Disposition No.

1 (Identifies who and what experiences helped to shape beliefs about students, teaching, and subject matter.) During my senior year of high school I participated in a program called adet !eaching. !his was a class seniors could ta"e that would place them into a school setting which would allow them to get a taste of what teaching is li"e. I was placed into a second grade art class and had the opportunity to meet hundreds of wonderful students. It was this program that solidified my lo#e for teaching children. $ne student, who stood out from the rest, was a little boy named %yle. %yle was a troubled child who had se#eral problems at home. &e would often come to class dirty and tired. It was also belie#ed that %yle had some "ind of learning disability, which was not being treated. I made it my mission that year to reach %yle and try to find out which factors helped him learn and which did not. 'any teachers wrote %yle off as a bad student and focused more on the gifted children. It was this experience with %yle that really shaped my perspecti#e of a good teacher. I belie#e that all students should be gi#en the chance to pro#e themsel#es, and each student should recei#e the same opportunities at a good education. I ha#e found from obser#ation that many teachers focus on the gifted or the students that ha#e a harder time learning. (s a teacher I want to focus e)ually on all of my students, while still pro#iding those who need extra assistance what they need. %yle was the first person to really help me see who I wanted to be as a teacher. I wanted to ma"e sure that he was gi#en the same opportunities to succeed as all of the other students, because I belie#e that no student should be left behind. *ithout this cadet teaching program I don+t "now where I would be in terms of career choice. I honestly belie#e that I am meant to be a teacher to these children, so I can help better them, and they can help me grow as a person and a teacher. Disposition No. , ((ppreciates being able to learn from mista"es.) -art of being a good teacher is learning from past mista"es. 'ista"es are a part of being human. $nce a mista"e is made, the next step is to learn from it so that it won+t happen again. .eing a new teacher has its ups and downs, and it+s important to ta"e the good with the bad, learning what wor"s and what does not. It+s also necessary to understand that all students are different and need to be treated as such. *hile on the road to achie#ing this, mista"es will be made, and teachers should learn from their mista"es in order to become better teachers. /et+s say, for example, that an elementary school art teacher forgets to mention an important piece of information to the class or gets a fact about an artist wrong. !he best thing to do is to journal about the mista"es made and to change them for the next class. (nother positi#e thing to do is correct the mista"e in class next time the class meets so the students ha#e the correct information. .y admitting the wrongs made to the students, this will

set a good example for the students. (nother common mista"e made by teachers or professors is when they incorrectly grade a student+s wor". 0ometimes after grading se#eral homewor" assignments in a row, teachers can become susceptible to ma"ing mista"es. !he teacher would need to #ocali1e that he2she made a mista"e and then correct the mista"e. Next, the teacher would ha#e to ta"e it in stride and pay more attention to grading3 this will insure that the same mista"e does not occur again. ( good way to impro#e teaching habits is to create a journal to "eep trac" of what wor"s and what does not in the classroom. ( good teacher has to appreciate being able to learn from his2her mista"es in order to become a better teacher. .y "eeping trac" of past mista"es in a journal of some "ind, the teacher can insure that it does not happen again. !his would also allow him2her to ma"e arrangements to fix any problems that may ha#e ta"en place after a particular mista"e. -eople always ma"e mista"es, and a good teacher appreciates being able to learn from mista"es made.