Samantha Frye

Wolfe

5/5/2019

EPS Final Copy

Education is not about teaching kids to read and write, to do arithmetic, or to know the functions

of the body. It is not teaching them that there used to be nine terrestrial bodies floating in space

categorized as planets, and now there’s eight with one that bounces between a dwarf planet or a

star (Pluto I’m talking about you buddy). Education is not standing in front of a class full of

students trying to scare them into studying for tests that seems impossible to pass or else they

cannot move onto the next grade level. Education is teaching students how to learn. Encouraging

them to ask questions and “see for themselves”. Education goes beyond the classroom and

outside of the textbooks.

Personally, I believe the most important purpose of teaching is to connect with your students. If

you don’t build a bond, they’re not going to care. Teach them something that nobody else can.

Don’t just assign readings to bore them, assign them readings that will fascinate them and then

show them the deeper meaning. Show them the emotion behind Lennie and George and why that

decision had to be made. Make them feel the manic paranoia that lead to hearing the beating

heart of the man with the vulture eye in The Tell-Tale Heart. Don’t just teach your students how

to calculate net forces and gravitational pulls. Leave them in awe with how the stars and planets

all hang in the galaxy due to the forces strong enough to keep their feet on the ground. Put them
inside the mind of Einstein and show them that the theory of relativity is beautifully complicated.

Show them the wonder in the world, teaching isn’t just working out of textbooks.

The second most important purpose of teaching is to show them that they have potential, and

then give them the means necessary to achieve it. These students need their teachers. Some of

your students may not have a single person at home who thinks they’re worth something. Teach

your students a lesson that goes beyond the classroom. Teachers play the second most important

role in molding young minds so that they can be upstanding citizens of the worlds.

The third most important purpose to me as a future educator is to make them want to learn the

material that the curriculum covers. I don’t want to teach kids vocabulary just to pass a test or the

STAAR to make me look good. I want to show them how to learn beyond what I cover in class. I

hope that they will be able to take the lessons, apply it to their lives, and then come back in a few

years to me and say “hey, remember when we learned this? It was really helpful to me when this

happened.” Or “i still remember this lesson and it has changed my life”.

The principles that guide me when teaching are Readiness, Effect, and Primacy. Readiness

relates to the student’s eagerness to learn. If your students are not interested in the material, or

think that it is useless they will only pretend to learn it to pass the class and move on in their life.

I do not want that for my students. Since I want to teach English, when I assign my students a

new reading selection I want my introduction to the literature to make them want to read it. I

want to find a way to relate it to their lives. If they can find a way that a decades old short story

or epic poem can tug at something inside them, I will consider that a win. If I can teach them

new vocabulary that I see in a later paper or hear them using in the hallway with their friends, I

will feel successful. Too many times did my past teacher seem to be short-goal oriented and were
just teaching to get us to the next grade. I feel that is a disservice to any pupil in their classroom.

That’s not teaching. That’s not getting them ready for life. That’s just making sure they’re test

ready.

Another principle I will follow is effect. I feel as if readiness and effect go hand in hand. When

the material has an effect on a student, it will open their mind up more and then they will retain

more and store more in their mental file cabinets. I want to try and stay on the positive side of

effect, for I do not wish my students to feel inadequate or discouraged. However, I am not naive

enough to believe that every student in my career ahead of me will grasp the lessons the first

time around. This is why I’m here, to be there when they need me. When the effect is negative, I

want my students to feel comfortable enough to ask me questions or to explain it in a different

way so that they will understand. I want to encourage my kids, not intimidate them.

The third principle I want to follow when teaching fundamentals is Primacy. Typically, the first

thing a student learns will be the one that sticks with them the easiest. When teach reading

comprehension or writing styles, I want to play into what they already know and build up from

the foundations. I want the lesson to be interactive, in a way. I want the students to do the

teaching at this point so they can show me what they know without someone leading them to the

right answer. When they have showed me what they know, I will then lead from there and add on

to their building blocks. I feel this will be most effective because I’m not taking away from what

they’ve learned but am showing them a new way to use it to help learn the new materials.

For a student to truly learn something, to me means that they can leave the classroom, or the

building and be able to carry it with them. To be able to add to their tool belt of skills, if you

will. As I mentioned earlier, while I know my students are counting on me to be able to pass
their state mandated tests or to be able to move onto the next grade, I still want my students to

become better understanding of the worlds and cultures around them through what I teach them

in my classroom. I am molding young mind into citizens of the world, and I cannot ignore that

component of the career I chose. When I see the light pop on in the kiddos I am teaching in the

after-school program I am working at, I feel my heart warm. I know that when my kids leave and

go home with their parents they are walking through the door with new information. I have been

told by teachers at the school that some of the kids are doing better in class because of the

exercises we do in ACE. Truly and completely learning something isn’t something that happens

overnight. It is a process that you as their educator, has to stay on top of. If you get lazy, your

students don’t learn.

With all this in mind, I think the most important strategies in teaching are relativity, repetition of

fundamentals, and modifications. Repeating the fundamentals in a way to where you don’t sound

like a broken record is tricky, but is crucial. In writing, the rules of grammar are so important

that they need to be like a reflex. If your punctuation is off, the flow of the sentence, paragraph,

or paper can be altered and convey a totally different emotion. A good foundation of learning is

the same as a solid foundation for a house. Modifications are also important. If your students

aren’t understanding the lesson, a new insight or method of teaching can be what they need. If

you can explain it in a simpler fashion or slow it down and then catch them up, it can be more

beneficial than getting frustrated with a class that fails an exam.

Not all students learn the same just as not all teachers teach the same. It is all about

finding a groove that works for you as a teacher and them as pupils. Watching your students

want to learn and activate their brains in a way they haven’t before is much more rewarding that
having a class of students sleeping their way through a semester and barely scraping by to pass

their finals or the STAAR.

“If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”