The Spiritual Dimension of Being a Beginning Teacher - Essay Example

? The Spiritual Dimension of Being a Beginning Teacher: I. Introduction “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ~William Arthur Ward William Arthur Ward was able to grasp the concept of a great teacher. In this world, there are a lot of teachers from all walks of life. But what separates one from another? It is basically their dedication to their craft. It is the way they give a portion of themselves to each student that came to their wings. It is the way they rekindle the spark of confidence to a timid student. It is the way they inspire a young boy or girl to pick up his or her book and have a renewed enthusiasm to learn. As how William Arthur Ward states it, a mediocre teacher merely tells what the subject is all about. This certain teacher does his/her job but she didn’t even scratch the surface. He/she did her job in a low quality level. A good teacher could explain the subject well – he/she could explain the subject matter well using just the right words. However, teaching is not merely a form of explaining a certain topic to the student. A superior teacher can demonstrate her lessons. This time, cognitive domain and psychomotor domain come together. However, an important domain is still missing. It is because only a great teacher could inspire and touch the hearts and minds of her students. This kind of teacher is rare and scarce nowadays. He/she usually does the ‘extra mile’, touching the hearts and minds of her students. Making his/her student instead of breaking them, lighting up their zeal and enthusiasm to learn and explore life. This kind of teacher utilizes the three domains of learning – cognitive domain, affective domain, and psychomotor domain. This kind of teacher could make an impact – a real difference in the lives of his/her students. As I embrace the fact that I am a beginning teacher, I understand that teaching in general is not a mere profession but rather, it is a vocation – a lifelong calling. A great teacher is a gem that is rare to find in this materialistic and sophisticated generation. As I reflect deeper into this vocation that I just embraced, I can’t help but to ask myself, “What is my spiritual dimension as a beginning teacher?” To start with, let me first contextualize the meaning of ‘spiritual dimension’. Analyzing it structurally, ‘spirituality’ means relating to, consisting of, or affecting the spirit. It is something intangible. ‘Dimension’ on the other hand means one of the elements or factors making up a complete personality or entity. Combining the meaning of these two words, spiritual dimension is the bringing together of the emotional and intellectual aspects of human experience and embraces practical as well as theoretical concerns (Cottingham, 2010). Affective domain also known as the ‘emotional aspect’ is the one commonly forgotten principle in teaching. However, it is as equally important as the cognitive and the psychomotor domain. This gives the breadth to the lessons since this appeal to the emotions – to the feelings of the learner, making the entire process of learning a personal experience for students. I have learned the theoretical standards that serve as foundations of education– from behaviorism to constructivism, from subject-centeredness to student-centeredness. However, what is important is not just the mere memory and recall of these theories that I learned word for word. A lot of people can memorize, but only a few can practice those theories. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, ‘applications’ is in a higher level compared to ‘recall’. As teachers, we have to practice ‘higher order thinking skills’. The challenge to me as a teacher is how I will put this knowledge into practice. My spiritual dimensions as a beginning teacher are: first, to inspire students as I nurture them towards the path of learning; second, to integrate character education in my way of teaching. Combining these two dimensions gives me my philosophy of teaching that serves as underpinnings in my journey towards educating the future generation. I would like to start by lighting a spark in the hearts and minds of my students by inspiring them and nurturing them as we travel towards the path of learning. I will do my best to make learning enjoyable and meaningful to them. A seed of knowledge that is planted in the young minds of students needs to be nourished with love and inspiration. Secondly, I would like to integrate character education in my way of teaching. This will somehow help them value education and the people around them. Cognitive lessons make a person a knowledgeable individual. However, knowledge combined with proper character formation makes an individual an asset to the society. Cliche as it may sounds, I still believe that there is a truth behind the adage: “A teacher can either make or break his/her students”. A single decision and a single step that a teacher would do can make and inspire the student for life or the other way around – break the child for life. That is why I first would like to inspire students as I nurture them towards the path of learning. Being a teacher, I believe that my role is not just to guide my students as they journey towards the path of learning. I would like to inspire them to learn – to become metacognitive learners. Meaning, teachers must teach their students to ‘learn about learning’. I know that one day, they will soon leave the portals of my classroom and I want them to bring with them the sense of fulfillment and inspiration that I tried to instill in them on the value and the joy of learning. Second, I would like to integrate character education in my way of teaching. Through this, students will have values clarification and somehow a sense of responsibility not just to the knowledge that they gained but also to the action that they did through that knowledge that they possesses. II. Why Teach My reasons for going into the teaching profession are manifold. However, my main reason for teaching is because I believe that teaching is a vocation that is geared towards uniting both people and ideas, which I think keys to my success in this vocation. In this generation of information explosion, everybody seems to have an access on different information through technology. Sadly, these tons of information did not help the people unite. Instead, this becomes the reason for them to fight, quarrel, and misunderstand one another. As a teacher, in my own little ways, I can help uniting people and ideas by processing information and relate it to the personal lives, helping them to monitor their own learning thus, giving