think of school?
B. Where did you attend school?
C. Whey you walked in the building did you have a sense of comfort? Fear?
D. Close your eyes and imagine you are back in elementary, middle, high school.
What was school kie for you? Do you remember what school smells like? Sounds
like?
E. Try to imagine specific teachers. What grades did they teach? Who were your
friends in those grades?

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 What Is Your Metaphor? Establishing a
Personal Philosophy
• Being a Tour Guide: a good tour guide takes travelers to
new places, interprets experiences and sites, helps travelers
understand and appreciate these new experiences, and
develops a group atmosphere to maximize positive
experiences for the travelers. A good tour guide has general
goals in mind but is flexible and allows for exploration of ideas
that arise from the group.

• The teacher sets the itinerary and takes the students

through the lessons to many new places.

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• Being a Sailor: sometimes
when you go sailing, you think
you're going to reach a certain
island. You set out for that island,
but you find it doesn't have a dock.
The dock is simply mot there. So
you need to have an alternative
plan.
• One other day's you have a
destination in mind, but the wind
is blowing in the wrong direction
and the sailboat just will not go
there.
• Yes on many days, teaching is like
sailing, and the teacher changes
course in midstream as he or she
determines a better direction and
more feasible destination.

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 • Climbing a Hill: teaching
is a constant process of
ascending an incline. Every
once in a while your stop,
take a breath, make sure
everyone is comfortable,
and then you start climbing
• Being a sculptor: again.
sculptors are fond of saying
that they don’t “make”
their art, they uncover what
is already hidden in the
material. Similarly, teachers
uncover the ideas emerging
in the minds of their
students.

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• Philosophy of Teaching Statement outlines your ideas
about teaching and learning, sets out techniques for
being reflective about your practice, and describes
how you will teach. It may also include your goal for
yourself as a teacher. If you decide to pursue a
career in teaching, your philosophy of teaching
statement will form an important part of your
teaching portfolio.

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What Qualities are Needed to be a
Good Teacher
• “Attributes of Good Teachers.” How do these
qualities match up with the ones you just
listed for your favorite teacher?

• Goodness of fit a term generally used in

descriptive statistics to describe the match
between a theory and a particular set of
observations.
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• You are always growing and changing as a
person, and you certainly may develop
qualities you don’t have now.

• You may also recognize areas of weakness that

you want to work on.

• You are always growing and changing as a

person, wand you certainly may develop
qualities you don’t have now.
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Looking Forward:
The Profession

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 An Essential Profession

Every child needs—and deserves—

dedicated, outstanding teachers
who know their subject matter, are
effectively trained, and know how to
teach to high standards and to make
learning come alive for students.
--President Bill Clinton, 1998

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• Hence, it is you, the teacher, who will bring to
life the ideas, the attitudes, the learning
experiences, and the joy that are possible in a
classroom.

• It is the classroom teacher who enables the

curriculum materials to have personal
meaning for each learner.

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• What teachers know an are able to do has
such a profound impact on the future of
education, you need to understand how it is
that people come to learn.

• You need to spend time in classrooms to

become familiar with different contexts for
teaching and the diversity of students in our
schools.

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• Yet we often expect students to become
teachers after a period of only several weeks
of in classroom training.

• This is why many teacher education programs

(and yours may be one) require early field
experiences during which you observe and
participate in the life of a classroom at the
grade level you are thinking about teaching.
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• People have debated for years whether
teaching is technically a profession in the
same sense that, say medicine and law are.

• On the one hand, teachers do not get paid as

much as doctors and lawyers, nor is teachers’
training as extensive.

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• Also, to many people, the knowledge that
teachers posses about teaching and learning
does not seem as complicated and technical as
what a neurologist knows about the nervous
system.

• On the other hand, teaching does share a

number of attributes with other profession.

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 A Code of Ethics
• The National Education Association (NEA) is
the largest organization of teachers and other
education professionals, headquartered in
Washington, DC.

• It has 2.8 million members who work in

preschools through universities.

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 Teacher
Characteristic

Ethical Conduct
Resource: Reaching, To Teach

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T
 Ethical Conduct

• Honesty

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T
Ethical Conduct

• Responsibility

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T
 Ethical Conduct

• Fairness

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T
 Ethical Conduct

• Respect for individual differences

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T
 Ethical Conduct

• Complianc
e with the
spirit and
intent, as
well as the
letter of
the law 28
T
Quote from the American Association of the
School Administrators Code of Ethics

"An ethical leader

demonstrates concern for the
welfare of students by placing
it as the chief value that
influences all decision
making.”
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T
Quote from the American Association of the
School Administrators Code of Ethics

“Supporting and protecting

every individual’s civil and
human rights is a key element
of an ethical leader’s behavior.”

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T
Quote from the American Association of the
School Administrators Code of Ethics

"An ethical school leader

abides by and carries out
the laws set forth on a local,
state, and national level.”

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T
 The
Workplace:
School
Climate and
School
Culture

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• The day-to-day working of a
● Others think school climate
school influence how you
as the general social
enact your philosophy of
atmosphere or environment
teaching.
in a school.

• Schools are constantly in

• The social environment is
flux, depending on student
the sense includes the
enrollment, collaboration
relationships among
among colleagues,
students, between students
pressures from the local
& teachers, among
community and the vision
teachers, between teachers
of the school leader.
& administrators.

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• Students experience their environment
differently depending on the rules and
protocols set up by school administrators and
teachers.

• School climate included the orderliness of the

environment, the clarity of the rules, and the
strictness of the teachers in enforcing the rules.

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• A school climate may be described as
nurturing, authoritarian, or somewhere in
between.

• We can also ask whether a school has sa

healthy climate, one in which students are
made aware of expectations of their behavior
toward one another and their teachers.

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Concluding Thought

Although teaching is an important and essential

profession, idea about it are often oversimplified.

Our memories of our teachers are sometimes

selective and misleading.

However, the interpersonal nature of teaching

demands that those interested in the profession
take account of their own attributes and
dispositions, school experiences, and future goals
for themselves as teachers.

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