Professionalism

I can't help but relate this idea of being a professional to sports. I grew up in home where golf was often played and watched on the television. When I hear that someone is a professional I automatically assume that they are someone famous because of how much attention they have recieved through the media for their talents. I often question how someone becomes a professional chef, a professional golfer, a professional hair stylist, or even a professional model because many professional labels I have seen highlighted on television do not require a college degree but for some reason recieve a lot of praiseworthy attention.

So I am still sruggling to answer the question, What makes a professional different from the rest? I believe that becomming a professional requires different steps for every individual because each journey is different. Teaching in my book has very seldomly been associated with professionalism because the skill and knowledge that is required varies for everyone. Society and the media rarely highlights teaching successes as compared to shows that often highlight average people competeing for such titles as America's Next Top Model, Shear Genius, and Top Chef. Interesting to note I don't ever think I've seen or heard of a show where average people are competeing to become the best teacher out there.

I believe teachers are wonderful because they want to be the best for their students and it's rarely about the fame. Is it fair to say that teaching is never about status? Buchman's reading titled Role Over Person, discusses how "Tenure and salary are based on years of service rather than competence or commitment" (p. 533). I like to think that teaching is one of the few careers where people can age gracefully because knowledge and experience are highly valued. Teachers who are dedicated, passionate, and hard-working are often most likely to make teaching their life-long career. I have always wanted to make teaching my career and while I see it as a profession, I am still unsure about how I become the professional within it. I have no idea how I go about proving to the world that this label is apropriate and I also believe that because teaching can always be improved so the line of professional is somewhat blurry. I see myself becoming certified and trained in order to successfully complete my role as a teacher but how do I become a professional?

I'm Ready!

Here I am approaching week five and I can't help but wonder what other challenges I have ahead of me. I can proudly say that I am feeling more and more comfortable with my classmates names. After last weeks name game, I still find myself laughing because we were to come up with an adjective to describe ourselves. I quickly came up with "Curious Christina" and I am almost certain we all might continue to associate ourselves this way. What a great game because it really did help us to remember all 37 names! Challenge one can now be checked off my list.

Getting to know one another over these last five weeks has been an ongoing task. Even with our limited class time we have been able to learn bits and pieces of each other's family lives, where we grew up, where we live now, what we hope to teach, but most importantly we have grown to learn we share most of the same fears and goals. Week 4 has taught me to appreciate every one's differences whether they be challenges or strengths because if we can acknowledge individuality in our classroom now, we might be more easily adaptive in our own classrooms. Oakes chapter 1 goes into depth discussing "The American Schooling Dilemma." This is when I was confronted with another challenge; Despite each and every inequality that comes with multiculturalism, how do I as a teacher provide the most positive educational environment for every one of my students?

I can't help but attempt to solve this question so I find myself wondering about all the 'what-ifs?'
What if I am the only Caucasian person in my classroom or what if half of my class speaks a language other than English? I am terrified that I will not be able to connect or relate to my students if I cannot communicate effectively with them. Oakes discusses the shift in demographics over the last thirty years and how this has affected areas such as the northeast and Midwest United States. This shift has brought an increase of students who speak languages other than English as well as students with more diverse learning disabilities. Whatever is brought into my classroom I have got to be prepared.

As a new teacher, there is no way I will be able to predict the makeup of my classroom. The amount of students I have with the combination of how much time their parents dedicate to my classroom will always be a mystery. The bottom line is I still have no idea what I am getting myself into. The one thing I am in control of is the quality of teaching I bring to these students. It is my job to look beyond economic inequalities without ignoring them altogether. While home environments significantly contribute to a student's well-being, each case is not always a direct result of under or over achievements. Oakes mentions that "racial disparities in wealth and income create racial disparities in children's access to the basics of life - food, health care, and housing- as well as in access to high-quality schooling" (p. 13). When Oakes mentions the risk of losing out on quality schooling due to the linkage between race and finance I begin looking back on last weeks discussion of stereotypical assumptions. Her entire first chapter is extremely depressing because she strongly reinforces almost all of these assumptions.

As I came across yet another one of our readings for this week I saw a correlation. The article written by Peggy McIntosh on white privilege and the invisible knapsack addresses more and more ideas about the advantages of being Caucasian over not being Caucasian and how society makes America an almost easier place to live in if you are white. I want to link back to the first part of this blog by saying that even if our entire cohort was white that doesn't mean we are entitled to make characteristic assumptions about one another. We are still learning who we are and even though skin color in America brings about certain stereotyped traits we cannot ignore these differences because part of being multicultural is learning how to work with, achieve with and overcome obstacles with people different than ourselves. We must continue to work with the challenge of learning how we are all different and working with these differences in order to reach our goal. Remembering that each of us is aiming for the goal of becoming the best teacher possible already strongly links us. When we learn how to work with one another by learning from one another we have already begun the process of learning how to succeed in a multicultural environment.