them a sense of ownership of their own learning. My personality is generally very outgoing and people-oriented. It gives me joy to be able to mingle and interact with other people. In one way or another, I want to leave a positive mark in their lives – to make a difference. It will give me a sense of fulfillment if I would see my students rekindle their zealousness to learn as they apply and adopt proper character. So much of a teacher’s attention is demanded every day in the smallest of interactions. You have to know our students on a personal level in order for you to understand where each of them is coming from. Being gifted with this kind of personality, I feel that I need to use it because my personality is suited in meeting those responsibilities in serving my students. I am interested in working in a profession that is geared towards involving both people and ideas – building unity in diverse world. I am convinced that the field that I would work in would have to include a human element besides just working strictly with information. So, I like the fact that I get to work with people and have social interactions with students, faculty, and staff. Aside from working with them, I am positive that in one way or another, I also learn from them. This is a key component to my happiness. This would also help me grow and develop as a professional and even as an individual. Socialization is also an important aspect that needs to be developed in every individual. After doing my teacher aiding, I realized that I cannot work with ideas and information alone. It is really the people at my workplace, in my profession—whom I will come across every day—who will make my life more enjoyable. That is what I am looking forward to as a teacher – the warmth, camaraderie, and sense of belongingness to the organization. In closing, I am looking for many things as I search for my teaching career and as I embark on this new journey. In essence, why teach? I don’t just teach because I can, but because I must, and because I want to. Teaching is a profession which suits my personality. I want to teach in order to utilize my core subject skills to help other people. Last, but not least, I would like to be involved in a profession that includes both people and ideas. III. My Goals as a Beginning Teacher My goals as a beginning teacher are based on Curtain’s (2004) assertion that “the three characteristics of effective teachers [which are]: [having] classroom management skills …teach[ing] for lesson mastery, and… practice[ing] positive expectations” (pp. 205). I believe these goals will help me to become an effective and efficient teacher. These goals are important to have because they will keep me focused on what I should be striving for within the teaching profession. One cannot expect to be an effective teacher if the classroom environment is out-of-control. My goals as a beginning teacher are simple. First, I would like to focus on having good classroom management, which I believe is one of the biggest stepping-stones to being an organized and efficient teacher. Secondly, I believe that as a beginning teacher I should strive for teaching lesson mastery, which will encourage children to know their lessons well. Last, but not least, I plan to practice positive expectations for my students to let them know that each of them has the potential to succeed in my class, in whatever form that takes. As a professional teacher, it is the teacher’s responsibility to be captain of the ship—so to speak—and the mission is learning. Therefore, anyone who interrupts that mission must be dealt with in the proper fashion. A teacher must create an environment conducive for learning. Any misbehavior, if dealt properly, would help the child in his/her lifelong learning. I suggest that all teachers must equip themselves with necessary skills in classroom management. However, acquisition of knowledge is not enough. Practicing this knowledge is very important for us teachers in order for us to have a firm grasp on its principle. In the future, time will come when we would deal with students with different personalities, different behaviors, and different learning styles. If we are equipped with the necessary skills in classroom management, it will be easier for us to know what to do to manage our classroom. A teacher will be effective once he/she will learn how to practice the tough side and the soft side of love in dealing with his/her students. Let us take this analogy for the moment. A rose is one of the most beautiful flowers. It is a nice seen to see a guy handing a bouquet of roses to the lady that he is courting. Truly, rose is a mystified flower that represents the tough side and soft side of love. The soft side is the intricate and delicate petals of roses. It is soft, beautiful, and amiable. On the other hand, a rose also possess the tough side of love which is represented by its thorns. Just like in teaching, the teacher must have the soft side of love. He/She must emanate care and concern towards his/her pupils. On the other hand, the teacher must also balance it with the tough side of love when in comes to implementing discipline in following rules and regulations, at the same time character building. IV (a). Philosophy of Education            My educational philosophy is very eclectic in the sense that it is unique. It seems to be an amalgamation of the good points of different philosophies. My educational philosophy tends to follow progressivism the strongest. The progressivist believes that education should be child-centered wherein the needs of the child must be the priority rather than the child adjusting to the needs of the curriculum. Another philosophical attribute that I adhere to is that learning should be active rather than. I believe there are unlimited ways that I can do to make the learning an active experience. I can start with a child's idea (shema) or interest and expand upon it, stretch it, bend it and even re-form it to teach just about anything in a curriculum. And the expansion, stretching, bending, and re-forming can stem from the children with minimum probing and direction from the teacher. It may not be as easy as following a teacher-centered plan, but both students and teachers can learn a lot on the way. I also believe that schools should help develop social values as long as they are not judgmental, or exclusionary. Individual choice is an important part of my philosophy, and I also feel rational theories are as important. There should be an individual and emotional commitment to living authentically but not at the cost of everything else.  Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor must be developed altogether. Teachers should help students learn to scrutinize and change the existing social order. Teachers must develop self efficacy among their students. Students must become metacognitive thinkers. Teachers must serve as facilitator, helping and guiding their students learn and develop themselves in the fullest potential possible. This is my philosophy of education which is continually being shaped as I go through the educational process as a teacher. This includes understanding the politics of difference between students in my class. I embrace multicultural education as I recognize the differences and uniqueness of my students. This embodies respect and preservation of self-dignity among students. IV (b). The Politics of Difference in Education Dennis Fischman’s article “Getting It: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Understanding” was mainly concerned with the topic of midrash in Torah and how one can apply this to the concept of “getting it,” or understanding another person’s viewpoint from another cultural perspective. This can be applied to education. According to Eddy (1996), “When we find we're just not ‘getting it,’ instead of giving way to frustration, we can ask ourselves: How does the social world look to this person so that what they're doing, saying, or feeling makes sense?” (pp. 36). Here two things will be discussed: the politics of difference and the politics of understanding. The Midrash of Torah is very explicit in its politics of difference and its politics of understanding. Within the Torah, we have some rather authoritative people which lend to the politics of difference. The other people coming to the table in this discussion that Fischman invites us into include other major players in the evolution of how the Bible came into being. It all started with the Levites. They were the high priests among the children of Israel and therefore had the responsibility for upkeep and holiness with regard to the temple. And, next, of course, there is the role that Moses’s voice played in the whole evolution of the Torah as a text, which generally we see throughout the Pentateuch. Finally, there is the question of Aaron, Moses’s brother, who had some ultimate say in the final decisions in the sense of having taken part in the politics of difference. And finally, there is God, whom one must assume, in this piece, takes the place of ultimate decision-maker, for, in the end, it is God who makes the calls. Therefore, a theology of liberation only goes so far as much as one believes that the God in whom one is trusting in ascribes to the philosophy that all oppressed peoples deserve to be in their oppressed status. For the sake of Devil’s advocate, let one assume that God is playing the politics of difference. This, logically, leads us to believe that the politics of understanding, or “getting it,” namely, the midrash of the Torah, will be understood by everyone else who is not in a position of power to delegate the power of the Word of God and spiritual power. These people who are “everyone else” include (d) followers of the Torah, the children of Israel, and essentially everyone who is not God who was not religiously connected to God in the personal development of His Word. The politics of understanding matter greatly here, as social location comes into play. Gender, class, race, age, culture, socio-economic status, disability, and a variety of other factors influence how one is perceived in society. A liberal, politically leftist-leaning Bujew lesbian from Long Island who does yoga and is “spiritual but not religious” will interpret the Torah much differently than a politically conservative Orthodox Hasidic Jew from the Bronx who keeps kosher, almost never missing an important religious holiday. Likewise, a biracial woman of mixed African-American and Puerto-Rican descent will have different life experiences than a male of Mexican-American descent. One must realize how the power play even between these differences affect the politics amongst those with understanding, or who “get it.” So, undoubtedly there is a hierarchy. Just where does one draw the lines? Dennis Fischman’s article, especially in highlighting the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill case, does an excellent job of showing the division between the two groups involved in the politics of difference and the politics of understanding. Those who in effect hold the true power play the politics of difference, while everyone else actually does “get it.” In the same way, politics of difference might cause stress to students who are left out of the educational loop because they are behind due to their socioeconomic status. In addition to the rationale behind why I want to become a teacher, lies the deeper necessity to inform younger generations about what came before and this knowledge that I have which must be passed along. My goals as a beginning teacher will serve to highlight the discrepancies between how I student-taught and what is actually happening in the classroom that I will one day take over as my job. Finally, my philosophies are guiding lights, which illuminate everything in the light of what I believe in and how I was created and what was my purpose of creation. These are all parts of my spiritual formation and dimension as a beginning teacher, for which I have: reasons why or rationale about “why teach”; goals as a beginning teacher; and a philosophy of education including the politics of difference including a philosophy of diversity. In conclusion, being a teacher is not an easy profession. You serve the Lord through the children. Giving your time and best effort is not enough. You also have to put your heart into what you’re doing. Ending it with the quote that I stated at the beginning: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ~William Arthur Ward REFERENCES: Bodhidharma. (2011). Buddhist quotes. Online. Available: . Cottinghom. J. (2010). The Spiritual Dimension Religion Philosophy and Human Value. Online. Available: Curtain, H. (2004). Languages and children: making the match. USA: Pearson Education, Inc. Dietz, G. (2009). Multiculturalism, interculturality and diversity in education. Germany: Waxmann Verlag. Eddy, R., Ed. (1996). Reflections on Multiculturalism. “Getting It: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Understanding.” USA: Intercultural Press. Norwich B. and Kelly N. (2005). Moderate learning difficulties and the future of inclusion. USA: Psychology Press. Saracho, O., et. al. (1983). Understanding the multicultural experience in early childhood education. USA: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Read More