TeacherBoard

TATEssay
Essay Book--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Directions

The following essay gives you the opportunity to show how

effectively you can read, comprehend, and analyze a passage about
your field in teaching. In your essay, you should demonstrate that
you have read the passage carefully, present a clear and logical
analysis which extends the topic of the essay provided, and use
language precisely.

Your essay must be typed in the document provided; except for the
Planning Page of the answer booklet, you will receive no other paper
on which to write. Remember that people who are not familiar with
your teaching philosophy will read what you write. Try to write so
that all have a clear image of who you are and what you stand for.

You have 60 minutes to read the passage and write an essay in

response to the prompt provided inside this test booklet.

Teacher Aptitude Test 2017

Adapted from Brooke Johnson, Teachers! Challenge Yourself to Keep Learning. 2017 by
Huffington Post. Originally published June 3, 2017.

1. Lifelong learning is a crucial mindset for teachers to have if thats what they are encouraging for
their students. Yet, not all teachers value lifelong learning themselves. Its easy to get in the
practice of preaching, not practicing, but one really needs to assess whether or not that is
beneficial for the students. What will their assessment find? Its not.

2. Often, teachers know what they should continue learning about: teaching strategies, current
events, leadership strategies, student interests, classroom management techniques, differentiation,
school law, content area, how students learn, and student backgrounds. Of course, some of these
learnings happen seamlessly in the classroom, but many of them do not. This is where teachers
need to decide how important practicing lifelong learning is to them. Its challenging, its time
consuming, and its exhausting, but its important.

3. So why should teachers challenge themselves to keep learning? Thats as obvious as asking a
teacher what the purpose of teaching is-- student success and engagement (48). Similarly, thats
exactly why teachers should continue learning through the years.

4. The times are always changing, so naturally education is changing too. Its easy to fall into the
bitter feelings of change and stick it to the man by refusing to do so. This is one excuse for
momentarily quitting the lifelong learning challenge. But eventually, one will find this becomes
boring for students. In our world today, many students already know how to open some doors
teachers dont know even exist, but what about those doors teachers can still open for students by
learning whats out there. Teachers and students value many of the same things, but many
different things as well, so if teachers continue learning they can still open those doors for them.

5. In Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching, author Meenoo Rami said, As teachers, we
make game time decisions all the time, and often overlook the complexity of those choices. It is
said that teachers make over 1,000 decisions a day. If teachers continue to learn, they can help see
 situations from many different points of view. Furthermore, it can help teachers make sound
decisions more quickly as they have more in their teaching toolbox.

6. While challenging oneself to keep learning appears as a lot of work initially, it makes teaching so
much easier in the long run. Teachers will find that it becomes easier to plan units and lessons
while also differentiating curriculum since students are not identical learners. One might even
find there becomes too much that they want to do so they need to decide what takes priority. It is
work that will also increase the motivation to do better work later on (59). Teachers know
students need to be challenged at the right level to complete their best work, so one could assume
its the same for teachers.

7. When teachers become lifelong learners, they need to decide where to start, which is
overwhelming in itself. There are tons of trainings, videos, professional books, journals, and
blogs to find online if teachers take the time to search and find what is most important to them.
However, that is only one option for teachers. It may be even easier to learn from colleagues.
Rami emphasizes the importance of building a network and working with others as a way to
learn. Furthermore, teachers can also learn from failure. All teachers experience failure at some
point or another in the classroom, so instead of making the same mistake more than once, reflect
on the failure and turn it into a learning experience.

8. Rami says, In our work, mastery does not mean perfection (47) and that makes sense. However,
mastery cannot even mean progress without a clear commitment to lifelong learning for both
ourselves and our students. If teachers are asking students to push themselves and take control of
their learning, then teachers need to do the same thing. It is then teachers will accomplish their
true purpose of teaching-- student engagement leading to student success.