“Many of us feel the need to fix something or change something about our teaching when we look at others and make comparisons.” (Goldberg, 2019, pg. 30) I view my teaching as a practice where I am forever learning and being taught with and by my students. This quote mentioned by Goldberg will help me to remind myself not to constantly compare myself to others as I am continuously growing as a person and teacher. As a teacher I will not base my students learning solely on their grades, evaluations and tests as this makes for the student to become stressed as well as myself when that is all that one looks at and thinking neither of us are doing good enough. Just like this quote from Goldberg in the article Teach like Yourself, it states, what I’ve found is that the more I focus on my own definition of success and my intrinsic goals for my students, the better it works out for everyone.” (2019, pg.33), as a teacher my goal is to look at how the students deal with a situation or how they break down what they are having trouble with by using a strategy taught throughout the lesson in an attempt to understand in their own way. With using this method, I also take into consideration and understand that every student learns different and at a different pace and each student should be acknowledged for their way of learning. This also has us learn that there is more than one way to learning a single lesson and for myself as a teacher, I need to adjust my teaching to everyone’s standards. The last point I will take with me as a teacher is that not every day will be a good day and sometimes stuff will not go as how I thought it would or should have gone in my head either with a lesson, a student or myself but the most important part to remember as a teacher regardless of how many years I’ve been teaching. It is okay to fail and make mistakes just as long as I learn from them for the next round.
References
Goldberg, G. (2018). Teach Like Yourself: How Authentic Teaching Transforms Our Students and Ourselves. (1st ed., Corwin Teaching Essentials).
