Teacher Reflection Final
One thing I have noticed about my life is how much I love children and working with children. I’ve always been interested in working with children in one way or another when I’m older whether it be a pediatrician or a teacher. I never took into account how much work teachers put into teaching their students. Over this past quarter, I only had to do 20 lesson plans and that took a lot of time and creativity to finish. I can’t imagine what it would be like to do that for multiple lessons every day year after year. I think that this has changed my viewpoint on if I want to become a teacher or not.
I really love the concept of teaching a lot. I love the way all of the children are learning at the same time and I love to see the joy on their faces. Something that has been holding me back from looking more into that profession is the wages that teachers make. When we started to go over and help the students at the primary school, I never wanted to leave. I didn’t care if I was getting paid or not, I didn’t care about what time it was, I didn’t care about anything besides what was happening at the moment. I loved being there and doing what I could even though everything was super limited.
I was only allowed to be around each student for roughly 10 minutes at a time so it was difficult to get to know everyone. Out of all of the students I met, I had noticed the different levels of development in the students. Student A would have great social development and not-so-great intellectual skills compared to student B, who was the complete opposite. It was really cool to see those different levels of development in my opinion because it was interesting to see where some kids are more developed than others.
The students who were more social probably had parents who got them involved in social environments when they were younger. When I am a parent I would like to do that as well because being a teenager now, it’s a lot easier to live life and have friends since I am social. It’s really interesting to see antisocial behavior as well because you can see the different ways it affects people’s lives. It’s so cool to see how people react in a public setting. When I have children I can’t wait to see them grow and make their own friendships.
The only thing I don’t want to do when I have children is that I don’t want to traumatize them. I think that it plays a big role in children’s lives if their parents get into a divorce or something else traumatizing happens. That also may lead to the children not doing well in school or in their own friendships and relationships. The first few years of a child’s life are the most important so it’s important to start them off in a good place.
I also find it so interesting how all of the children compare themselves to other students even though they are at such a young age. For example, I had a student confide in me about how she felt “dumber” than another student because she couldn’t catch onto the game as fast. I know when I have children I never want them to feel that way but no parent does. It was just kind of sad to see that from such young children. It really shows the social standards in today’s society. Even as a teenager, there is still a lot of comparisons and it’s just really difficult to want to be yourself when you’re being compared to others not only by yourself but other people as well. I think it’s important to have my future children learn to just love themselves and to not compare themselves to others.
With all of this being said, I just really like the concept of children in general. I love watching them grow and learn and everything that I have already mentioned. I don’t know where my life is going in the future quite yet but I know I will be doing something with children. I can’t wait to see what my life holds for me in the future.