Johnathan Harvell

Dr. Karen Rowe

Student Teaching Dispositions Reflection
Introduction
From my time that I started college to now, I never knew if I was going to be a good
enough teacher, not just in the sense if I was going to be able to teach well in general, but also if
in the fact that I would uphold the teaching profession respectfully. As I have progressed through
my pedagogical studies, individual practicums and now student teaching, I believe that I have the
ability to provide further benefit to the teacher profession through the positive application of
each of the teaching dispositions: professional behaviors, initiative and dependability, tact and
judgement, ethical behavior and integrity, collegiality and responsiveness, effective
communication, performance improvement, cultural responsiveness, and profession
commitment.
Professional Behaviors
To be a positive contributor to the teaching profession, one must understand and apply
good professional behaviors both inside and outside of the classroom. When developing these
professional behaviors, it is important to realize that the choice of behaviors to demonstrate
within a school setting, not only affect the co-workers around you, but all of your students as
well. If the students only see you as another student, they will not respect you or acknowledge
you as their teacher; so, in order for your students to see you as a teacher itself, one must look the
part and act the part. Now, most master teachers as you will see in this modern age of teaching
typically wear more casual attire. This is more due to the fact of the age difference between them
and their students. Student naturally tend to address teachers by their age, both represented
physically and inferred by their actions. Therefore, for my age at least, it is wise for me to dress
as if I am older, to which typically includes more formal attire such as dress shirt and tie. By
dressing in formal attire, my students will see me both as older, and the fact that I take my job
seriously in teaching them knowledge. The hope is that, by illustrating this concept to my
students, the teaching aspects of classroom management, differentiation, etc will come more
easily and naturally.
Initiative and Dependability
Students do not know how to fully take control of what all life has to offer, primarily
based on the fact that they do not contain enough knowledge of life as well as how to apply the
knowledge effectively. One without knowledge can be considered fearful of the unknown and
students depend on us, teachers, to show them how not to be fearful in the life ahead of them. As
a new teacher, it will be imperative for me to take the initiative to set-up the classroom, know
how to teach material, successfully teach the content material, and most importantly promote the
progress of each every one of my students. If my student is having trouble with material, students
expect me as their teacher to be there to help them at every point that they need it, and it is my
duty to fulfill that expectation of my students. This expectation goes further in the aspect that I
need to realize that some of my personal time may be devoted to helping my students, and I need
to be alright with that on a daily basis. If students dont see me as dependable, then student
academic progress cannot be obtained and students will be left with more question of life
unanswered, to which only a negative product will be produced.
Tact and Judgement
Strategy is important to every day of teaching. Each student learns in a different manner
and at a different rate. To approach these different learning styles, an effective teacher must be
aware of a variety of methodologies in which to convey a multitude of information to students.
When checking on the progress of a student, an effective teacher must be able to adapt to each
students learning style swiftly and efficiently, thus not allowing any delay in the learning
process. The correct and accurate language when conveying information is important as well.
Students tend to swell with the knowledge first obtained by them, thus causing more confusion
when having to re-illustrate information in a correct manner if not done the first time before; it is
this that planning if very important because winging it will not always benefit your students.
Lastly on the concept of judgment, it is imperative in planning to make sure to utilize teaching
time as effectively as possible, which includes distinguishing between useful and useless
information for students to learn. By spending time on unnecessary information, students lose
learning opportunities in understanding applicable information, and causes a waste of time for
the student, the teacher, the parents, etc.
Ethical Behavior and Integrity
In this modern age, it is stereotypically assumed that teachers are key role models in all
human lives due to the fact that all people used to be students at one point in time with a variety
of teachers to model their future lives after. In knowing this, it is important for a teacher to
understand how their ethics and amount of integrity will overflow into their students on a daily
basis. It is valid to infer that, someday, one student will model their own life after my own, and I
would like to them to live the most positive, ethical life as possible. For this to be ensured, I must
live the most positive, ethical life that I can, and not stray from that path; for, if even I stray a
little from an ethical lifestyle, my students may tend to stray even further. If I have trouble in
understanding what a positive ethical lifestyle is, I must take it upon myself to reflect more on
my own role models and further adapt my lifestyle as positively as possible based on my own
experiences.
