My First Impression on Teaching and the Reality of Teaching
In This assignment, I will compare and contrast my prior impression of teaching as my professional career with the reality of my experiences in my classroom and my school community. Impressively I will state how they are similar and different from each other.
My first teaching impression did not come from any family members. I was in banking and then a law firm. I had no idea on what being a teacher consist of. I know when I was in school I had role models to keep me on the right track. They had patience and were very dedicated to their students. They were very strict and disciplined us if necessary. When I started out as a parent volunteer I was working at a New York City Public School 284. I was working two hours a day and assisting the teacher in the classroom. I was helping students who couldn’t read and barely write. I was very excited. I was taking on a new task. I then decided that I would like to become a teacher one day. So I got a job as a paraprofessional. In October 1998 my impression on teaching became a reality. I was now working in I.S. 271. I started working with 7th and 8th graders in a gifted and talented program. I believed that it was going to be easy. The reason I say this is because when I was teaching the 2nd graders it was fun. However now I was with students who ages were 13 and 14 years old. I came in after the school year started. This was a disadvantage because teachers need to be there the first day of school. When Teachers start on the first day they are able to put the classroom rules in effect. They have their agenda on the procedures that will take place in the classroom on a daily basis. Students seem to respect this knowing that the teacher has expectations and goals for them to reach.
During my first couple of months things went well. The students took a liking to me. I was their friend. That’s at least what I thought. I didn’t realize at the time that...