My Teaching Philosphy ITLS

Becoming a teacher has not always been my goal in life. I think there was only one other time when I was in elementary school that I even thought about it. The only reason for this was my teacher that I had at the time. I was able to have this teacher for three years of elementary school. She always seemed like she was having so much fun. I don't know if I'd even call this admiration a goal. It was just something I thought about as a possible option.

It wasn't until three years ago that I started to consider teaching. But it wasn't an "aha" moment at all. I was in the process of figuring out another major when I ran across FSCE. I had no idea what it was and didn't even notice the education part. There was a lady informing me about the major and when she asked me if I'd ever considered teaching I laughed and said "no." Her response was "Well, think about it." I walked away thinking that it was a ridiculous idea. But, however, I happen to enjoy teaching. The preparation isn't my favorite, and the idea of teaching isn't my favorite, but presenting information and involving students is really enjoyable.

I want to make sure that my students are involved and gaining hand on learning. I want to make them feel empowered and individualized yet collaborative as a class. I want to include and show them that the skills they are learning are indeed important and applicable and that they will use them and think about the ideas I am teaching them in different ways.

This may be a large goal and a huge task, but like my enjoyment for teaching, it will probably come slow and gradual.

 

Educational Blogs

http://youthvoices.net/
http://learningismessy.com/blog/
http://mrmillersblog.com/

Generosity

Each of us has an infinite amount of potential. Sometimes it takes some chastising for us to realize this, even if we believe we are already understanding of who we are. I really loved reading this article  and the way in which the instructor seemed to be encouraging amidst her rage of frustration with her student with these words:

"How generous are you willing to be? How generous are you willing to be with your whole life? Will you share yourself with us? With the world? Do you dare? Or are you just going to hold yourself tightly in, hold these long arms and legs all to yourself?
"Are you just going to be stingy? Just keep yourself to yourself for the rest of your life? In case you fall? In case you fail? In case you make a fool of yourself? In case we see how imperfect you are?

"OR: are you going to choose to just be generous anyway? To just take up as much space as you actually take up? To be as big, as graceful, as long, as gorgeous, as enormous as you actually are?"


But honestly. Ask yourselves, how generous are you willing to be? How generous are you willing to be with your time? Your voice? Your talents? With who you are? You are the best best of the best. Are you doubting yourself? Don't. Because you truly contribute much to all around you. Nothing goes unnoticed. You may be imperfect and scared that one day everyone will see. But we already know. We already know that you are not perfect. You are human at this point in time. So are we. So am I. So go ahead and take as much space as you actually take up and more, and in the process see the light in you and in others and treat them as if that is all you see. Your success is found in your daily routine.

 

Joy

I absolutely love hot air balloons but I had never seen one in person until yesterday. And the moment  I simply glimpsed their colorful plume of glowing glory I could barely contain myself. I tensed with joy and squealed with delight, bouncing up and down in the driver's seat. I could barely drive I was so excited. I wasn't quite expecting such a reaction from myself probably because I haven't felt that way in such a long time.

It's so great to have the opportunity to enjoy these simple things in life. I have felt numb to so many things recently. I've been happy simply because of my circumstances and the way my life is but it was so incredibly nice to feel such intense delight.

Top Hats

Sometimes as a switchboard operator people like to tell you their life stories. Most of the time it is related to which department they want and you already have their diagnosis but they keep talking for five minutes about what they need when you already know what they need. It gets quite annoying. But occasionally there will be some real gems.

It was the morning shift from 7:30 to 8 so I worked by myself and there aren't many calls. I got a call from the sweetest old man. His first sentence to me was "That's so sweet of you to be up there working this early." He then asked his question to which I answered. He then asked what high school I went to and I told him I was from Idaho. He then asked me if I could remember the first line of my high school song... I don't think that I really remember it much. But he said that he's gotten some great stories from asking people that question.

Elsa the Preschooler

This semester I'm doing an internship at a preschool. It's quite the learning experience. When working with children it is inevitable to hear some giggle worthy things that they say.

Child: Teacher?
Me: Yes?
Child: I have a secret
Me: Yeah?
Child: Can I tell you a secret? That I'm only going to tell you. You're the only person who I will tell.
Me: Ok
Child (leans forward, whispering): I was the one who really sang "Let it Go" on Frozen.
She looked at me matter-of-factually and went back to what she was doing before.
Earlier in the morning she had come in claiming that she had Frozen hair like Elsa. Then later in the day she pointed to her sparkly shoes and said they were made of ice. And then she said that her house was an ice palace and that she doesn't get cold.

