Prompt #7

The volunteering I have done in the classroom so far has really opened my eyes as a teacher. Already I have experienced things that I feel will shape me for the rest of my teaching career. I now realize how I am capable of helping my students in so many ways and I feel I have the power to not only help them with school work but also outside of the classroom. I have experienced the feeling of actually teaching someone something that they didnt understand before. Its an amazing feeling seeing a student go from not knowing how to solve a problem to understanding the concept of the problem from what you taught them.
I believe every classroom has the potential to be a place where students can become better people inside and outside the classroom. Preparing students for the real world is part of our job as teachers. From my volunteering experience I have learned that I do have the power to give students the knowledge they need to become a better person outside of the classroom. When a student tried to take the easy way out when solving a problem, on more than one occasion the teacher in the class would relate it to something outside the classroom to show how you can't always take the easy way out. In one instance a student skiped a step when solving a multiplication problem and the teacher said: "If you take out chicken from the freezer but you skip the cooking step can you eat the chicken?". And from this the student had learned never to skip steps when solving a problem, even if it is easier.
With the time I have spent in the classroom, I have realized that many students need someone who they can talk to about whatever they need to talk about, whether it be a problem inside or outside the classroom. The time i had with my students wasn't really a long enough time to develope a strong relationship with my students, but with my experience I have realized that as a teacher I have the chance to build strong relationships with my students and that I have the ability to be the person they can talk to. This is very important as a teacher in order to help students outside of the classroom.
Like Allan Johnson says in his article, teachers shouldn't just teach to the test. As a teacher it is our job to not only teach the students out of the book, but teaches them how to apply the concenpts they learn inside the classroom with situations outside of the classroom. I hope to teach my students the ability to relate what they do everyday to concepts and ideas they have learned about within the classroom.