Saylor Barrios
Professor Wolfe
ETEC 42422
22 September 2019
Unit 2- EPS Rough Draft
Being a teacher is a lot like tending to a garden. Your students are the seeds, and you are
the water and the sunlight. This means that teachers play a vital role in how the students flourish.
We must be patient, more with some and less with others, to be able to see that growth.
This would be the most important role of a teacher for me: to be someone that grows
students. Your purpose is to take each individual student you have and help them grow
tremendously each in different ways. Remember, each student is unique with totally different
backgrounds. Leaps and bounds might be milestones for some, and baby steps could be victories
for others. Another key purpose is to be the student’s encourager. They need to know that you
believe in them. You might be the only one in their life that actually does. Encouraging words
and growth go hand in hand. This means that no matter how you feel or what your attitude is, be
kind to your students. We want our kids to be kind, right? One way to make this happen is to
lead by example. The final purpose is to genuinely love them. When you love your students
unconditionally, the rest of what you have to do falls into place. If you love them, you will want
to grow them. If you love them, you will want to prepare well for them. You will want to show
them kindness, even when it is not easy.
A very important educational principle that will be used in my classroom will be setting
high expectations for my students. The first part of believing in them is to not let them sell
themselves short. I will help them raise the bar high so that they can reach their goals and
achieve the maximum level of growth for that year. I will most likely have that poster in my
room that says, “Shoot for the moon! If you miss, you’ll still land among the stars!” This is
because I am cheesy and I own it. Although high expectations is one of my principles, another
would have to be taking care of the students first. Yes, I encourage them to push on to
accomplish their goals, but I also realize that we have to give our brains a break or we will break
down. I never want to push my students to their breaking point or make school a place that they
dread. I want to show them grace when they need it. We have to nurture these young minds for
them to grow efficiently. My last principle I want to touch on is that I want to treat all of my
students as an equal. I know this might sound shocking, but if you think about it, it really is not
at all. All I am saying is that I want to treat my kids with the same respect that I expect in return.
I want to treat them like adults. I want to treat them like people. With this mutual respect, I
believe I can achieve a healthy and loving classroom environment.
When it comes to truly learning something, let me first tell you what it is not. It is not
cramming for a test, only to forget the information upon completion. It is not something that is
easily forgotten that is not applicable to their own life. You can make anything you teach
applicable to your students to help them grasp what is being taught. We need to create world
changers, so it’s important for us to plant some eagerness in them. We need to create an
atmosphere of wonder. When students truly learn something, they totally grasp it and
legitimately care about it. Our teaching has to be so impactful that we leave a lasting imprint on
our student’s mind. We have to set a fire in them, called curiosity. When students truly care, they
truly learn. When they truly learn, they take it with them forever.
Because I want to care abundantly for my students, my teaching strategies have got to
reflect that. I want love to be an action word in my vocabulary. This means I need to prepare for
them in order to give them my all. I need to teach in ways that last, not just rely on busy work. I
want the majority of what I do to be able to have some action-based learning involved in some
way. Most importantly, I need to find out how each individual student learns. I can’t teach
strictly visually because not every kid can learn this way. I need to strategize ways to implement
all different types of learning so that I can benefit my kids in every way possible. This makes
teaching hard, but helping kids learn and grow is worth it all.
