- Lifelong learning is essential to being a teacher.
One of the biggest characteristics that the village project has made evident is that teachers have to be lifelong learners. A teacher will not be effective if they remain stuck in one spot or one belief. As the methods of education are continuously changing, and technology becomes more important to teaching, we must be able to accept and adapt to this in order to learn how and when to use these tools. This remains as my number one takeaway because throughout the second semester I saw how much I could learn from the kids. They have helped me be more empathetic and have reminded me of the importance of consistency. Teachers learn from the students just as much as students learn from the teacher even if it is not as evident. The second semester of the village project reinforced and deepened my understanding of lifelong learning.
- Teachers need to have creativity and make learning experiences different.
This ties in a little bit to one of my previous takeaways that teachers need to be able to improvise but also takes on a new angle. Throughout the village project I have seen the importance of being able to think outside of the box to make meaningful and fun learning experiences whenever it is possible. As a teacher, it is important to make learning experiences different because if students are doing the same activities every day it is less engaging and becomes very redundant. When teachers are creative with their activities as well as their delivery of lessons, students are more likely to engage with the content.
- Children act as they feel they are seen.
Especially at younger ages, children act and base their confidence off of how they feel other people view them. For example, at my site placement and in my group specifically we had a few kids that struggled with behavior. In some cases, there was a need for some sort of discipline whether it was simply calling out the behavior and helping them understand why it was wrong or figuring out the bigger problem. When children are continuously told that they are messing up or doing something wrong it begins to become part of their identity and makes them more inclined to continue the behavior rather than correcting it. It is important to not only call out misbehaviors but also recognize when they do something positive. This in turn can help with their confidence levels during activities as well as reflected in their behavior as they want to be recognized for doing the right thing. Obviously, there is time or positive reinforcement and a time when students need to understand poor behavior, but it is important to incorporate positive actions as much as possible.
- Teachers must recognize their own biases.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, everyone has biases. Something that I really reflected on between the first and second semesters of the village project was how these biases can affect how I interact with students. I recognized that factors such as whether a student was likely to engage in material or not affected if I was more or less inclined to interact with them during that activity. As a teacher it is important to be able to set these biases aside which is something I worked on throughout the second semester of the village project by making sure I was interacting with different students in my group each week or making it around to all the tables during activities if students needed help. It is essential for teachers to have an open mind when it comes to their students and they must believe that all students have the ability to learn because if they don’t they are creating more obstacles or negative feedback that students must overcome along with other struggles.
- Learn to adjust your expectations.
Another concept that was reinforced during the second semester was that teachers must be able to adjust their expectations to fit classes. This doesn’t mean that teachers should lower expectations and not challenge their students; however, sometimes expectations are different from reality and need to be revised to fit the situation. The village project has been an eye opening experience but it has also been very different then what I expected when I went into it. Having a break from the village project during the winter and returning during the spring semester showed that students’ abilities are constantly changing. Expectations not only change on a yearly basis depending on a class, but they also change during the year throughout the same class. Adjusting expectations isn’t something that is just negative; it simply means that your experience is different than how you imagined it to be.
- Body Language is important because students learn from examples.
Body language and tone play vital roles in how a student sees you as a teacher. As a teacher, you are setting an example for the students whenever you are around them, even if you think they aren’t watching you. This semester specifically, we had a lot of community partners outside of the staff members that came to do activities with the kids such as people from the children’s museum. When these people are explaining the activities or teaching the kids about different things, it is important for me to show that I am listening and looking at the speaker because the kids are more likely to follow that example. They are constantly taking in information and stimuli from the world around them and oftentimes turn towards their peers, parents, siblings, or teachers and examples for how they should be acting. Kids can see differences in body language, posture, and facial expressions that set bad examples for them or create poor learning environments that make kids scared to ask questions or make mistakes.
- Breaking this down into smaller steps is important for better understanding
Throughout this semester specifically, I have seen the importance of breaking activities into small and straightforward steps so students can more easily follow along. Some of the projects that were led by non-staff members simply threw all the directions and supplies at the children and allowed free reign after that. We had a specific project that used paint only in the last step but students did not know what they had to prepare before they could use the paint. For students, especially at a younger age, it is important to break down learning and activities into smaller steps whenever possible because it can help them better make connections and understand what they are expected to do rather than having a bunch of information thrown at them and trying to retain it all in their small and limited working memory.
- Teachers do not need to have all the knowledge.
As a teacher, it is okay to answer students with “I don’t know. Teachers should not be expected to know anything and everything especially in a rapidly changing world. Things that are popular and relevant to students are constantly changing which presents teachers with a great opportunity to learn from their students about some of these things while being able to make personal connections to some of their interests. Something I learned during the village project is that students, especially younger students, love to tell you everything they know about things like their favorite superhero, dinosaur, or a number of other things. Furthermore, as a secondary education teacher this is specifically important for me to remember because I am specialized in one subject area. I’m not going to know everything about my content area and certainly will not know everything about all other subjects. Teachers are humans too and they simply can’t know everything there is to know. Our working memory is limited too.
- Allow students to learn from each other.
In some situations, students may learn better by helping each other and finding solutions together rather than separately. The process of learning is just as important, if not more important, than what they learned. Classrooms need to be areas of trust and collaboration. Especially in diverse classrooms, students can learn about different perspectives and backgrounds from each other much better than they would from just you. Allowing time for students to discuss, collaborate, share ideas, or simply carry conversations with each other is beneficial to the environment of the classroom. It is also important for students to see that they can teach others because this adds to their level of understanding as well as confidence. Being able to teach someone requires a high level of understanding and can help students see that they can help others. It also can help make them more inclined to learning from other students as it isn’t seen as an indicator that they are behind others if everyone is learning from each other.
- You need to be an active listener.
Children don’t always come to you for advice or for you to solve a problem. Sometimes students simply need someone who will listen to what is going on in their lives without trying to fix the problem or tell them how to think about the situation. Furthermore, it is important to be aware of what students are saying even if it isn’t directed at you or through writing. Silence or outbursts are often the ways students express a need for help over simply talking about it. Students will sometimes try to disguise their cries for help through drawings, poems, or writing assignments so it is important for teachers to be able to pick up on this and actively listen to their students. Students express themselves in a multitude of ways so it is incredibly important to be attentive to these other forms of communication.
