Personal Learning Effective as a Teacher

¶ … personal reflection on your own school experiences. Think about how your experiences may affect your work as a teacher. Consider aspects of education that you value, appreciate, want to emulate, or avoid

The term reports that I obtained in high school are, in retrospect, a source of immense joy not only for me but also for my family. Even though in majority of the subjects I appeared to perform at an average level, the remarks on my report concerning sports always mentioned that I, Meira, display no interest at all in sporting ventures. up-to-date, it still baffles me that my gym instructor actually never knew my name. This could be attributed to the fact that the number of instances that I actually turned up for the weekly ordeal was not more than ten times. All this perhaps could be no reason for more than a casual giggle at the recollection of the time that I spent in high school, if it were actually not for the fact that I am now in control of a successful gym and earn part-time revenue from it. In my ability as a gym instructor, I train an average of 13 classes in one week, along with my personal workouts that engage me for an extra 5 hours. According to me, this is just one of the regions in my life that backs my vision that the typical education does not essentially result to personal growth. On the contrary, it might in some instances suppress it (Spa, n.d.).

I was blessed with a curious mind even as a kid, and was keen to find out reasons for almost everything. My father, a physicist, possessed a strong belief for self-education. According to him, learning did not commence at 08.30 and conclude at 15.00; learning was instead a continuous process. This was well demonstrated by one of my most fond memories: at the about the age of 10 or 9 during a relaxing after dinner chat at the table, I enquired from my father the reasoning behind the different looks given by objects under water. Instead of expecting me to just agree to his explanation regarding the refraction of light, the dirty cutlery were instantly tossed aside, the curtains closed and lights turned off. So as to make the light well visible, a cigar was lit up and I was capable of seeing, right in front of me, what actually happened to light when it travelled through water. After that, I never looked at things in the swimming pool in the same manner, and I also stopped looking at the teachers in my school in the same manner. I then started categorizing teachers into two types: those who offer motivation to learners and those who just teach. In my school, the first group encouraged us to find out information by ourselves, while the latter tried to sway us to absorb data and reiterate the said information in examinations (Spa, n.d.).

The school system, sadly, was such that it appeared almost not possible to do well in both sciences and arts. It was a must for the students to choose between humanities or sciences. I ended up choosing the humanities syllabus. My choice made me subconsciously learn to trust that I was not capable of comprehending the exact sciences. This eventually guided me to choosing a college course which encouraged this vision. In fact, I once changed from a study of Sociology to a study of Spanish since I trusted that I could never be capable of passing the compulsory Statistic test. After two years, I decided to pursue the optional course in statistics, only to prove my point. By that period, I had realized that the typical education frequently guides us to build the view we have regarding ourselves on our weaknesses instead of strengths. We have a tendency of making decisions that we trust shall guide us to success via the easiest and shortest path. Humanity punishes failure and rewards success. We, therefore, choose the route which will most probably guide us to success and eventually end up limiting ourselves. The entire thing turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy: accomplish what you are best at, encounter slight struggles, and obtain a prize (Spa, n.d.).

When you monitor a specific student, you might become worried since his/her growth and learning seems to be dissimilar from his/her classmates. As you analyze the likely causes for a kid's learning or development, put into consideration that there are several lenses via which you can observe this kid. Some of the lenses include the spoken language, background, gender, peer groups and so much more. The more of the lenses one is familiar with, the more the possibility that your deductions regarding the causes for a kid's classroom success and behavior are correct (SERGE, n.d.).