In the beginning...

One of the first courses in the Secondary Education program at Goshen College is Foundations of Education.  In this course, students are introduced to the basics behind education and are able to get a glimpse of education by practicing lesson plans in front of peers as well as in community classrooms. To help education students prepare for teaching beyond college, there are nine actions that the Goshen College Education Department has for us work towards in the coming years.  These are to:

1. Get experience with all types of learners and their families

2. Become critically active

3. Take your education seriously

4. Become aware that you are a role model and act accordingly / Become active in your community

5. Volunteer in or join an organization or get involved in a group comprised of people who are significantly different than you

6. Develop ways to "recharge your battery"

7. Practice democratic principles

8. Learning to identify allies

9. Study effective teachers

Of the actions that I feel like I have accomplished so far, there are two that stand out to me.  As a college student myself, I feel like I am able to take my education seriously.  I am in my second year of college classes and feel the usual demands to succeed and get good grades along with the desire to understand the material in each course.  It is very important to me to study hard and take initiative with my professors when I do not understand something.  Another action that I have been exposed to is the process of studying effective teachers.  Throughout my four years of high school and my first year of college, I have analyzed the teachers I have studied under: their methods, assignments, personality, and relationships with their students. The teachers that stand out to me genuinely want their students to succeed as well as learn a large amount of material. They manage class time well and provide students with a variety of opportunities to express their knowledge or request clarification.  By studying effective (and ineffective) teachers around us, aspiring teachers are able to pick out what does and doesn't work well in a variety of classrooms and from there begin to build a set of methods and teaching philosophies of their own.  

While I feel as if I have succeeded at these two actions, there are two others that I have not had the opportunity to explore.  The first is number 1: get experience with all types of learners and their  families.  As a student at the beginning of the education program, I have not yet had a chance to observe a variety of learners and see their backgrounds; however, in one week I will begin my high school placement which will hopefully begin to expose me to many types of learners and their families.  A second action that I am not familiar with is number 5: volunteer in or join an organization or get involved in a group comprised of people who are significantly different than you.  While I have had volunteer opportunities as well as positions in diverse organizations, particularly in college, it is important to plug into an organization that is outside of my immediate academic and social circles, and I would like to work towards that in the next year.