Over the course of the past three weeks, I have had the pleasure of observing and teaching Junior Achievement lessons in Mrs. Kristin Murphy’s second grade classroom at Central Elementary in O’Fallon, Illinois. Through this experience, my instructional skills have grown, and my understanding of and respect for the teaching profession has also been greatly enhanced. In teaching the Junior Achievement lessons, I accomplished many of the goals the program had set, along with several goals that I had in mind for myself. By encouraging the feedback of both the students and Mrs. Murphy, I was able to modify my approach to become a more effective educator. With my assignment to the second grade classroom at Central Elementary, I was given the
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One thing I learned was to be prepared for the unexpected. Teaching young children isn’t something an instructor can schedule minute-by-minute, but rather has to be extremely flexible to fit in every possible scenario from a lack of concentration or interest to an emergency bathroom break or social conflict between students. Another thing I learned from this experience was that children want to have fun and they want to like their teacher. Keeping these two things in mind while instructing relieves a lot of worries from my heart and mind. I also learned to not take yourself or a not-so-great lesson too seriously. Without a doubt, the instructor or at least one of the students in the class will be having a bad day every day of the year, every lesson won’t go as perfectly as envisioned, and the teacher may not feel as though they deserve the “teacher of the year” reward at the end of every day, but these seemingly bleak realities shouldn’t stop me, or other aspiring teachers from pursuing this extremely rewarding career. As Mrs. Murphy said, “Don’t sweat every lesson plan. Every day is a new day for both you and the students. If yesterday wasn’t the best, leave it in the past and move forward.” Most notably, I learned from this experience that I have a passion for
One thing I learned was to be prepared for the unexpected. Teaching young children isn’t something an instructor can schedule minute-by-minute, but rather has to be extremely flexible to fit in every possible scenario from a lack of concentration or interest to an emergency bathroom break or social conflict between students. Another thing I learned from this experience was that children want to have fun and they want to like their teacher. Keeping these two things in mind while instructing relieves a lot of worries from my heart and mind. I also learned to not take yourself or a not-so-great lesson too seriously. Without a doubt, the instructor or at least one of the students in the class will be having a bad day every day of the year, every lesson won’t go as perfectly as envisioned, and the teacher may not feel as though they deserve the “teacher of the year” reward at the end of every day, but these seemingly bleak realities shouldn’t stop me, or other aspiring teachers from pursuing this extremely rewarding career. As Mrs. Murphy said, “Don’t sweat every lesson plan. Every day is a new day for both you and the students. If yesterday wasn’t the best, leave it in the past and move forward.” Most notably, I learned from this experience that I have a passion for