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Nicole Friesen

The Key to Successful Students

The basic goals of education should be to equip young people for the world that is outside of the classroom: politically, academically and technically. When a young person graduates from high school, they should fully comprehend the weight behind their decision to vote or not. They should also have the skills necessary to make an informed decision about who they would vote for. Academically, a young person who has just graduated should have the intellect to live independently, financially and otherwise. There will be exceptions to these goals, but education can set many people free, people who would be considered dependent. Finally technically, an education should equip young people with the skills to find work, ideally it will help them find something they are passionate about, but realistically that is not always possible. There are some situations where whatever work can be found will suffice and an education should provide people with the skills and patience to look for work and to work hard. The goal of social studies is to open up young minds to possibility. When studying history, students should be encouraged to think critically and analytically. They should be encouraged to look at an issue from the opposite view point as their own. They should eventually learn to read things with an open mind that is filtered. It seems like a dichotomy, but to discern bias and to keep an open mind are two sides to the same coin. Social Studies should challenge students to dig into issues and to get into the mindset of other people, encourage them to look beyond their small little worlds into something bigger. Socials Studies includes

geography, history, law and civics, so the emphasis is on people, land, politics and justice; it encompasses many of the issues that people face in the real world. If a student can take it on in high school and maturely think it through then they are prepared for these issues when they show up in real life. The more I think about it, the more I realize that my main goal as a teacher is to get students to think beyond themselves. I want above anything else is to see my students eyes open to the world around them. Not only just to see what is out there, but then to want to do something about it. I want to teach them how to think critically and how to solve problems efficiently. I believe that those two skills go hand in hand. I also want to equip my students with the skills they need to be successful in life. For myself, I want to encourage students to find out their passions and to help them figure out plausible ways to pursue those passions. I also want to help students get over any hang-ups they have about themselves, fears they have and doubts about who they are and to discover the potential they possess. In my experience teaching horseback riding lessons, my favorite moment was watching a child overcome their fear of the horse and begin to trust it and themselves. The improvement in their riding that followed was astounding. This is what I hope to achieve with my students. Maybe they do not need to overcome a fear of horses, but I hope to help them find the confidence in themselves to succeed. Mainly I want to inspire my students to push themselves and to never let themselves become complacent with what they are today. I think that my goals relate to the basic goals of education and social studies I wrote above. I also think that because I wrote them I have somewhat of a bias towards them. Writing out what I think the basic goals are first helped me to process what my goals as a teacher are.

By helping students to think outside of themselves and finding the confidence to reach their potential does equip students for the world that is outside of the classroom; teaching them how to think critically and how to problem solve efficiently gives them the political, academic and technical skills. I think that I make the assumption that everyone is capable of learning in some capacity. The capacity differs depending on the individual. I really hate hearing someone say that they are too dumb to learn or too stupid to understand a complex concept, even if it is in a joking manner. I have one friend who I think is very smart and extremely perceptive, but she constantly says that she is not school smart, that she doesnt have the brains for schooling. I think that is rubbish and would like to erase that in every student that comes into my class room feeling like that. I realize that this is a lofty goal and that sometimes I may not achieve it, but that will not stop me from striving for it. Is this a valid assumption?? I think so. In the past I have been quick to judge people by their first impressions on me, but for the past few years now, I have come to realize that hiding behind many different facades are brains that are fascinating and very intelligent. There are people that I thought were not going to be able to live independent lives when I was in high school, but it turns out that they are just as capable as everyone else. These kinds of stories give me hope as an aspiring educator to change peoples perceptions of themselves while still in that impressionable teenage phase. These assumptions will hopefully sustain and encourage me to keep going even when situations with students look dire and it seems like I am going to fail at inspiring them. What I need to remember is that I do not have to see the change in the students; it could happen five

months, five years or even ten years down the road. I can only plant seeds. I cannot make them change or see themselves differently; they have to do that themselves. But my assumption that all minds can learn will give me the strength to carry on in my task as an educator. This assumption will force me to connect with students on an intellectual level regardless of how I feel about that student, positive or negative. I will have to be continually encouraging and flexible in my teaching style to suit different needs of different students. The more I think about this, the more it sounds exhausting, but every time I see a student break through that barrier will be my reward. I taught a mounted drill team during the summer and sometimes it seemed like a rider was going to give up on themselves. As the instructor I would have to encourage that rider to keep pressing through the hard times and remind them of how far they had come. When I watched their performance, I stood like a proud parent, so immensely pleased with them and all the hard work they had to put in to make that performance as good as it was. That was the moment I had been waiting for! And that will always be the moment that I will be waiting for as a teacher. Everything that I have discussed so far has been very idealistic. My goals and assumptions about education are my ideal future. Similar to a lot of other teacher candidates that I have talked to, I want to be that teacher that all the students love and everyone thinks is so cool! I want to be a teacher that inspires and encourages, always has her door open to the students and always has a willing ear to listen to them. These ideals are modeled on a mixture of all different qualities of my best high school teachers. These were the teachers that inspired me to think outside of myself and helped me find my way in life. Even now several years later, one of these teachers is still involved in my life, helping me to pursue my dreams. They showed

me that there is more than one way to think about an issue. I remember this one particular time when our Grade 11 English teacher gave us An Indecent Proposal by Jonathan Swift to read. We had never been introduced to satire before and at first many of us were confused by this work. In time, most of the girls had come to the conclusion that it could not be taken seriously, but the boys were so shocked that they all walked out of the classroom. My teacher discussed the work with us girls, and then she sent me to get the boys back and explain to them what a satire was. It was quite the learning experience, but I have never forgotten it. I think that if such teachers already exist within my ideals then I have a fair chance at teaching and keeping those ideals up. I hope that I never become too jaded to forget the ideals that I have written down in this paper.