Tove Sorenson
When I was a kid I never really knew what I wanted to be. I wavered between wanting to be a chicken, veterinarian, chef and so many other things. I always have felt a sense of loss because I never had that set idea in my head. I wanted to do something that would involve every part of me. However, as a kid, we were told we had to be one thing. What “thing” could hold my desire to be creative, to share my passions, to have connections with people, and to see growth and hard work?
It was not until my first semester of senior year in high school that I realized I truly wanted to become an educator. I had the amazing opportunity to be a teacher’s assistant in my schools’ Low Incidence/Special Education classroom. My time in that classroom was amazing and very rewarding. I learned how to recognize those students to be no different than my classmates and I. We were all classmates. My mom still tells me that I should pursue special education as my future career. She recognized my love for that environment and how drawn I was to helping. I do not completely disagree with her, however I have also come to realize that regardless of where I teach I will come in contact with those kinds of students, so my journey of understanding special education will not end with my senior year.
I have come to understand that I truly would like to pursue an educational career in the secondary level (preferably with juniors or seniors) teaching history and social studies. These past few months have solidified this want by not only the classes I have taken at St. Norbet- but seeing the upheaval of life-altering conflicts and events sparking up across the world. Educating the youth on our history is vital to understand why such events are taking place. The amount of people I would talk to about for instance the situation in Israel, and would claim to have no idea that it was an area of conflict baffled me. Therefore, I want to use my platform as an educator to educate those in my community and bring awareness to worldly events that deserve recognition. And how we can move forward, and understand what change might come to us.
My Top Three Philosophies:
- Education is a gift:
- According to the United Nations website- as of February 2023, roughly 78 million boys and girls do not go to school at all. This is either because of choice, or more significantly they physically cannot go because of conflict, natural disaster, governmental restrictions, etc.
- I was always told when I felt like not going because I was “tired of it”- that you should go for them. Do it for them.
- Any child in a situation that prevents them from attending school, or getting an education- would every single time want to be in your position.
- You are doing a disservice to yourself by taking education for granted, and you are dismissing the opportunity that so many wish they could have.
- Every student deserves to be heard and seen:
- Maybe one of my faults is having too much sympathy, but I cannot stand when a child is left out.
- An Edutopia article proves the idea of putting in the extra work as an educator improves students’ lives and overall success!
Ideas on how to appreciate students:
- Learn their name!
- Ask them questions
- Remember specifics (allergies, hobbies, likes/dislikes)
- Learn to care: look further than the assignments and grades
- See the people within the students
- Students remember the teachers that cared about them- and the teachers who remembered them
- Repay the vulnerability (with reason and maintaining a teacher-student relationship)
- Failure is okay!
- The kid I am a literacy tutor for (4th grade), I make a point to always tell him if he does mess up:
- “Just because you made a mistake, it does not make you less of a learner.”
- Stop promoting the stigma of failure being negative!
- Learning from mistakes grows your brain and neurons
- An article from the Continental gives amazing strategies and philosophies about growth mindsets and the idea of failing forward.
- “Each failure is a step in the right direction”
- Remember that you do not lose anything if a student does not get it correctly right away, or after a few times.
- Also remember that just because the students are not getting it- it does not mean that you are a bad educator- just means you have to find a new route that works for you and the student.
My New 3 Philosophies- Revised:
Teaching is not always linear:
I really gathered this idea through the Village Project experience. When I would think about teaching, I always thought that every lesson, idea, game was out of the same “teaching book”. I understand now that a “teaching book” does not exist. Undersatnbly there are curriculums that a teacher does have to follow- but when it comes to how they teach it, there is a creativity aspect that has individualism. What might work for one teacher and their class, does not work for another. That was something I very much had to come to terms with. I would find myself comparing how I would approach my lessons to other tutors around me. I would become insecure about what I was doing, but confused because I was still producing the same outcomes as them with my tutee. Understanding that I have to figure out what works for me was one of the most valuable lessons I learned this year. I cannot expect to carbon copy all the educators around me. I have to learn to listen to myself and what is positive around me.
Success can be measured in different ways:
This one is more classroom geared- but we spent a lot of time this year and semester understanding what an assessment can look like compared to what “success” looks like. There is a difference to completing a task, like your homework or completing a test: and then actually retaining knowledge of a topic. You can turn in a filled out form and still not know what you wrote about. As an educator, it is our responsibility to recognize the loopholes within tasks to see their level of knowledge. That could be done with an evaluation as you move through the year, or if you do choose to do a big final test.
End of the day we want the students to carry with them newly collected and understood knowledge that we provide them with. Understanding where each student is coming from on their journey is another step in the process of knowing what success is. For some students getting an A is success to them. For another, just getting to class is success. As an educator we need to be able to see this and be content with that, but also find ways to push them to what we know is their best success.
Change is normal:
This is another major one I learned through primarily the Village Project- and with just having been a college student for a year. Things will change! Unfortunately there is a lot of unintentional disappointment in our world. We as humans naturally expect things to go a certain way; and when they do not, we get upset. I think instead of getting upset and staying in that cycle, as an educator it is just another learning opportunity for you. Teachers are still learning and adapting as well.
Just because maybe a lesson went too long, not enough people showed up or there was a buzz around an upcoming holiday, it doesn’t mean that I (an educator) did something incorrect, or that I am wasting anyone’s time. There is life in school. Things are going to come up and I have to be prepared for that. Adapting to change is not an easy thing to do, I am honestly quite terrified of change. But it is not something I can readily avoid. As a teacher, I am going to have to get used to the fact that I am operating on a system that will be dependent on others and myself to uphold.
I hope to be an educator someday that achieves these goals. I know I have the determination to do it. In all honesty, I would not have even been able to recognize these ideas without having seen them “work” in person- so I am grateful for the opportunity that I was given my senior year, and the opportunities I will get through the education program at St. Norbert. I am excited to see how these ideas/frameworks will change and adapt throughout my teaching career – because they should! It is dangerous to anyone to hold onto something for so long without giving it the chance to develop and change with time. For example, with the blessing of time and change, I came to realize that I do not (and cannot really,) be a chicken when I grow up… unfortunately.
Articles Used/Works Cited
Beloumou, Daniel, and Michael Pierce. “78 million children don’t go to school at all, warns UN chief in call for action.” UN News, 16 February 2023, https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/02/1133567. Accessed 6 December 2023.
“Embracing Setbacks: Classroom Strategies for Learning From Failure.” Continental Press, 11 August 2023, https://www.continentalpress.com/blog/strategies-for-learning-from-failure/. Accessed 6 December 2023.Korbey, Holly. “The Power of Being Seen.” Edutopia, 27 October 2017, https://www.edutopia.org/article/power-being-seen/. Accessed 6 December 2023.
