Worthy Teaching

To me, the top features that define worthy teaching include being understanding and non-judgmental, showing care for students, acknowledging students’ individual needs as well as interests, and remaining humble as a teaching professional. Throughout my PDP experience so far, the importance of relationships between the teacher and students has been made very clear. A teacher must take the time and put in the effort required to develop relationships with each student in his or her class. If a teacher fails to build relationships with his or her students, the teacher’s ability to manage the class will be put in jeopardy. By showing care for the students and building a relationship with them, the students will be less likely to misbehave because they want the teacher’s acceptance and approval. Simply, without classroom management it will be extremely difficult for any learning to take place. Due to the fact that building relationships with students is the teacher’s responsibility, teachers must ensure that they are self-reflectors in order to see if they are building the necessary relationships with their students. Self-reflection is also needed on a more general level to ensure that teachers are providing students with the best teaching practice that suits their class’ and students’ specific needs.

By examining the comforts and discomforts of being in the classroom of the students in our class, the present student teachers are able to recognize and understand that their students will have various comforts and discomforts in the classroom. I believe that compiling these lists as a class was very useful in regards to creating or increasing awareness regarding students’ comforts and discomforts in the classroom. As we discussed in class, I think it is extremely important to acknowledge that one student’s discomfort may be another student’s comfort. For example, one student may find comfort in a variety of instructional practices, while another student may view it is a discomfort. Understanding students’ comforts and discomforts should become part of the student-teacher relationship building and “getting to know you” process, so that teachers will be able to accommodate as many students as they can. Overall, I believe that after having identified and making a list of many features that are characteristic of worthy teaching, it will be slightly easier to become a worthy or effective teacher because we have a list of characteristics that we can self-reflect upon and make adjustments to our teaching practice as needed.