Critical Incident

There isn’t one specific moment in my schooling experience that made me think I want

to be a teacher but rather a bunch of little aspects that happened. Ever since Kindergarten I

knew I wanted to be a teacher. I had very nurturing teachers throughout elementary, some

tougher than others, but all of them drew me into teaching. All of the teachers that I have had

were take away moments of what I want to be like as a teacher.

One teacher that comes to mind when thinking of what I do not want to be like is my

grade ten math teacher. He did not make learning fun, to him there was only one way of doing

it and only a single example in class and we were expected to have learnt the concept. He was

the type of teacher that made me go from loving math to almost hating it. In Grade nine math I

excelled, thus I was pretty confident in my abilities in math but that went downhill quite quickly

in his class. He was one of the teachers I avoided taking another class from if I could help it. He

is not someone I aspire to teach like but instead of redirecting my path of becoming a teacher I

took the lesson and learnt from it. I know that his way of teaching is not for me.

One moment in high school that really stuck with me was in chemistry 30. My teacher

was very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and you could tell he just had a passion for teaching and

watching students succeed. He always was there to help when needed or even just for a chat.

This moment was right around the second week of January with diplomas just around the

corner. I was not the best studier in high school, as in I never really studied mainly because I

never really figured out what clicked in my brain the best to remember and learn things. It was

a few days before my Chemistry 30 final and my teacher and I were having a casual

conversation, about what I cannot remember, but the exam came up and he started to ask me
how my studying was going. Well, instead of pulling the wool over his eyes I was quite blatant

that I had not started to study. Instead of giving me a lecture about not studying, he chose to

chase me down the hall. I of course did not do as well as I would have liked to on the final, but I

still passed. This moment is something I revert back to occasionally because to me it showed

how much my teacher cared about my success. I aspire to be a teacher like my chemistry

teacher. His passion, drive and enthusiasm are what made learning fun and didn’t seem like

learning at all.

These learning experiences from my education have shaped me into the person I am

today and why I want to be a teacher. Sometimes it is not just one critical incident that shapes

you into why you want to become a teacher but rather a bunch of little things that made you

think and learn. Through my experience I want to incorporate the good messages and try my

hardest not to be like the ones of bad. Through these experiences I have created my

philosophies of teaching and learning that I will incorporate into my classroom.

My Personal Teaching Beliefs & Values
 I believe in being organized and classroom management. I feel this is important to
learning. From my experience in classrooms I found that the more organized teachers
were the more fluently the classroom moved around. In an unorganized classroom I feel
you get a lot of questions as to where things are, and it seems to be a little more
chaotic. Classroom management goes hand in hand with organization to me. Having a
well-managed classroom allows for more opportunity for a positive learning
environment. Within the Kwok article it stated, “more relational classroom managers
were associated with high ratings of instructional quality” (p.355, 2017). This then leads
into my next point of building relationships.
 I believe in relationship building. Positive relationships foster a positive learning
environment. Relationship building allows students to feel comfortable in the
classroom. Students are more prone to want to learn from having a positive relationship
than a negative one. In a study from Hill and Chin (2018) it states, “both scholars and
professional standards identify teachers’ knowledge of students as important to
promoting effective instruction and student learning” (p.1076). In order to promote
relationship building there has to be knowledge of the students. To me this is the
foundation of relationships. Getting to know a student not only helps build the
relationship but also allows me as a teacher to incorporate different learning styles that
can benefit learning.
 I believe making mistakes is okay. Rather than dwelling on the mistake, we should take
it as a step in the students learning… the students are able to grow from mistakes.
 I believe in having fun. What is learning if you’re not having fun?
 As a teacher I want to ensure I am enthusiastic, empathetic and always open to new
ideas. In my past experience I have not liked a teacher who was close minded, and you
could tell he wasn’t very enthusiastic or empathic towards the students. As from my
critical incident that was a teacher that made me want to be a better teacher and too
ensure future students have the ability to learn and not be undermined. I will ensure to
be enthusiastic, empathetic and always open minded to new ways.
 I believe in being a good role model. Not just in the school system but as well as out of
school. Some students might not have someone they can go to or someone they can
look up to. I think being a good role model is something that can become a positive
force in a students’ lives.
 Resources

Hill, H.C. &Chin, M. (2018) Connections Between Teachers’ Knowledge of Students,

Instruction and Achievement Outcomes. American Educational Research Journal.
55(5) pp. 1076-1112 DOI: 10.3102/0002831218769614

Kwok, A., (2017). Relationships Between Instructional Quality and Classroom

Management for Beginning Urban Teachers. Educational Researcher 46(7)
pp.355-65 DOI: 10.3102/0013189X17726727