Rebeka's Story

The other day I heard a story that was completely beyond the norm. It threw my monotonous life stories and the life stories of people I've talked to recently out the window.

My roommate texted me the other day : "Would you like a ride home from work? There's a girl from hungry that I'm giving a ride to and it would be great to have you come with me."

I didn't understand most of the text. For instance: why my roommate had driven to work (she usually walks), and what hungry could translate into... some sort of club?... was it a typo?... I didn't know. She said it was a long story and she would tell me later.

I met her and the girl she was with. She introduced her as her friend Rebeka... which she had never talked about having a friend named Rebeka... ever. So I was really confused, especially when I noticed that Rebeka had an accent.

So I asked Rebeka where she was from. Hungary was her answer ( the association between "hungry" and "Hungary" didn't click in my head until the next day).

"Wow. Why are you in Utah?" I asked innocently.

I wasn't really prepared for her answer.

You see Rebeka lives in England. She came here to Utah because of a boy. They met in England and things were good so they went to Hungary to meet her family and things were still good there. So they decided to come to Utah to meet his family and probably finalize things. Things were going alright at first. She was introduced as just a friend then at dinner they decided to announce that they were getting married.

And it didn't go well.

The dad is super controlling to the point that he was telling her all of her flaws and that she'll have to lose weight and they'll put her on a diet and she needs to do all sorts of other things because she isn't perfect ... etc. Everyone was yelling at her, threatening to throw her stuff out and call the police. Her fiance did nothing. So obviously things were over in a very sudden way.

Somehow she found somebody who took her to a hotel and she used up all of her emergency money there.

She had to have had the worst night of her life.

The next day she had the feeling that she needed to go to the temple and she did so. I'm really grateful that the temple is a pretty central part of Logan and easy to see and easy to get to. She arrived there and was looking for the baptistry. One of my roommates student workers, Miss ST, was at the temple to get her endowments, saw Rebeka and had the thought to help her find the baptistry. She did so and learned all about the background story and decided to help in any way she could.

Thankfully the family was still willing to help in some way. Miss ST took her to the bank where the family gave her $1500. They also bought her a plane ticket so she could get home. Since Miss ST was going to be at the temple all day she took her to the admissions office on campus so that she could have something to do and somewhere to go during the day. That's where my roommate came into the puzzle and then me.

As a back story I found out that Rebeka and her ex met online. But apparently it was really the dad posing as his son, so that his son of 35 and living at home could get married. The son has a job but apparently his dad takes all of his money because he is so controlling.

It's such an awful situation and so sad that it could happen to someone. I'm just glad that she was a part of the church and that she followed the promptings of the spirit so that she could be led to us and become a friend. She had a mission companion in a town close by who she gets to stay with for a while. 

Observed Lessons: Sponsored by Finals Week

A reflection of my semester has a very clear appearance during this week. Lessons I've learned from my classes sometimes are just as important as the information I learn in classes. Confused? Let me explain.

I attend college because I like learning. I do homework because I like learning, but I also like a good grade. Being caught up in the hub-ub of school however, distracts me from several things in life. THAT is why the information learned in class is almost equally as important as lessons learned from my classes.

This semester I've learned about children and the appropriate ways to discipline and ways to connect with them so that their behavior is manageable and they end up being very well adjusted.

My sewing skills have increased so much that I was able to make a dress out of a 40 year old sleeping bag with no pattern and no measuring and it fit my model like a glove.

Research on any topic is often shaky, but especially in the nutrition world. In addition to that, children have an innate ability to know when they are hungry and exactly how much to eat. They can just sense it. So if they don't eat much, it's usually because they don't need it, and vice versa

If you want to know more about tailoring skills, if you ever want to get a suit tailored and think it is too expensive, don't come asking me to tailor it for you, because I will probably charge the same amount as the tailor. It is TIME CONSUMING. I pulled my first ever all nighter this week(which has given me a very strange range of emotions), ate junk food, didn't work out, shower, or drink water and spent three days on this project (in addition to the other three weeks that I had it) and turned it in unfinished. It's an awful sinking feeling, but it had to be done.

That leads me to the lessons learned from classes. School is a temporary small detail in our lives. The struggles are small and last only a short while. It's a common repetitive theme but it's something we forget most often. Projects, tests, homework come and go. We probably won't even remember the majority of them. But remembering to take time for others, to do somethings with other people, that's the events that we remember most and will actually mean something to us. If you forget that advice for a little while, don't worry, there is always a reminder coming for you.