What Is Teacher Reflective Essay

C.S. Lewis once said “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” I believe all future educators should be taught this. It is not an educator’s job to tell students what to think, to cut away their thoughts and ideas that we perceive as a jungle running wild. Instead, it is our duty to sow the seeds of knowledge and to give each student the tools they will need to cultivate their own garden unique to each of them. To do this successfully educators need to utilize their own tool box which includes reflection, learner data, legal safeguards, collaboration, feedback, and being aware of personal bias and diversity.
The first major tool an educator has is teacher reflection. Teacher reflection is the ability of a teacher to critically assess the accuracy, impact, and effectiveness of the methods, lessons, and management that is implemented into the classroom. The ability to critically reflect on these things is important as they tell the instructor rather the needs of the students are being meet. If the needs are not being meet the teacher then has a duty to find out why a certain strategy or lesson is not working and make changes accordingly until an effective educational plan is achieved. An example of this would be if a majority of the students in a class miss a …show more content…
I have experienced everything from a student, to an intern, to a substitute teacher. Through these experiences I have come into contact with a very diverse student body, community, and work environment. Some of these experiences were great, such as working with foreign exchange students from Japan that opened my eyes to a whole other way of living. I learned everything from how to eat with chopsticks correctly to being exposed to the Shinto belief system. Another great experience I have had in regards to diversity and education is seeing teachers that incorporate the diversity of their class into the