Good evening, Vice-Chancellor, distinguished guests and academics, family, friends and of course my fellow grandaunts, to whom I offer my sincerest congratulations. It is an honor and a great pleasure be here before you and to celebrate this special occasion together.
We made it, we made it through all those lectures, tutorials, readings and assessments, we made it in succeeding our hopes and dreams of becoming educators, and I am sure we will make it, through what I hope will be the most rewarding and honorable career for each and every one of you.
Not only am I forever thankful for my time at Macquarie university, I can also say that university was unlike anything I had every imagined, and with this my perceptions of teaching were challenged and changed, all for the better, of course.
Growing up, one of my favorite games was what my cousins and I would call “schools,” basically we’d have roles as the teacher, the students, the good and bad and of course who could forget the principal who would visit on the occasion. Perhaps these perceptions weren’t entirely farfetched from the reality of teaching, and perhaps it was simply child’s play, however for me it was games like …show more content…
Realistically, there’s not much more to education than that. To reflect, I was asked by 2 principles during my final 2 practicums, “What is the most important thing about being a good teacher” to which I responded, it all comes down to this: good teachers teach students. They impart knowledge and skills. No matter how much ICT we incorporate, pedagogical innovations we take on or even going through countless curriculum changes, it simply cannot compensate for knowing and teaching your students, whether it be by supporting their individual needs, nurturing their goals and celebrating their triumphs as it is being done for us
We made it, we made it through all those lectures, tutorials, readings and assessments, we made it in succeeding our hopes and dreams of becoming educators, and I am sure we will make it, through what I hope will be the most rewarding and honorable career for each and every one of you.
Not only am I forever thankful for my time at Macquarie university, I can also say that university was unlike anything I had every imagined, and with this my perceptions of teaching were challenged and changed, all for the better, of course.
Growing up, one of my favorite games was what my cousins and I would call “schools,” basically we’d have roles as the teacher, the students, the good and bad and of course who could forget the principal who would visit on the occasion. Perhaps these perceptions weren’t entirely farfetched from the reality of teaching, and perhaps it was simply child’s play, however for me it was games like …show more content…
Realistically, there’s not much more to education than that. To reflect, I was asked by 2 principles during my final 2 practicums, “What is the most important thing about being a good teacher” to which I responded, it all comes down to this: good teachers teach students. They impart knowledge and skills. No matter how much ICT we incorporate, pedagogical innovations we take on or even going through countless curriculum changes, it simply cannot compensate for knowing and teaching your students, whether it be by supporting their individual needs, nurturing their goals and celebrating their triumphs as it is being done for us