Education Autobiographical Story – Kaitlyn Morrison

Many factors throughout primary and secondary school have made me feel
destined to become an educator. Although it wasn't until my junior year of high school
when I decided the type of teacher I want to become. By this, I don’t mean the subject
or grade level I’d like to teach because I’ve always known I wanted to teach history. I
mean that I figured out what style of teaching and how I would treat my students in
order for me to feel I am doing what’s best for my future students.
During my junior and senior year, I had a few instructors implement flipped
learning in their course. This meant that students learnt new material at home on their
own, then completed assignments in class on their own. In class, my instructors
remained at their desk while we worked on stressful projects with unreasonable
deadlines, leaving no time to ask for help. Additionally, these classes were based more
off of internet exploration than textbook structure.
These teachers claimed flipped classes were the most innovative and effective
way for students to learn content; however, I honestly can’t recall much from those
courses. I found it overwhelming to teach myself at home because I was always anxious
to accidentally research the wrong material and miss exam content since we received
little guidelines. The majority of the classmates I talked to also felt frustrated that we
were doing the job of the instructor.
I noticed these teachers who had flipped courses were also coaches of my
school’s sports teams. This way of classroom setup only benefitted them because they
had no lessons to plan so they had more time for athletic activities. These courses also
frustrated me because my teacher’s didn’t look at their emails often and respond to my
questions. Overall, at my school, flipped classes were a way for teachers to do less
work, not because it was the best new style to teach.
This past year, my AP statistics instructor had a teaching style similar to flipped
classrooms, but he gave us guided notes for homework and he lectured the next day
instead of assigning projects. This was beneficial to me because I was able to preview
the lesson and then ask whatever questions I had the next day in class.
The frustrating experiences I had in my school’s flipped courses are now
valuable to me. I will remember the stress I felt from them as a student while planning
for my own classroom. I am determined to observe whether or not my personal teaching
style is most effective and helpful to my students. I will be open to hearing student
critiques and changing my classroom procedures to fit their needs. I need to learn from
my students if I expect them to learn from me, especially in the beginning of my
teaching career. I don’t want my students to feel hopeless like I did in flipped course. I
want my students to feel proud of their work and rich with knowledge after they finish my
course, not relieved that it’s finally over. My goal is for my students to be excited to
come to class and learn.