I Want To Be an Effective Teacher

An effective teacher can handle innumerous amounts of classroom

duties and situations without skipping a beat. An effective teacher is always
prepared and knows his or her material inside and out, so that he or she has
accurate information to teach his or her students. An effective teacher shows
that she cares more about the students ability to learn, that they are
learning, and will continue to learn after leaving the classroom. I would like to
be an effective teacher. I want to be an effective teacher because of the best
and worst teachers Ive had growing up. I would like to make a positive
difference in society, I would like to teach so I can have a part in the
educational gain the children of our future get and I would like to teach,
simply because it is something I have always wanted to do.
Ive been told that teaching, however stressful, is a very rewarding job.
I have been told by many teachers past and present that dealing with
parents and administration can be become a pain in the rumpus, the hours
are long, the pay sucks and that the children can drive you nuts; but its all
worth it just to see that Ah Ha! facial expression when a student finally
understands a concept theyve been struggling with. Ive been told that all
the stress and frustration that comes with being a teacher, is worth it, when
you realize what youve tried so hard to teach your students, they have
actually learned. I have been jokingly told, by my mentor, that some people

want to teach, and others have teaching thrust upon them as a last resort.
Whichever it is makes no difference on what kind of teacher youll be.
When I was 7 years old, I sat in my first Grade class, taught by a
woman just starting her teaching career, by the name of Miss Cheryl Fry. A
student a year younger than I was, sat next to me, while most of us were
able to read a little bit, and others of us could read at higher grade levels, he
couldnt read at all and the other children teased him for it. Miss Fry stopped
that the minute it started. I had not yet learned how to tie my shoes properly
and often got teased for that. She had me stay in at recess and practice
tying knots and bows, until I got it right. Every day that I stayed in, I watched
her work one-on-one to help the boy who couldnt read, she was teaching
him how to read, and telling him not to take the teasing from the children to
heart. I sat on the rug during story time and staring up at her in awe of how
she read to us, her kind demeanor, her gentle voice, her positive attitude,
and her ability to teach every single one of those kids in that class exactly
what we needed to learn. I remember looking up at her while she read to us,
and thinking, I want to grow up to be the kind teacher she is. I want to be
like her when I grow up. She had sparked my ambition and had given me a
drive to do something wonderful with my life. Through the years and the
muddle of stuff Id lost that spark, that drive, and I just kind of drifted
through life and school; putting up with the bullying from the other children
and struggling to maintain my C average. That is until my tenth grade year.

It was my first year at Chaparral High school, and I had a science

teacher by the name of Mr. Lary Jack. He had us right in journals every week
answering the questions he wrote up on the board. He would collect the
journals at the end of the week, and return them at the beginning of the
week with his notes by our answers and our grade that week on the back of
our notebooks. If you got full credit for the question he put a sticker on the
front of your journal. He listed the names of the students with the top 3
grades in each of his classes every week. With the amount of extra credit
opportunities he gave out, every student had an equal chance of obtaining
the top 3 grades for that class. It drove each and every one of us to try are
hardest to do our absolute best in that class. For me it rekindled a spark of
ambition and a drive to be better that Id lost. For others, he was the first
great teacher theyd had. Like Miss Fry, Mr. Jack didnt just teach us science.
He taught us exactly what each of us needed to learn. He taught some of the
popular athletes and cheerleaders in the school how to be respectful toward
us nerds and treat us nicely. He taught some of the students with no
ambition of graduating, let alone going to college, that they can accomplish
anything they set their mind to, and he was always willing and eager to help
any student with any problem. He has taught me a lot more than I could take
account of; he is still teaching me. Hes not just my former science teacher,
hes my mentor and my friend, as he is for many of his former students. If
you ask him, hell tell you I taught him how to smile again. I would write
Smile Mr. Jack on the board before I left his classroom at the end of the

school day, I had written Smile Mr. Jack on the back of my journal so he
would see it when he turned my note book over to write my grade for that
week. And I had a piece of paper I held up when I could see the day, and the
disruptiveness of my fellow classmates where wearing on his nerves. This
paper said, Smile Mr. Jack, because this smile is for you, and I had drawn a
smiling face underneath those words. I did all this to help him keep the lively
spirit, drive, ambition, and passion to be the best teacher he can be. It was
my way of thanking him for rekindling all that in me. I digress. I could go on
for many pages just about the wonderful teachers Ive had, but the worst
teachers Ive had, have also influenced my decision to become a teacher.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have such a wonderful teacher as Miss
Fry or Mr. Jack.

