EDPS 600 2015 Eva Yu-Ti Huang # 265074607

What does it mean to teach?

I was a salesperson for two years after my graduation from college. I appreciate the
experience and the training I received during that time. Teaching is like selling. In order to make
students buy our products, attention and effective communication can receive a good result.
However, students purchasing decisions can not only be made by themselves, but also be
affected by the people around them. Thus, the attention and the communication need to be
expanded to the people around the students. Although we might not be able to change the
existing environments around the students, we can at least control what we can do to make the
purchase happen. We should thus care about our students and value the importance of human
connection (Pierson, 2013).
Also, we should not walk into a classroom with fixed plans, fixed opinions, or fixed
ideologies. As Banks et al mentioned (2005), diversity in schools now is not just people with
different colors, but also, different languages, cultural backgrounds, and different exceptional
needs (p232). Sadly, teachers are not as diverse as the students (p246). Thus, we should be
open-minded and apply different methods to get to our diverse students from different cultural
backgrounds with different special needs and talents, and make learning happen. We should give
children various information, believes, and opinions and help them to see things/ people from
different perspectivesbeing sensitive of the cultural diversity in the community and in the
class (Adichie, 2009). Here is my own definition of teaching: Teaching is finding the best
approaches suitable for different unique individuals to help them acquire information in different
settings, develop critical learning skills, and learn at their own pace in order to acquire sufficient
essential knowledge for their future. Also, we should value different types of intelligences, as
mentioned by Robinson (2006): intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct. Dont value them

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from only one perspective. Teachers therefore should integrate different factors into their
teaching, and build a culturally responsive practice (p243, Banks et al, 2005) and an inclusive
practice (p255) to allow students to share and experience diverse perspectives (p255).
Moreover, we should be the role model of our students. We used to be or still are learners
ourselves, and know being a learner sometimes makes us vulnerable. If teachers themselves
cannot step out of their comfort zone to take a new or tough challenge, how can they even ask
their students to learn or do what they dont like or dont feel comfortable with? Thus, we should
create a student-centered environment (p115, Kottler et al, 2005). The power of a teacher can
be vast and we dont want our students to be damaged because of our careless and unintended
mistakes. Do not see teaching merely a job. Take it as part of our life, make friends with our
coworkers, and get involved in different activities in order to obtain sufficient resources for our
students.
We also need to take care of ourselves and be reflective (Kottler et al, 2005). We should
make plans and goals about our personal and professional lives, since students performance is
correlated to teachers preparation and professional development (Guskey et Sparks, 2004). In
order to make ourselves grow and stay on track, keeping a teaching portfolio would be a good
idea (Berrill et Addison, 2010). The portfolio cannot just show our own identity but also our
competence.
I am going to end this article with the quote from Palmer (1998): Good teaching cannot
be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and the integrity of the teacher
(p10). We should know ourselves as a whole, the inner and the outer parts of ourselves, and
better prepare ourselves in order to guide our students to learning and facing their unpredictable
futures. Be fair, and be aware of the perception differences between the teachers and students

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and their influence on students learning (Berti et al, 2010). When the students sense being
treated unfairly, it could affect students adjustment in schools and their world view shaping
(p552).
References
Adichie, Chimamanda Z. (2009). The danger of a single story, TEDGlobal 2009
Banks, J., Cochran-Smith, M., Moll, L., Richert, A., Zeichner, K., LePage, P., et. al. (2005).
Teaching Diverse Learners. In Linda Darling-Hammond & John Bransford (Eds.),
Preparing teachers for a changing world (pp. 232-274). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Berrill, D. and Addison, E. (2010). Repetoires of practice: Re-framing teaching portfolios.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1178-1185.
Berti, C., Molinari, L. and Speltini, G. (2010). Classroom justice and psychological engagement:
Students and teachers representations. Social Psychology of Education, 13(4), 541-556.
Guskey, T. and Sparks, D. (2004). Linking professional development to improvements in student
learning. In E. Guyton and J. Dangel (Eds.), Research linking teacher preparation and
student performance (pp.11-21). Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.
Kottler, Jeffrey A.; Zehm, Stanley J.; Kottler, Ellen (2005-02-03). On Being a Teacher: The
Human Dimension. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
Palmer, P.J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teachers life. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (pp. 1-34).
Pierson, Rita (2013). Every kisd needs a champion. Ted Talks Education, 2013.
Robinson, Ken (2006). Do schools kill creativity. Ted 2006.