Crystal McBride November 29, 2012 EDUC 104 Reflection Teaching as a Profession Before taking EDUC 104 this

semester, I was excited about teaching art. I knew there was a long process and laziness was not an option. The class discussions were very interesting and informative. They gave me an idea of the problems I might have to face when I become a teacher. For example, how to handle inapporpriate questions asked by students. No student is the same, so why should teachers conduct themselves and classroom as so? Students will have different religious views, learn differently, and have very different background. Teachers have to deal with students who were raised the opposite way he or she was brought or may have different beliefs. Teachers should not let that stop them from being an effective teacher nor let it slow down the process. It only to change their lesson plan and teaching strategies to keep each student on the same page. Presentations and discussions throughout the course taught me what to do and what not to when teaching students. It also gave my ideas of what activities I could use in my own classroom. For example, visuals and hands-on activitives are more effective than lecturing. Power points could be a visual but should not be strongly relied on. I should come to classwill prepared and ready for any question that may be thrown at me. A lot of wording and just reading

off the board is very boring and willl cause me to loose my students. Students should be more involvled with each teaching strategy. Although the discussions were helpful, my feild experience gave me a better idea of what to expect. My field experience location was Robert E. Howard working with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. I sat and observed the teacher and students and helped a few of the students with their work. I have a love for art and children and this ws very helpful when it came working with the students. There will be students who are very displined and enjoy the subject as well as working on art projects. Also, there will be students who are disrespectful, disruption, and will not listen. This has a powerful effect on the other students in the class. The others will be distracted from their own work and begin to follow the less disciplined. Ms. Linda Aiken was my mentor and clearly enjoys her works besides the challenges. She was teaching for about 30 years and knows how to handle many situations. She showed me that to be a teacher, you really have to want to be one and love what you do. Taking the class and completing my field experience hours, I realized that becoming and being a teacher comes with more that what I expected. There will be many challenges I will have to face and overcome but it did not change my mind about continuing my education to be a teacher. I am even more excited about my career choice. Observing the class room helped me to see more that teaching is the better choice for me. Teachers are really unappreciated and underpaid. Without teachers, any other proffesion would not exist.