Collegiality and Responsiveness
As an effective teacher, I must be able to go outside of my comfort zone and allow ideas
to flow from all avenues of life, including from both my students and fellow colleagues in the
teaching community. In obtaining these ideas, I need to actively open channels to allow the
information to flow. For my students, this primarily comes from inviting constant feedback, both
directly and anonymously. Students know their own learning progress better than I ever would,
so, by talking with my students, they bring new ideas to the table that will help them in their own
learning as well as the learning of their peers. For my colleagues, networking is the main mode
of communication. This networking can come from interpersonal relationships with my fellow
teachers, social media, and relationships with college professors and seminar leaders. New
teachers and master teachers alike will have a diverse opinion on how to teach certain types of
content; thus, with this diverse perspective, I can gather a variety of new information and
methods to use in my classroom for the further benefit of my students. As part of my networking,
it is important to demonstrate an openness to my colleagues of collaboration among the same or
even separate academic departments. In collaboration, a brand new concept or idea could be
realized and be further distributed to other teachers across the network for further positive
influence on teachers and students throughout multiple districts and states.
Effective Communicator
In teaching, constant communication with your students, their parents, administration,
and your fellow teachers is very important. For communication, the posting of grades is not
sufficient in just itself. It is important for an effective teacher to invite and respond quickly,
elaborately on the progress of a student to all parties. This allows all parties to understand where
the student is in their learning process, what the students weaknesses are, what the students
strengths are, as well as providing a rational behind a teachers teaching style within the
classroom. If constant communication is not established to all parties, confusion will spread and
only cause more problems than what need to be truly focused on for the further benefit of the
students. This means that the effective teacher will take the first initiative to bring other parties in
discussion on the students progress, to which allows the parties to see that the teachers do
indeed care about their students to an even more maximum extent. Lastly in the area of
communication, it is also important for an effective teacher to convey information to all parties
on a variety of platforms, including direct conversation, paper trails, online platforms, emails,
etc.
Desire to Improve Our Own Performance
A teachers work is never done, nor is their progression into mastery. Each academic
year, a teacher is exposed to new students, new backgrounds, new learning styles, and new ideas;
thus, a teacher must forever adapt to the new information that comes their way each year. For
teachers to effectively do this in their classroom, a teacher must be constantly reflective in their
practice and adjust as needed to help their students even further. In the teaching profession, it is
reasonable to infer that, with new ideas, new types of lessons will be implemented for a first
time, and that first time may not always be the best; however, it does not mean the lesson cannot
be used again. A teacher needs to take their observations from the lesson with formative data
obtained to restructure the lesson for further uses in their classroom. After the next version of the
lesson is used, the teachers are to repeat this process. A lesson will never be perfect, which
means that the restructure of lessons is ongoing. This does not mean that each version will
require many adjustments. After so many adjustments on a lesson, only small tweaks may need
to made, to which makes teaching lesson quicker to teach meanwhile still allowing the maximum
learning opportunity for the groups of students.
Cultural Responsiveness
Each student comes from a diverse, ethnic background that may be vastly different from
their teacher. This allows teachers the opportunity to, not only teach new knowledge to their
students from a different cultural perspective than their own, but to learn new information in a
variety of new perspectives from their students as well. Teacher must understand the belief of
their students and not invite anything into their classroom that will impede those beliefs.
Students should be able to feel free to speak their mind in a positive manner within the classroom
to their fellow classmates and teachers, and vice versa. If a student does not feel comfortable
within the classroom, the learning progress of the student is essential halted, and the teachers
effectiveness is minimized for that student. Effective teachers spend time each day to check in
with each students every day, so that they can make sure each student is comfortable in the
classroom, to which the teacher can make quick changes to classroom environment as needed
quickly, and efficiently for the students benefit.
Commitment to Profession
The teaching profession is everything more than that of a joke. If one is not to take
teaching seriously, then that person should not be looking for a career in teaching. A person must
be committed to the teaching profession on all levels to be considered an effective teacher. A
person must be willing to commit themselves to their students at all times, regardless of their
own opinions and lives to an extent. A person must be committed to learning new things at all
times, and being content in the fact that not one person can hold all the information of the world;
thus, one must be committed to doing what is need to obtain and utilize as much information as
possible through the use of relationships of colleagues and fellow teachers as needed without
hesitation. A person must be committed to always better themselves on all pedagogical levels
through self-reflection and invited third person observation. Without these lifelong
commitments, a person should not consider the teaching profession; however, if one is able to
make these commitments in a positive manner, one could thus be a very positive influence that
may allow good change in the world to occur.
Conclusion
Teaching is a diverse, and complex profession, but I believe it is the most important
profession in the entire world. Without teaching, where would the world be now? That is a
question I would rather not like to find the answer to, instead I plan to be the most effective
teacher as possible to prevent that answer from reaching the surface. Throughout my student
teaching experience, I have endured and learned many things from my students, fellow teachers,
and many colleagues; as a result, I will utilize this new knowledge to the best of my extent for
the best benefit of my future students to hopefully, one day, be able to change their lives in a
positive manner just as my past teachers did for me.