Hi I'm Sarah Barkhurst. I have experience from living all over the world because my dad was in the military. I like to read, play videogames, and play the cello even though I'm not very good. I am the youngest of three and my older brother is a special op in the Airforce and my older sister is a kindergartener teacher.
My mom is one hundred percent Hispanic from Texas when it was once part of Mexico. Part of my ethnicity is being apart and seeing that group of people as well as seeing my dad's white side. I'm always favoring Hispanic minorities as even though I don't look like it at all, that is what my family is and what my blood is.
Throughout my life there has been around three teachers that meant a lot to me more than the others. They have inspired me to look deeper and learn harder in myself and my studies. Having that relationship with them has led me to want to become a teacher myself and hopefully give that experience to my own students.
What I know
Part of being a teacher is belonging to and participating in a community. What do you know and understand about the world that you can share with others? What can you teach your classmates that can help them become better teachers? What can you teach your students that will help them become better people?
What I have to learn
Being a teacher means interacting with a diverse array of people: people whose ideas, background, and experiences are very different from your own. It means understanding what to do to help all students succeed. What do you still need to learn to become an effective teacher? How will you challenge yourself to grow as a person, to learn more about all the individuals you will teach and what you will need to do to reach them? What will you do to become kind of teacher you strive to be?
The teacher I will become
What is the purpose of school? The purpse of school to me is to learn about the world around you and learn how you want to act in that world. Academics is one of the ways you will learn about the world and it is an essential part but what your peers will What are the most important things your students will learn? Hopefully How will they learn them? What types of educational experiences will you provide? What will your students value? How will you interact with them? How will they interact with each other? Which of the 5 philosophies described in class best describe your views on teaching? What one word best describes you as a teacher? What one word best describes your students? If a visitor walked into your classroom, what would they see? This statement will represent your initial philosophy of education. You will look back at it at the end of the semester to see how your ideas have changed.