Chapter 3

Chapter three was a little difficult for me to really understand compaired to the previous chapters. I had to read it a few times so that I could really understand the point that the author was trying to get to. Teachers need to not make excuses and get to know each student in order to really understand how to help each student learn to the best of their ability. Teachers have a very busy and demanding job. There are so many things a teacher is required to do that it makes it easy for the teacher to say that they just simply don't have time to become close to their students and really understand them. If teachers do this then their students will be the ones who suffer. No student learns the same as another and if teachers do not take their relationship with their students to a deeper level than the teacher will never truly understand how to teach that student and they will never know what that particular student needs help with or is behind other students in.
The classroom is a place where students should feel comfortable and not only gain knowledge in school subjects, but also gain self esteem and become self efficiant. Teachers must provide students with the opportunity to become the best that they can in their lives, but without really knowing your students individually the teacher can not provide that for their students because they do not really know what that student needs. Teachers need to believe in their students and the child needs to know that their teacher believes in them, trusts them and wants nothing but the best for them. This means that teachers must have high expectations for their students, but not expectations that the student is not going to be able to reach and if teachers do not know their students then they will miscomunicate their expectations for the child and will most likely put the child down and hurt their learning and self esteem. Teaching is an investment, it takes time, but it is worth the time to get to know each individual in your class so that the teacher can make sure each child is learning in the way that suits them best and also knows what the child is going through in their lives so that they can alter lessons and classroom activities to suit the students needs. I love the list that the chapter gives on what invested teacher are.
-Personally engaged in what they ask students to do.
-work hard at learning and get excited about ideas.
-exeplify the pursuit of excellence.
-believes in the possibility of each individual and is not easily discouraged.
-does not assume that the student can not learn, but assumes the student is not learing in the way they are being taught.
-when the student fails the teacher fails.
-acknowledges the distance a student has come academically but makes it clear the distance they have yet to go.
-points our learning has no finsih line.
-failure is not an option.
I learned a lot from this chapter and it really helped me see what a teacher should really be like and focus on the students needs and not on just teaching the curriculum. Although that is important it is not the only thing that is important in a students education.