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Samantha Maloney
Professor Steven Saladino
EDU 201
28 November 2015
If a child cant learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the
way they learn- Ignacio Estrada. In teaching we must learn so much about
the children because we care to teach them the way that they will learn best.
Students rely on us to teach them the knowledge to get them to the next
grade level, and this gives us the great opportunity to show them how to be
a great citizen.
I love the fact that through teaching we have the opportunity to teach
the children more than the curriculum, we are able to teach the children life
skills, communication skills, problem solving skills and friendship traits. I
want to be a teacher to help the students obtain life skills that will help them
in the future. I had these JROTC instructors in high school who would always
insist on teaching us about survival strategies and every Thanksgiving they
would teach us how to cook a proper turkey. The survival strategies may
have been in the curriculum, but Im pretty sure cooking a Butter Ball Turkey
was not. I share this story only because, in their own way, it showed how
they cared about us. They were both retired from the Air Force and were both
well in their mid-60s. They really saw all of us as grandchildren, so they

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taught us what they would teach their grandchildren. At different ages in life
we teach different things to our students. Our teaching strategies are able to
be perfected throughout the years, as we grow in the field and as we mature
in mindset. Another valuable lesson I learned from my instructors in JROTC is
leadership. I had the opportunity to be the captain of the Physical Fitness
Team, also known as PFT. In being in charge of this team I learned how to
adapt to peoples inabilities to perform and I was able to teach them
strategies to help them succeed. Even know as a Preschool teacher I see that
all people have different mindsets and they will all have different limitation
and because of this we have to adapt and teach them the way they learn
best. I know that in Las Vegas there is a high turn-over rate and knowing this
I understand that many students will be coming over and leaving constantly.
I believe that my training will help me teach these students, because
although they may spend a short amount of time in my class I will focus on
teaching the way that fits their pedagogy best.
I favor progressivism when it comes to teaching strategies, I learn best
by doing, and I will initially teach through this method. Of course I will be
flexible to what the children need most. I have really seen that throughout
the history of Public Schooling they have really focused on what the
childrens needs are. I admire the fact that Public Schooling came from the
importance of being able to read and understand the Bible. They held a great
importance on learning this book and they kept finding ways to teach it
better, through different languages and such. This drive allowed for the

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opportunity for many new kinds of schools to be oppened up. Its this kind of
drive that started the public schooling and this sort of drive that keeps the
public schooling advancing. Yes, they took the bible out of the curriculum but
it shows the great lengths they would take to advance the childrens
knowledge of the subject matter.
In my position as a teacher I will encourage students to succeed,
encourage them to push through the times they want to give up, and
encourage them to find ways to make learning fun. We can teach children
many things and one of the most important things for me to teach is
encouragement. It is important to teach the students to encourage their
classmates and themselves when they feel that they will not succeed. I will
make personal connections with each student and encourage them in
different ways, to help keep their progress in the classroom. For this career
teachers need to love children and love seeing them succeed, to do this
teachers must love learning, because they will have to know the children
personally to help them succeed. I would like to become better at
communicating with children and get a better understanding of how each
age group communicates. I have volunteered in the past with feeding the
families of sick children at the Ronald McDonald House and this helped me to
humble myself but most importantly to listen to the hurting families who
really needed someone to talk to. I plan on volunteering at the Boys and Girls
Club to reach out to the children who are there for fun or who have no other

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place to go. I believe this sort of contact with children will help me greatly as
a teacher.
I think Ignacio Estrada had exactly the right idea when he said If a
child cant learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they
learn, we are put in the position to teach the children, not to mold them to
think the way we do. We should be very flexible with ever lesson plan we put
together, we may put many hours into it, but if the students are not
understanding it we must change it. I look forward to having my own class in
the future, but for now I will be enjoying the road there with learning all the
information that will help me be a better teacher.