Dispositions

I don’t feel that a person can be taught dispositions. I think that one can learn about dispositions, and see examples of them, but to really learn the dispositions a person has to reflect upon their own experiences and relate them to their lives. To enhance the dispositions of teachers, all teachers need to be aware of the dispositions and reflect on them on a regular basis. Only with reflection and a little experimentation can teachers truly improve upon their dispositions.

Resilience

There is no way to really prepare a teacher for the stresses of teaching. They can be warned in advanced, given tips of how to deal with certain situations, and be given support resources, but in the end each teacher is going to have to experience it for themselves and find their own ways of de-stressing. The only way to keep 50% of teacher from changing professions early on is to give them as many skills as possible before hand, get them into classrooms while still in college, and give them a support system for when they have a classroom of their own.

Humility

I know that within every day I am wrong about something. So the last time I was wrong was earlier today. I don’t know everything I don’t hope to know everything. Confidence is extremely important, but teachers also need to know when they are wrong. A teacher needs to know the limits of their own knowledge and admit to that, so if they encounter something they are not familiar with they can say they don’t know the answer. With humility a teacher can then explore the limits of their knowledge and learn more.

Collaborativeness

An effective team has at least one leader, and if more, then leaders who know how to work together. The other members of the group need to be able to be civil with each other and compromise when needed. Collaboration is different in that collaboration is not necessarily forced, but usually voluntary, where both parties are working together towards the same goal, rather than a group that is forced to work together.

Efficacy

A highly effective teacher needs to be self-aware otherwise they will go off on tangents, lose control of the class. They need to be confident and have a belief in their own abilities because without it they cannot inspire the students, and their students will not learn effectively. They need to be persistent for the students that may not be motivated, to reach out to all students. They must have a good work ethic because being a teacher is not easy, it’s hard work. These attributes are hard to develop, and cannot necessarily be taught. A teacher needs to keep these things in mind and constantly work to improve them.

Intentiveness

Schools currently seem not to teach and reward creativity. Schools seem to only focus on memorization and test scores, not on the creativity of the individual students. This to me is the wrong system. Creativity is one of the most important skills a person can have these days. Being creative is the one thing that a machine cannot do for a human. Creativity is also hard to outsource. Being able to recall information is outdated, anyone can retrieve information by going online and doing a bit of research. People need to know how to take that information and be creative with it, synthesize new ideas.

Reflectiveness

Reflection is hard, and time consuming, but reflection is also important to make improvements. Looking back at where you have been is the only way to move forward with any clarity. The reason reflection seems to be at the heart of the teaching process, is that teaching is all about finding better ways to teach students. At the end of each year all teachers look back at their successes and failures over the course of the year, and learn from them. I personally try to find time to reflect every day, and learn from my own successes and failures.

Passion

My junior year of high school I took AP psychology. My psychology teacher was so passionate about the subject. Every day of class was fun and exciting. This was also one of the hardest classes I took in high school. I didn’t do particularly well in the class, and yet it is still one of my favorite classes from high school. This is because of how passionate my teacher was. This is also the high school class I remember the most from. To this day I can still name all of the parts of the neuron, and many of the larger concepts. The passionate teachers are the teachers who will inspire students to learn, and students will walk away from their classes with useful knowledge.

Role Playing

I believe that role playing can be a very effective way of learning. Role playing is one way of making sure that students know their topic, by forcing them to think on the fly, and possibly argue against something they agree with. Being able to see both sides of an issue, and embody either side, helps a student make more connections to the material, and learn subject matter for thoroughly.

In the area of school improvements role playing was especially effective. There are many different ways of thinking about this issue, and giving different groups of students a different lens to look through and argue from, was a way to have all students see what others may be thinking about this issue. A lecture could have given more facts, and specifics about what has been done in the area of school improvement, but could not have given the experience of seeing how certain groups of people think about and argue for or against such issues as No Child Left Behind.

I feel that, to engage in such tasks as a role playing, students need to have a grasp on the role playing topic. They need to have basic information to base their arguments on, and to formulate counter arguments. In the case of the No Child Left Behind role play, the information given in class was sufficient to carry out a role play, although a background knowledge of No Child Left Behind was certainly beneficial. We did not need to study the actual legislation to have a fruitful role play, although it might have helped, it was not necessary.

In my opinion some sort of emotional engagement is essential to the learning process. If a student has no connection to the material, and does not have any sort of emotional engagement, that student will have a harder time learning and remembering the material. With some sort of emotional engagement, students can not only remember the information, but be able to use that material to synthesize new information, create arguments, and formulate new opinions and judgments on issues.

