The Teaching Profession

           While reading The Teaching Profession and You, there is a part in there that the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards lists five criteria; commitment to students, mastery of the subject area, ability to effectively manage a classroom, a continuous analysis of teaching performance, and having a commitment to learning and self improvement.  I agree with all five of these criteria. 

            I feel that a teacher should be very committed to their students.  If a teacher is not committed to their students then the students learning can be affected.  The teacher will not put time into teaching them because they just do not care about the student’s progress.  Also the teacher needs to be able to help students if they need help, but help them the way they need it.  If one student learns differently than another, a teacher needs to recognize that and try to teach to help that student also.  A teacher is there for the students and is willing to work with them to help further their knowledge.

            A teacher should definitely know everything about the subject they are supposed to be teaching.  If a teacher does not understand everything about their subject then it can affect how a student learns.  Without really understanding the content, where it comes from, how it can link to other areas, and how to teach it, then the teacher is not fully doing their job.  Once a teacher gets into a classroom they are expected to know what they are talking about and need to teach the students that content.  By knowing the content, the teachers are able to apply it to real life situations and then apply that to students. 

            Being able to manage a classroom can be a rough task, any beginner can tell you that.  But under these criteria, a teacher needs to know how to manage a classroom effectively and monitor the students learning.  This, I feel, comes with time, like all the other criteria.  Managing a classroom takes time to get to know the students routine from the previous teacher and how they will react to a new teacher.  After some time with getting to know the students then managing a classroom becomes easier, a teacher has learned how to engage students or how to work with their learning capabilities. 

            One thing that I learned about how to teach is to incorporate other classes into my own class.  So that would mean working with the other teachers in the school setting.  This is something that can come in handy when it comes to teaching.  By working with the other professionals, a teacher is able to add more to their curriculum.  It can help the students learning and can also help out the curriculum planning.  Everything needs to be based off the students.  Whatever can help them learn more and effectively should be done.  By working with other professionals this can get accomplished. 

            Finally, teachers are permanent learners, nobody ever really stops learning.  Teachers are always teaching students but in return the students are teaching the teacher.  This coincides with the other criteria I feel.  The teacher learns from their students and how effective they are with them, learns about how good they are with their content knowledge, what to do and what not to do when it comes to managing their classroom, and how involved they need to be with their other professionals.  A teacher learns how to better their teaching based off their own mistakes while teaching.  Many different people learn by doing, so by doing those people learn how to fix their previous mistakes.