On my educational journey

Throughout my 405 experience, I’ve spent these months focusing on defining myself as an educator. I’ve spent a great deal of time reflecting on the amount of influence a teacher has, I’ve forged relationships with the students in my class and I’ve discovered my own predispositions for assessing and quantifying knowledge. I have spent time outside of the regular classroom hours getting involved in the school community, I have spent many hours discussing the intricacies of assessment with my S.A, and I have spent even more time writing and re-writing various reflections on lessons, observations, and the events of the week. These experiences have combined to aid me as I work towards the realization that I’m about to enter in to a profession for which I’ve spent my entire academic life working.

When I began my journey in PDP, we had several guest speakers come in and address myself and my fellow students in a variety of presentations and seminars. During one of these presentations I heard a phrase that has come to represent my journey as a student teacher: “you need to become comfortable with the uncomfortable.” I’ve spent years studying education in university, learning all about various pedagogical and philosophical approaches to education. Yet, the experience of actually taking over a classroom has allowed me to develop my own beliefs about what it means to me to be an educator. It has stretched me by urging me to confront issues surrounding differentiation, assessment, socialization, teacher-student relationships and the role of technology in the classroom to which there are no simple answers or solutions.

I have learned that, as far as these sorts of larger issues are concerned, I gravitate towards a comfortable solution that I can apply to any and all situations. However, it is the uncomfortable realization that these issues may never be fully resolved that I have come to understand profoundly. As I work towards defining myself as an instructor, I must continue to work through these issues and continue to seek professional growth as a way of becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable. I believe that we pay respect to this profession by striving to grow in all circumstances, and that the steps towards growth are never the most comfortable but they are certainly the most fruitful.