Me! A Teacher?

How is this experience shaping your teacher identity? Give specific examples/stories.

When starting this school semester I did not know what to expect coming into class. When hearing about the practicum that we would be doing in this class I became very happy for in the past I have worked in different classrooms. After filling out the paper work and getting my placement I felt very content with the work I was going to be completing in this class. The VIPS Program has not only given me a memorable teaching experience but they have helped me continue on my way to becoming a teacher. By being placed in my elementary school I have added on experience to the teaching skills I need in order to establish my teacher identity.

Establishing your teacher identity is not just walking into a classroom and claiming to be an authority figure. As a teacher you need to be able to provide the students with the education they need as well as meet the demands of all the parents and community. Teachers need to create a strong connective bond with their students. As a teacher your students should feel as though they can come to you for anything.

This experience helped me to enhance my teacher identity because it not only placed me in a school where I could successfully help children in the area in which I chose but it also helped me connect to the students I was working with. This connection that I made with the children gave them a comfortable feeling with working with me. Every week I went in and we worked on rhyming together and every week the students got more and more comfortable with me being there. Soon later the children were talking to me about things related to school and things that were not. Not only did the children I work with acknowledge me as a teacher figure but also the entire class. Upon entering the classroom I was would receive a whole class welcome just as they would do with any other teacher. Upon one of my last visits to the school I actually got to do a class activity with the students and just hearing them ask me questions about what we were doing gave me such a comfort that these students were welcoming to me a student.