I remember the first day of class when I walked into our classroom and I couldn't help but wish that I would find other people who I could relate to so that my presence there would no longer feel awkward. I had been all too familiar with the uncomfortable feelings of being a new student in a new program with new teachers and peers. There is just something about the unknown that scares me, a feeling I'm sure most of us have had. Where should I sit? I wonder who will sit by me? Do I look okay? Will my teacher like me? All of these questions started to fill my mind because all I wanted was to feel accepted into this program for being myself. I wanted my peers to get to know me, the real me, flaws and all. I knew being a part of this cohort already meant I was part of something good but would I need to prove it? That would mean everyone else would have to put their stereotypical assumptions aside and if that meant I needed to do the same I would have to be ready to do that.

Looking back now, I'm more ready than ever to put everything aside.

How Ironic

Let me start today's posting with a question:

How do we go about meeting the needs of each individual student without creating conflicts of inequality? After reading the articles assigned during last weeks class I feel I can't even come close to a solution. One of our readings written by Joan Spade titled, Gender and Education in the United States reminds us how educational experiences vary for girls and boys. Sadly, after reading Spade's article I wasn't one bit surprised or even disheartened. Spade's article was reinforcing everything I already knew about gender stereotypes. The bottom line is that educational institutions often have difficulty meeting the needs of each student equally. Is it wrong for me to then question whether or not gender issues are stereotyped or factual?

One truth I do know is that society pressures us to compare ourselves with others. When we compare ourselves to our neighbor we really want to know which group we belong in. There is nothing worse than having no where to fit in. Much of what was discussed in my blackboard group was how grouping affected our social relationships in school. Academic placement can ultimately lead to positive and negative group labeling as Oakes argues in chapter 8 titled, Grouping, Tracking, and Categorical Programs: Can schools teach all students well? Because grouping and tracking can begin as early as kindergarten, students are told from a very young age that they are either part of an elite, average, or struggling-to-learn group. This type of labeling misguides students, telling them where they do and don’t fit in. If students are told their test scores are not good enough to place them into a group with friends, students social relationships may be forever altered.

Grouping and tracking is such a dominant procedure and I feel that the overall motivation behind doing it is because the state does care how each student is being taught. Ideally, if we as teachers could use this method in order to teach thirty different students at thirty different levels all in one classroom then why not take advantage of the system? I believe that we must not ignore the consequences that come along with grouping students into categories based on how well they take tests or perform during certain assignments. One classmate brought up an interesting point when she asked “How in the world can we asses a person’s potential, and how do we asses a person’s future accomplishments? As educators we can’t simply assume that because one student has difficulty reading aloud or even during time limitations that they must have a learning disability. If this is assumed then wouldn’t we assume that this student should start reading at a lower level and that extra help be required outside of class? What if this wasn’t the case but said student was actually a very intelligent student but was shy and got nervous when given time restraints. I am already seeing how assumptions can be discouraging and detrimental to their educational achievements

A large part of our classroom structure thus far has been circled around becoming aware of such differences between race and gender. When we were asked to write our own educational autobiographies and to remember what it was like growing up as a girl we were motivated to reconnect with how our educational experience helped create who we are today. School for me built a foundation for social relationships, an academic environment, and personal development. Much of what I know about myself today is a result of how I managed to survive and thrive through elementary, junior and high school. When Jean asked us to think about how our lives would have changed if we were born the opposite sex I very quickly discovered that there was very little, if anything that wouldn’t have changed. If I was born male, how would the relationship I have with my parents been different? Would I still have the same group of friends? Would society still accept me as a boy who loved art class? How would societies views alter the way in which I chose to live my life. I discovered that because I have no idea how it would be to grow up male that It was easier for me to let society tell me how it was going to be. I immediately fell sad about the whole situation because I realized that life should never be about what should be it should be about what is.

It feels ironic to be a student learning how to teach other students. I don’t ever want to lose touch with how it feels to be a student even when I am a teacher. I want to become a teacher who tries to understand my students with empathy rather than sympathy because I feel that a part of being empathic is being motivated to act. I know it’s entirely impossible to understand every situation and that is why I feel this past week has been so interesting to me. We have been discussing how stereotypes can be either viewed as disadvantages or advantages. Even if some stereotypes have the ability to present themselves as false I do not want to entirely dismiss them as truth because I feel that my dismissing something altogether requires ignorance. If I’ve learned one thing this week it has been to recognize differences and to become aware of how everyday issues exist and while there isn’t always a solution, we can change our actions. If we aim to positively acknowledge our students daily we might raise our hopes of reaching equality.

Did You Hear Christina's Learning to Teach?

Welcome!

I have created this blog in order to share with those who are interested in following me through my journey of learning how to teach. This is my first of five quarters at The University of Washington's Teacher Certifcation Program and I couldn't be more excited to be here.

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-Christina