Personal Teaching Philosophy/ Professional Reflection, May 2011
For the next five minutes, you need to sit down, be quiet and read. You won’t have to read for long because in this reflection I will not be listing the new tricks I have learned to keep kids quiet or explaining how to skirt around the tough questions. Instead, I am going to share a brief synopsis of how my perspective has shifted from wanting to change lives to knowing how I will measure my success as a result of participating in my field experience with Ms. Pryor at St. Elmo Elementary.
Before participating at Saint Elmo, I spent a considerable amount of time in two other fourth grade classrooms at Forrest Hill Elementary and Elberta Middle School. Although these classes were different in regards to geography, race, and socioeconomics, they all led me to one question: how does respect affect the climate of the classroom? Every teacher has a different gauge for the respect that they demand and a different mode of demanding it. By comparing my own teacher workshop behavior with the students’ classroom behavior, I have learned that the only difference is that when adults talk out of turn, no one gets yelled at. This semester, I practiced giving my students the respect they deserve by rewarding them with small song and chit-chat moments, talking to them one-to-one about better decision making, and praising them publicly as an example for their classmates.
I quickly learned that respect isn’t enough, and it certainly is not lasting if it is not paired with confidence. Learning how to teach confidence was a painful process for me. I was developing elaborate lesson plans that were meant to generate new ideas, convey new knowledge, and inter-connect the subject matter. I learned quickly that complex lessons are actually thematic units, and they should be taught in digestible blocks. My pace was fast and defeating-- for them and me. Since then, I have learned a few techniques to help build confidence. Sometimes all it takes is passing out tests one page at a time, sometimes it means using three periods to cover the complex lesson, and other times it just comes down to assessing what the student struggles with and helping them to improve one aspect of their learning at a time.
My last lesson is the one I have yet to find a solution to, but believe to be the most significant. How does one teach another to love? Day in and day out, I witness racism, name-calling, as well as physical and verbal aggressions. How can we teach these kids the power behind their words and actions? How do we transform this ugliness into colorblind relationships, supportive comments, positive laughter, and pats-on-the-back? I am not expecting a perfect classroom, but I do want to know how to shape my own class experience into one that takes advantage of opportunities to learn and practice love.
These three lessons: respect, confidence, and love are the ones that I believe will ensure a strong foundation for academic excellence. This semester has been a good start, but my learning journey is by no means over. I plan to continue seeking out other model educators who share and practice the values I believe in, implementing strategies to improve my weaknesses, and remembering that mistakes are opportunities for growth. No matter how many standardized tests my students ace or how many science experiments go awry, I will measure my success at the end of each day by asking myself, Do my students know more about respect, confidence, and love for themselves and those around them than they did yesterday?
Lessons Learned Speech
From the 2011 USA and 100 Black Men’s
Summer Enrichment Program
Hello, my name is Anthony Capps and it has been my pleasure teaching your 5th graders math over the course of the last month. Tracy pretty well nailed down the thank-you’s that are so well deserved. It’s safe to say that all 14 of my fellow preservice teachers would agree that the 100 Hundred Black Men’s Summer Enrichment Experience has been one that will linger on our hearts and minds for years to come.
I think a couple lessons that all of us took away from this, are that every day that we teach, we learn. Sometimes its a fun trade. Like just last week, I taught prime and composite numbers and in return I learned how to Dougie, Wobble and do the Math Daddy. Other times, we learn things that are of a little more significance. For instance, we came here to teach kids that learning can be fun. We ran in place to create word problems, we tied our legs together to sort numbers as a three legged team, and we ate fruit loops while we expanded numbers. Those same days, I learned that your children are worthy of my deepest respect, trust, and pride.
One of the most significant lessons I learned is one that seems most visible. On the surface, it’s easy to see how different I am from your children. For one thing, when they throw a beat for one of my math raps with their hands and their mouths (show example), they don’t end up spitting all over the microphone. But that stuff, that you can only see if you’re not looking deep enough-- it doesn’t matter. The best lesson that I learned is that the things we have in common are far more significant than the things that make us different.
Thank you, parents, for allowing your children to teach us these beautiful lessons. Thank you to all the financial contributors and visionaries that created the opportunity for us to learn them. And thank you, administration staff, for providing the support to help us survive them.
So with that said, I want to leave you with one last word problem. Are you READY? If there are 14 of us, and 187 of you, how many changed hearts are in this room?
A Letter to My CASE Boys, Summer 2011
Dear CASE boys,
As the 100 Black Men Summer Enrichment Program draws to a close, I have been reflecting on all of our time spent together. From day one, I told many of you that I knew you would succeed. Four weeks later, I am now convinced that everyone of you will. Each of you have shown me your amazing and incredibly unique talents. Some of you are great speakers. Others of you are excellent writers, and some of you can dance like nobody’s business.
Before I finish listing all of the amazing talents I have seen come from you all, I want to first thank you for teaching me how to become a better teacher. Now, I know that one of my most important jobs is to look for the most unique and positive gifts within each of my students and create opportunities to use them.
Through out the last few weeks we discussed caring, respect, citizenship, honesty, and trust. You shared many of your experiences with me in your journals and also wrote some incredibly deep and heartfelt poems about things that move you emotionally. You told me about food, sports, girls, name-calling, siblings, pets, loneliness, anger, and friendship. As a result of all of your sharing, I learned that even though you are only ten years old, and most of you know more Michael Jackson dance moves than me-- we are very similar. The things you care about most are the same things that concern me.
I feel like I have just scratched the surface in regards to getting to know many of you. Although I have told all of you that I believe you all can achieve your dreams-- I feel like I didn’t have enough time to show you that making the right choices now is how you become great. Whether you are working on math or you are playing basketball on the courts-- you have to try your best.
I want to help you become the best young men that you can become. I have been speaking with my boss about trying to extend a free tutoring service to any of you that are interested, but we need to know how many of you that may be. We don’t have all the details worked out now, but if you would like to continue meeting to have fun getting ready for next year-- please have your parents or another adult caregiver call me. My phone number is 251-689-4215.
Like I said, we are still working on the details now regarding dates and times-- and a lot of it depends on how many of you are interested. I do know that we will have fun and learn a lot if you decide to participate. Whatever plan of service we do come up with will be free. Thank you for every lesson that you have taught me, and I hope you all have great summers. Keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Mr. Anthony Capps
Email: awc802@gmail.com