As for the high achieving students and the influential people in the community, I think that in the past too much attention has been given to them. Because of this, I feel there has been a back lash from the government, and from many others to pay attention to 'underachieving' students. Why there has to be one group placed at such a higher priority than any other group escapes me. The high achieving students are of great importance. If focus is turned too far away from them in classrooms, they will become bored, start acting out, lose interest in school and in learning. They need to be challenged in a way that will continue their growth and learning. The low achieving students are also of great importance. No one wants to see a child get 'left behind' in the class room. They should be given the support they need to learn, and to grow so that they have the basic knowledge that our country has decided everyone needs when they graduate from high school. The problem is doing both of those things, while not forgetting about the average students, and not separating students into different groups, essentially segregating them by ability in school.

Authenticity

I am hesitant to say that authenticity is the most important disposition in teaching. In reality all of the dispositions are equally important in my opinion. As for authenticity, this disposition can be one of the main factors as to if students trust their teachers. Teachers who are not authentic or 'fake' seem exactly that, 'fake'. Students would tend not to trust such a teacher, for if you can't trust a teacher to be themselves when teaching, how can you trust them to give you factual information that is useful in the real world.

In addition to losing the trust of the students, fake teachers also put their classes in awkward situations. Such a teacher has to essentially pretend to be someone else every day during the school year. Having to put on a mask every day and pretend to be someone else takes a toll on a person. This stress and tension will show both inside the classroom and out. Class will become unbearable, and make both the students and the teacher miserable. Life outside of class then becomes focused on how to deal with the stress of the classroom, and will soon seem as miserable as class.

Those who think that they can fool a class, are just fooling themselves. Students are very perceptive, and notice when people are trying to be someone else. In fact most everyone can tell when someone is just putting on an act for the world. That person seems very forced and unattached to the world. Any emotion showed seems to come from nowhere and be directed exactly where it came from. It can be like watching an amateur production of any play. Every line and movement seems forced, and has no motivation, almost as if every word or action comes from nowhere, and is heading in that same direction.

To seem authentic in the classroom, you have to be authentic, and just be yourself. That doesn't mean telling students every detail of your life. It means going about teaching a lesson with out attempting to be funny, when you just aren't. It means letting go of some preconceptions about "the proper role of a teacher". It is possible for a teacher to keep personal life and work life separate, and still be authentic. In fact it is almost necessary. Not letting issues at home affect how you teach is very important. Every teacher is a human being, and so is every student. Remembering this helps with many different dispositions, but in this case, it helps a teacher to stay true to themselves and be authentic in the classroom.

Compassion

In fifth grade I struggled with math. Specifically, I struggled with the speed tests we had to do. These tests consisted of 100 questions that had to be answered within a given amount of time. By the middle of the year I had only passed the first of the tests, which was addition. I could not pass the subtraction test in time. After dozens of tries my scores plateaued, and I could not pass. Eventually my teacher had me finish the test, just to see how I would do if I didn't have to worry about time. I got one hundred percent on the test so my teacher let me move on to multiplication. I passed the next tests with flying colors and started to excel in math. Though I probably would have begun to excel in math eventually on my own, my teachers compassion helped me to succeed, and reach my potential sooner.

Respect

Respect in the classroom is a two way street. Naturally, students must show respect towards their teachers. Students are expected to listen to, and follow instructions given by their teachers. This is necessary for teachers to be able to have authority over a class, and teach to the best of their abilities. On the other hand, teachers need to show respect towards their students as well. Teachers need to pay attention and listen to the questions and concerns of the students. A student who does not feel respected by the teacher will lose interest and learn less in the class.

Respect, and the lack there of, can have a great impact on the classroom. Classrooms in which there is mutual respect between the teacher and the students, will run much more efficiently and effectively. A greater amount of learning will take place, and that learning will come about more easily than if there was no respect. A classroom without respect can be hard on both the teacher and the students. Teachers whose students do not show respect towards them, can become very frustrated, and discouraged. Teachers in such a situation could start to throw out their normal teaching style and focus on controlling their class, rather than effectively teaching their class. Students whose teachers do not respect them may also become frustrated and discouraged. In the students case this can lead to students misbehaving in class, not doing homework, and not performing well in class. All around a lack of respect leads to an undesirable classroom situation.

Every teacher will find a different way of establishing respect in their classroom. Establishing authority right from the start is one way to start building respect, but is not enough to fully establish respect. Teachers need to be well prepared and confident in their lessons, to keep a sense of authority over a class and keep the classes respect. Keeping class interesting and relating class topics to students' lives will help to keep students interested and engaged in class, which will help to maintain respect from the students. Most of all, to maintain respect, teachers must respect their students, and treat their students like human beings. Just because a teacher is in an authoritative position over a student, does not mean that teacher has to rule with an iron fist and treat students as inferior in every sense. A teacher is there to facilitate the learning of young minds, to help them grow into knowledgeable well rounded adults. Treating students as humans, and realizing that they will all have personal likes and dislikes, will help to keep the respect of students.