PetrosBlog

  The 3 pieces of advice I would consider to be most impactful would be 1.“Manage your classroom fairly and firmly.” 2. “Find a mentor.” 3.” Make a personal connection with your students.” For the first tip, I struggle to be a disciplinarian type of person, I prefer to resolve issues through talk and compromise but I understand there’s a time and place where you cannot solve through only talk. In my third year as a paraprofessional, I have gotten better at being not a push-over with some of the kids and I feel in time, I will get better at not accepting disrespect if it’s ever doled out. The second tip, I am always trying to learn to be a better teacher. I treat my para job as mostly a job shadow and I always participate in teacher meetings or parent teacher conferences, just to get the experience and expectations in check. Getting a mentor would help a lot when I finally get my own classroom, I’m the one who usually is the mentor so it would be a nice change of pace. Third tip, I ...

     The main takeaway that I got from this video is that all our old teachers we have had, has had a great influence on who we were and who we became. The first teachers, your parents, they offer guidance and shape who you are and teachers at school do the same thing for hundreds, thousands of students in their careers. In my short time working at the middle school, I have kids coming up to me and asking me how I am and telling me their life stories and I see that excitement. I know I have had a positive impact on some of these kids and I look back and the teachers I have had like Mrs. Pitcher or Mr. Abrams, they always looked out for me and offered guidance when I was simply loss.       "What do you want to do?" is a quote that stuck to me, as an aspiring teacher and getting to the point of having my own classroom in the next 2 years or so. I have fears and I don't know exactly how to run a classroom or have a curriculum etc. What do I want to do in ...

    Sir Ken Robinson talks about the No Child Left Behind policy in America and how it's negatively or not sufficiently giving children opportunities to learn. He remarks that " No Child Left Behind policy is based on not diversity but conformity. " There's a focus on STEM classes, classes like science and math over the arts, physical education, and humanities. Not every kid is geared towards a science and math mind, personally I ain't either. I hate both science and math and prefer these arts, humanities and history classes, and during my time these classes are counted as "electives" or "extras." They're not the focal points of education and tend to get cut first for other classes when the school needs to fill out their status quo.      I think the main point of Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk is that children are so diverse, so different that keeping these cookie cutter ideals and cultures to facilitate learning on all these children. He...

  What do you think about Sir Ken Robinson's premise that knowledge is not about what you know; it's about what you don't and your willingness to find out?   -1) Sir Ken Robinson’s idea is solid, if teachers never learn from their mistakes or continue to thirst for knowledge. Then learning as a whole would be stuck, we wouldn't want to discover new ideas or facts. We would simply just stop the quest for more education and knowledge of the world. Having a curiosity and having a positive growth mindset will always serve to help educate either yourself or your students.  What has been your experience with teachers engaging students in the classroom - teachers who learn along with their students?  -2) My experience has been first hand, I am going on year 3 of working at the middle school and every day has been a learning experience for myself. Learning how to manage a classroom, learning how to explain problems differently, learning how to make sure student’s emotio...