Julie Webster

In my time at Shrewsbury High School I watched myself change as an educator, a student and a person. As I underwent this journey I felt my biggest growth was in the way I reacted to people. The biggest growth I have seen myself in the way I react to situations. I have always been an empathetic person but after having to care for 80 students the way I reacted to tough situations has changed. I feel as though I have grown by being able to show support in many different ways to people now. Before this practicum I would always find it difficult to make people feel better but after having to talk down a lot of my kids and caring for all of them I am now so much better at dealing with people problems.

I have learned that the professional culture of teaching is much different than other professions. The past three summers, I have worked at engineering companies where you wear business casual clothes every day, make small talk with your colleagues but mostly keep to yourself except for the few you really get along with in your office. There is little need for support with your colleagues in the engineering world but it is the exact opposite within education. I learned that even the education professional environment is not to the same status quo “business environment” you usually think of. Being professional as an educator is making sure you present yourself to you students in a way that makes them respect you but also trust you and like you. Kids don’t learn from someone they don’t like. The other side of a professional educator culture is being there for your fellow teachers. The job is hard and you need to be there for each other. Collaboration is huge in the educational world. When you have more than one teacher teaching the same class, you need to collaborate to make sure your students are all getting the same information. Collaboration is key as well when you don't know how to teach something well. The best ideas come from groups of people tweaking them. You students will succeed more if you are teaching better and you will teach better if you get feedback from your peers.

As I underwent this experience, I have found the biggest way teachers impact student success is through the way they interact with the students. Your students are more likely to be successful if you interact with them on a more personal level. If they trust you and see you care about them they will be more likely to try harder in classes they don't like. If you show them you care that can be the best way to motivate them.

The most important takeaway I got from this experience is to treat your students how you would like to be treated. Some of the best relationships I made were with “troubled” students. In order to combat this, I just treated with the respect in which I would have wanted to be treated with. I apologized when I was wrong, I was understanding when they did not have an assignment and I never gave a ridiculous amount of work just to give homework.

If I were to have my own classroom next year, my professional goal would be to involve parents more in my practice, we had talked about in seminar that asking parents for feedback will greatly improve your relationship with them and your students.