Cokie Gaich

ED 299/CORE II
Fall 2017
TEACH Movie Reflection

Throughout the movie documentary, TEACH, the four teachers all made changes

personally and professionally. Almost all the teachers had trouble with connecting material to the

students fully understanding the concepts, and a couple of the teachers had to teach skills that

isnt in their course title. For example, Joel, an AP World History teacher, was struggling to

teach his students how to write a thesis and a good essay, since they would have to do this for

their final exam at the end of the year. He was so used to being able to teacher led learning so

towards the end of the school year he saw struggle with connecting to the students and it was

difficult to tell if they actually understood what he was telling them. With the help of his mentor,

Joel was able to come up with an activity so the students could connect what they were learning

about in class to their community and learn how to write an essay at the same time. In this case

his class became student led learning and inquiry based rather than a lecture. With this he saw an

increase in quality of the essays his students were learning. By the end of the year many of the

students passed the AP test and it gave them confidence to challenge themselves. One of his

students, who struggled with writing didnt pass the AP World History test, but gave her the

confidence to still pursue her dreams and to take AP English the next year. All the teachers in the

documentary changed some aspect of their teaching style so it would better benefit the students

and in the end all the students showed significant improvement and were more engaged in their

personal learning of the material. I personally think that this characteristic isnt specific to

veteran teachers or to new teachers because both could be set in their ways. One of the most

important parts of what makes a good teacher is being willing to make changes to yourself so

that your students benefit.

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I think all the teachers in the movie are good examples of successful teachers. They all

put the students needs first and genuinely cared for every single one of them. When students

were struggling these teachers went out of their way to learn new techniques and teaching styles

so that it would benefit their students. All the teachers made connections with their students and

had strong relationships with some of them, I strongly believe this helped the students give more

effort into their work because they knew someone believed in them and they didnt want to let

them down. That strong relationship also helped the students believe in themselves even when

they knew they were grade levels behind in certain aspects of the curriculum. One of the most

important aspects that makes a teacher successful is perseverance. Trying new things will get

difficult and frustrating and its very easy to just give up and say it wont work. But being able to

push through that thought and seek out help to get a better understanding of the benefits will in

the end prove to give better results than just reverting back to the previous teaching style. As a

teacher by demonstrating perseverance, your students will also learn this skill and learn through

example that they can push through something that is giving them a difficult time and that its

not the end of the world when they dont understand something. I would like to think that I

would be a successful teacher because I do my best to be flexible with teaching styles so I can

reach all ways of learning. I also know that learning doesnt always have to be serious and it

should be fun. I like to think Im funny and I have a good sense of humor so I dont feel the need

to take everything seriously. Im also creative and like to think of new ways to incorporate

learning into fun and creative ways for assessing student learning. This being said I am aware of

certain personal characteristics that could provide some challenges in the future. Sometimes I get

overambitious with a task or a project and then I can get frustrated but wont ask for help when I

need it. Im also a very passionate person and sometimes I catch myself getting too intense about
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the topic that Im passionate and sometimes unable to take a step back and try to see it from

someone elses point of view.

There are many challenges to teaching, especially when youre trying to figure out a new

and effective way to explain a concept so that everyone in the class understands it and is able to

connect with it. Another challenge is ensure that all the students understand the foundation of a

subject because without a strong foundation its a lot harder to grasp more complicated concepts.

As educators how do we know if our students are being appropriately challenged individually

while still ensuring they wont fall behind in the curriculum? We know that everyone will be at

different levels in the learning and we cant just teach to one section of the class because thats

not beneficial for the class as a whole. We saw this challenge with Shelby, the 5th grade math

teacher, she had students at varying levels of math proficiency, leaving students frustrated or

bored because the lessons either were too challenging or not challenging enough. One of the last

challenges of teaching are the parents. Students have a varying amount of parent involvement in

their lives and as a teacher youll come across some parents who might not understand why

youre teaching they way you are or theyre upset because they have insane expectations for the

kids that are usually impossible to reach at their age.

To help with these challenges, especially for new teachers parents can be a good source

of support. These signs of support can be really simple such as providing some background help

by making photocopies so the teacher has more time with the students. At the beginning of the

year, expectations should be discussed; this includes expectations for the students, teachers, and

parents so everyone can start off on the same page. It really comes down to, as a parent, just

letting the teacher know that you are supportive and willing to try to understand the teachers

perspective.
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Important questions to consider not only as an educator but also as a member of a

community is who are teachers and what do they do? For me I truly believe that everyone can be

a teacher if we dont think about teacher in the traditional sense. A teacher is anyone who helps

another to learn and understand a concept thats important to the learners interests and learning

experience. They help teach us how to be a good citizen in our immediate community but also as

part of a global community. Teachers help to make connections and relationships with people

they meet. This relationship allows them to help encourage us and motivate us to realize the

potential in every person, even when we struggle to see it sometimes.

