Education is Life

I've been a substitute teacher for about four months now. I thought that maybe this experience would've changed me more than it has, but I still feel like the same person with the same teaching philosophy. I've come to respect teachers more now, and substitute teachers especially. Yet, I don't think I've learned a large overarching lesson about classroom management or anything like that. The tactics that subs have to use are very different from those that regular teachers use. Reading Teaching with Love and Logic as at least shown me that. More than ever, I know that building working relationships with students is key if you want to manage a classroom and, more importantly, become a true influence in their lives.

There have been a few great moments in which I've connected with a student or realized that all of this is worth it because I'm on my way to becoming a real teacher. One of those moments was today, when I got to work with some students one-on-one and in small reading groups. They were third and fourth grade special education kids, and while I don't want to be an elementary school teacher or a special education teacher, I realized today why I want to be a teacher. I love working with students, pointing them in the right direction, and watching them learn. Those are the teaching moments that I value and they are the moments that I don't get as a substitute teacher.

Here is an excerpt from my pedagogic creed that I wrote for the College of Education:

What I believe about teaching and education has a lot to do with what I believe about life. I believe that there is more to life than going to work, making money, and paying taxes. In the same way, I believe that there is more to education than getting good grades, graduating, and getting a good job. John Dewey, an educational reformer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century wrote, “Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” I agree with Dewey: education is not merely a means to an end – that end being either good grades or a good job. Education is a life style. I am constantly learning and gathering information throughout my daily life, my education is my life.