I dont remember her real name, only that the students

called her Ms. Meanie behind her back. Several of her students spent most of
their 2nd grade year sitting in the hallway for what Ive believed are arbitrary
reasons, such as sitting with your head resting on your hand, and your elbow
on your desk. She said that sitting like that was rude and disrespectful. She
would send students to sit in the hall for counting on their fingers or counting
out loud when working on their math assignment. She would send students
to sit in the hall for reading out loud when we sat in class reading our library
books. She wouldnt allow her students to go to the bathroom without
reciting the alphabet forward, backward, and counting to 100 first. Students
were already afraid of her, so they would often wait until they couldnt wait
any longer to ask permission. By the end of that year nearly all of the

students in that class with me had had an accident while reciting the
alphabet, or counting to 100 at least once. Many times students wouldnt
bother asking permission, they just ran out of the room. When they came
back she would say, Uh uh. You wanted to be out of my class so bad, you
can just stay out of my class for the rest of the day. And then send you out
to the hall. I know understand that she did this to prevent one student saying
he or she needed to go to the bathroom, and then the other students all
suddenly need to go to the bathroom. But all this time in the hall, or
waiting for someone to bring you a change of clothes cost her students time
in the classroom learning the basics of math, history, reading, spelling,
English and science. I was personally spent, about half of that year sitting
out on in that hallway or waiting in the office waiting for my dad to bring a
change of clothes. While this teacher managed her classroom, strictly and at
the cost of her students education, Ive had worse teachers, and teachers
who ignored the problems in the classroom.
My entire school life Ive always been the favorite target for bullying,
some teachers didnt tolerate it, other teachers pretended not to notice so
they wouldnt have to intervene. So, I would sometimes react to the bullying
in a way that sure to get the teachers attention so theyd deal with the
problem, either by screaming out, or by telling my dad and brother about it,
who went stomping of to the school, and confronted the teacher about it
himself. I wont go into the details, because the details of those events I
would personally like to forget. Nevertheless, there is one event I will never

forget. I was a freshman in high school, living in Wisconsin, and my English

teacher Miss Thurston, was trying to tell us about Greek mythology. She was
trying to teach us that Zeus was the god of love, Aphrodite was the goddess
of war, and that Airtimes was the main king on mount Olympus and had the
thunderbolts. This was the bright and shining moment in my education that
made me shake my head, reflect on all the horrible teachers Ive had in my
past and think about saying, Youre wrong, youre teaching wrong, and I can
only hope I dont become as bad a teacher as you are. It is because of
teachers like that, teachers like Miss Meanie and Miss Thurston, that I
believe this is why I have seen children passed up to the next grade year
after year barely able to read, not good at math, cant do well in history, or
science, and grow up to hate the subjects theyve never quite grasped. I
would like to change that. I would like to make sure that children learn
everything they need to know for life. They will need to know how to read,
write and how to do math. And I have made it my goal to teach all of my
students everything I can to prepare them for their next stage in life that I
can. I have made it my goal to instill how to treat people with common
courtesy and kindness. I have made it an aspiration, to engrain the positive
outlook on life no matter how bad life gets; and I intend on doing that in
addition to teaching them the concepts in the curriculum for the grade that
Id be teaching.
It seems that everywhere you go and everything you do there is
something negative going on. Driving down the road, and some cuts

someone off, the someone they cut off shouts out their window and gives
the offender an unfriendly hand signal, somebody is yelling at the television
or radio because it said something they didnt agree with, somebody getting
shot cause they did something that upset someone else. I strongly believe
the world would be a much better place if everyone thought more positively
rather than the negative outlook most everyone has now. Between my
greatest teachers, my eldest brother, and my closest friends Ive had instilled
in me a positive outlook, and have developed the ability to let the little
things roll off my shoulder when someone does something that offends me. I
think that by being a teacher like Miss Fry or Mr. Jack that I can influence a
more positive attitude in the students. I would hope that the students might
keep that positive attitude throughout their lives and corrupt others with the
same positive outlook on life. If everyone maintained this idea then perhaps
there wouldnt be so much negative in the world. Perhaps then, there
wouldnt be so many people shooting people that offended them. Maybe if all
the students in every school had an I can do this attitude rather than an I
cant do anything right attitude there would be less drop outs. Im not
saying it would end all wars, and there wouldnt be any fights or arguments
at all, there would just be a lot less of them if more people where kinder and
more positive about life.
I would have a great sense of accomplishment, and happiness to know
I had a part in shaping someones life. I like the feeling I get when this
person asked me for help, and I was actually able to help them. There is a

certain joy a person gets when you realize, hey, I played an important role,
in guiding this person to be the wonderful human being they are today.
Teaching to me, would be worth all the hard work, stress, headaches, and
struggles that come with trying to become a teacher and actually being a
teacher if even just one of my students in my entire future teaching career,
comes back to say, Thank you for being such and awesome teacher, you
taught me so much that has helped me through my life. As this is the mark
of a great teacher.