My school experience has been mostly positive, but like most things in life there are

some negative aspects that have also shaped my personality. In elementary school, I loved

learning and was a very inquisitive kid. I was put into a French immersion program and soon,

and still to this day, my French became much better than my English. This would make me

frustrated with any homework in English, but I had very encouraging teachers who were willing

to work with me individually to help create new techniques to better understand the homework

and complete it efficiently. Not only did they work with me 1-on-1 but also as a whole class we

were encouraged to always try new things and ask questions. These two things have really

impacted me as a future educator because Ive experienced first hand the benefits of working

with students individually and working with the student to find a method that benefits them as

well as increasing critical thinking through the encouragement of inquiry-based learning. Middle

school, like for many students, was very difficult for me. I personally felt very lonely and never

felt like I fit in with anyone. I still like learning and wanted to go to class, but I never felt like I

had a safe place at home or school. This experience is so ingrained in my brain, that the most

important goal for me as an educator is to make sure that my classroom is a safe place for
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everyone who steps foot in it and that everyone feels valued for at least how ever long they are in

my class. High school is when I started to feel challenged academically for the first time in

subjects that I was excelling in. But with this challenge I had a very good network of support that

included friends and staff at the school. We were also given much more responsibility for our

actions and preparations for class. Ive seen this at a school visit last year at Shortridge High

School, they gave students the responsibility to keep certain parts of the school clean or to be

able to dress out of uniform, this made the students feel respected and gave them freedom to

express themselves as well as respect and trust the faculty in return. In high school I was also

encouraged to take on many leadership roles within the school community from academics,

clubs, and sports. This helped me develop confidence in different skills and helped develop

certain characteristics of my teaching style. For example, when I was co-captain of the varsity

basketball team, I learned how to address a problem we were experiencing as a team in a fashion

that was information but also inclusive to others ideas of how to improve ourselves. As captains

we did our best to encourage peer support and suggestions during practice, so if we saw a

teammate struggling with a certain play or drill, including ourselves, everyone felt comfortable

either asking for help or making suggestions to another. I personally feel that this really made

our team feel like a family and made our relationships more than just teammates.

There are a lot of very qualified individuals who may or may not choose to go into the

profession of education. I personally can see both sides and I know that Ive had thoughts about

going into research for Chemistry instead of teaching it. For those individuals who could make

great teachers, but choose to pursue something different may have many reasons for this choice.

One of the most talked about and obvious ones, is other jobs provide better jobs and benefits than

the education profession. They may want to impact their community in a different way by
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pursuing a passion that leads to a world-changing discovery. Just because someone chooses to

not teach doesnt mean they wont be a teacher to others. That being said, there are so many

reasons to go into the teaching world. You have so many opportunities to inspire a whole new

generation to change the world into a more caring, dream chasing, and accepting place. The work

is so rewarding because you can make a direct impact on your students and see the amazing

things they accomplish in and out of the classroom. Not to mention the connections and

relationships you can make with your students has the power to change their lives and inspire

them to pursue their passion and dreams even if it seems impossible at the time.

Even though there are so many benefits of being a teacher, there are also many challenges

that American teachers face today. One of these is not being properly compensated for the work

that they do. Teachers are some of the few people who truly love their jobs and put in an insane

amount of hours to figure out ways to help their students as individuals and as a class. There is

also a lack of support sometimes in communities for new teachers, which may cause new

teachers to leave the profession because they feel overwhelmed with the amount of work and

pressure of being an educator. Another important challenges is figuring out how to balance

meeting student needs and getting through the curriculum. Some classes may not have had a

good foundation for the course or there may be behavioral problems that greatly impact how

learning happens in the classroom. I personally feel that all educators should focus on the

students first, like what the principal of Westlane talked to us about. He said that even though

their grade as a school may not be very high, they know that they are doing good work because

theyve been focusing on what their students need as people and not trying to force information

into their brains so test scores would go up.

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With these challenges there are also ways for teachers to look for support. I would at least

hope that this could be found in the community, either as a school or in the larger surrounding

community. Within a school, a support network can be made through the faculty where you can

go to someone and ask questions or for suggestions without judgment and where people

genuinely care for you. For a larger community, a little bit can really go a long way, just

knowing that there are people who are going to advocate for the people advocating and caring for

your children. Just showing your support through an email or doing little things to help around

the class to show that all the hard work that the teachers are putting in is being seen and

appreciated. At the end of the TEACH film, we saw meetings with the teachers, students, and the

parents and all the parents were so grateful for the amount of time and effort the teachers put into

their children as individuals. These parents understood that teachers are an important to their

childs development not only as a learner, but also as a person learning how to overcome

challenges.