Teaching What Are Three Rewards and Three

Teaching

What are three rewards and three challenges that you will face as a teacher?

As a rabid student of popular culture, I have been interested in the so-called "achievement gap" in education, popularized in the media, the political spectrum, and even within contemporary business culture. There is clearly a demonstrable gap in educational relevancy; second, there are basic skills that are absolutely vital in order to participate in the modern global village that are not universal with the U.S. educational environment. Scholarship also points out that the earlier the attention to this "gap," the earlier the attention to potential reading disabilities, and the earlier the intervention towards socialization issues, the higher rate of success and inclusion. This, too, engenders challenges within the profession. For instance, today's classrooms are more diverse than ever, they are multi-dimensional as well. To help fill the gap, teachers need to be able to jump into different roles at an instant: friend, colleague, parent, educator, and more. "If I only had time to teach," Is a common teacher lament (Kauchak and Eggen, p. 11).

Students today have considerable technological advantages from students of even a few decades ago. Computers, the Internet, multi-media, laptops, and video-conferencing -- all have the potential to contribute to a richer, more robust, educational paradigm. However, with the increase in technology, often some of the very basic skills remain at the remedial level. According to some scholarship, the standard of required global literacy in math, science, reading, and analytical skills has risen throughout the developed world, but unfortunately, American literacy rates have not risen to meet this standard. Literacy is not simply a hoped for requirement in modern society -- it is a necessity, and every student who graduates High School without the basic skill set is a financial and social burden upon the rest of society. This is another challenge, for it requires a specialized body of knowledge that includes not only complex content materials, but a high degree of pedagogical expertise and the ability to remain current in trends surrounding the profession (Kauchak and Eggen, p. 14).

I am a lifelong student, and each year realize how many wonderful new ideas need exploring; how many exciting and vital places visited through reading; and how much joy I receive simply by having the right set of tools that allow me to read, research, study, analyze, and make decisions based on information. I believe I can communicate this excitement to children, and with the challenges they will face as global citizens, help them prepare for an increasingly rigorous curriculum. I am also quite aware that the personality and nature of the instructor has a phenomenal impact upon younger students -- what a better time to impart a love of learning and passion for school?

To me, the "gap" in the education system must be addressed at the earliest possible stage in the child's developmental cycle. So many latch-key children do not have the parental stimulation or support necessary to self-actualize, so many come from families in which English is not the first language, and so many come from broken homes in which the primary care-giver is doing all they can simply to survive. The teacher's role, then, and the role I am most interested in aggressively exploring, is that focusing on early childhood education. Reaching just one child who might otherwise drop out, if not physically, then mentally, is a noble challenge, and one I am eager to pursue. President Obama recently spoke to children about their responsibility for education -- I am ready, too, to accept my portion of that responsibility.

The modern classroom is also a fishbowl in a literary sense -- the public has been so engrained in the ideas of No Child Left Behind and standardized testing and scoring that the contemporary teacher is responsible for a number of socialization and intellectual achievement goals while being able to control the student's environment for only seven hours per day. It is a regular challenge to enhance the relevant interest in classroom materials as well as increase the level of communication between all stakeholders -- students, faculty, and parents/caregivers. As teachers, we must realize that students come from divergent backgrounds and parents have diverse views of school. Many, in fact, are not completely comfortable in English as a primary language, many work two jobs and are single parents, struggling to raise the family, and many simply do not place the same importance on homework or types of learning as others. The challenge for teachers becomes important when dealing with disruptive behavior, with academic challenges, and/or with cooperation in building high levels of trust and responsibility (Kauchak and Eggen, p. 13).