I love when kids get to this point where they can be funny and silly around you, when they feel safe being with you. This belief has helped defined my vision of being a teacher. A teacher should be a person who strives to understand her/his students, is willing to listen, and can identify but still be surprised by what their students can achieve.I liked how the text explored some common reasons people state about wanting to teach and how to truly achieve them with out getting discouraged. The reasons are loving children and wanting to help. My personal reasons are an innate desire to be part of something bigger and the laughter/fun that comes with kids. Then it encouraged me to look at how my views could encourage or discourage my longevity as a teacher. For example, I would define one way of loving children is enjoying who they are while seeing their potential. This can sustain me as a teacher if I focus on fostering this potential but it can also discourage me if I put unrealistic expectations on how much growth I expect to happen or what their potential should be.
One last point that stood out to me was Darling-Hammond, Wise and Klien's definition of a teacher's love and help. They stressed the importance of having "a highly-developed ability to discover what children know and can do, as well as how they think and how they learn, and to match learning and performance opportunities to the needs of individual children." I liked this idea of being able to change your teaching style based on the needs of your students.
At the end of the chapter we were asked to reevaluate our thought on being a fantastic teacher.
A fantastic teacher. . .
Realizes what can and can't change.
Finds potential behind the faces, behaviors.
Bends to listen, to ask, to talk, to learn.
Laughs at surprises, craziness, disappointments.
Observes, plans, observes, changes.
Looks for unknown, potential, fun.
