About the Author: Shayla Criss

Hi! My name is Shayla Criss and I'm a student at Old Dominion University studying elementary education. My decision to become a teacher and help students succeed has been influenced by many personal and external influences. Within my family, my grandmother is a retired elementary school teacher and my mom is currently a Pre-K teacher, so having two personal examples of great teachers in my life has had an impact on my knowledge and experience in education. While growing up, my family has always instilled in me that education is such an important gift to have and that it will open gateways to many great opportunities and experiences. Reflecting back on my experiences in public school, I have had many great teachers that were very passionate about their job and wanted their students to enjoy learning and strive for success. During my sophomore year at my previous university, I took my first teacher education course, which helped me to solidify my decision to pursue a career in education. During this class, I learned so much about the different ways students can learn, the great contributions that have been made to education, and the various topics within education that have direct and significant influences on student success.

Being a teacher requires knowledge and understanding of the world and the people within it. The world is constantly changing, so it's very important that teachers are aware of changes, including ways to better educate and support students. From taking education courses in the past, I have gained valuable knowledge about how to support students collectively and individually, as well as how to make their educational experiences worthwhile. I've learned that not every student is the same, each student has different needs, and that it's very important to work with them and help push them to their potential. I've also completed two internships in elementary school classrooms, where I've met and worked with different students and have experienced the real-life situations and everyday routines of a classroom.

Based on my experiences and knowledge, a few things that I would suggest my peers to take with them along their journeys as teachers is that every student is valuable and important, being a role model is very beneficial to their growth and success, and that it's necessary to do all that we can to help students succeed. In the future, when I have my own classroom, I hope to teach my students that every peer in their class has something valuable to contribute and it's important to support and help each other.

In my journey towards being a teacher, there are many things that I still want and need to learn about being an educator. To be the effective teacher that I want to be, I need to feel more confident speaking and talking in front of others. I tend to get very nervous when speaking publicly, so I would want to continue working on my confidence to be able to effectively deliver instruction to my students. I would also like to learn more about my own teaching philosophy and thoughts towards education so that I have a clearer view of the educator that I want to be for my students. I feel that this is very important because my efforts and teaching will have a direct and significant effect on my students and their success. For my classroom instruction, I need to learn more about how to make my lessons and class material engaging and effective. When I've created lessons from past experiences, I've always been concerned about if the material would be helpful towards student learning and if the students would be more interested and engaged in the lessons.

To work towards having more confidence in my speaking and delivery, I will take the time to thoroughly go over my lessons for my class to make sure that the material flows well together and that I am confident in the information that I teach my students. To focus more on my own thoughts about teaching, I will be more reflective and thoughtful about the material that I have learned and will learn in future education courses, so that I have a more grounded view of myself as a teacher. To learn how to create better lessons, I will take more time to thoroughly plan my lessons and the materials that will be used to support my topic. I believe it's also important to understand that lesson plans are not always a success and that there will be times where I will have to improve and make the material better for my students and their needs.

As a future educator, I hope to remind myself of my own beliefs and thoughts about education, so that I can continue to guide myself through the journey of being a support to my students and their learning. I believe that the purpose of school is to allow students to gain valuable knowledge that will help them to navigate the world, as well as to explore their interests and be creative. Of the many educational philosophies, I believe that progressivism and essentialism are very important to education. The idea of progressivism allows students to have opportunities to work collaboratively and learn together. I believe that collaborative work is beneficial to learning because students can learn from each other, share ideas, and make sense of different topics as a group. Essentialism teaches students necessary and valuable knowledge, which is very important for not only themselves, but to be able to properly navigate society. In the future, I hope to become a teacher that is confident, patient, supportive, caring, and a role model to her students. I hope to be fully focused and engaged with my students in order to create a learning environment that is comfortable, open, and supportive of their learning.

Comments:

I love that you your family has a background in education and instilled the importance of such into you. Your page shows an understanding of your knowledge and your drive to be a great advocate for all of your students. I truly believe you will become a exceptional teacher for your students and all those that surround you.- Shonna Roberts

Shayla, I can tell this is something that you are not only passionate about teaching, but you are excited to. I think getting students engaged in something that they might not consider "fun" is going to definitely be a tough one for me too! A few years back, my son was starting to fall behind in school, so I had to have a parent-teacher meeting with the teacher and I told her how my son does better with hands on things and how he learns better when the lesson seems fun, and she told me "Well learning isn't always going to be fun". I was so frustrated because he was in 2nd grade. If we want the children to succeed, then we as teachers should be willing to try to keep them interested!
-Brooke Hamilton

Shayla, I love that you recognize that collaborative work is important. I have always found that my students learn best from each other. I feel that if your students can work well together and can bounce ideas off each other then they are going to be more willing to participate in larger class discussions. You did a great job on your page. - Sarah Stewart