Reflection Paper NA studies

Jamie Holforty

There are many things that I have taken away from this course that I will be talking

about in this reflection paper. Everything that I taught throughout this course, not only relates

to Native Americans, but can relate to any child who is part of the minority in a classroom.

Children all have their own things that they worry about when they get to school, my goal is to

make sure that the way they were born, is not something that they need to be worries about.

I am already able to view how good teachers teach in different ways. I never thought

this deep into teaching, until now. I didn’t realize how certain methods of teaching can have

such an impact on the students. After the first few weeks, I had a new insight on how I plan to

teach my students. This is helping to me already set goals and expectations for myself, and for

the students, I hope to teach someday. Teachers need to realize that each year can just be

another year for them, but for the students, it’s a whole new year and it’s their first time having

that specific class.

Each teacher more than likely thinks that they are doing all they can to be a great

teacher, but in all reality, they aren’t all great teachers. It takes a special person to know how to

teach yet be able to punish and enforce rules without it effecting their teaching.

Something I learned in another class that I would like to restate is that it truly doesn’t

matter what classroom teachers are shoved into, it’s the teaching that matters. If a teacher got

located in the smallest room in the school, that shouldn’t make the teaching any worse. The

teacher needs to make as much as they can out of the small classroom and turn it into the best

classroom. As long as the teacher makes sure that everyone is comfortable in their spot and is
continuing to learn, there should be no problems with the room sizes. I think it is important for

this information to be talked about, because there are some teachers who think they need to

have the best of the best, when in reality the best teachers are the ones who show their love

for each student.

Most teachers would like to be able to just yell at their students once and hope for a

good response. In most cases that does not happen. Once students hear something, it makes

them want to act the way they are initially told not to act. They best approach at making the

students follow the rules and/or meet the expectations, would be to deal with it after class. If

teachers start out by having expectations for themselves and their students at the beginning of

the year, they are more than likely going to have a better outcome at the end of the year. If a

teacher tells a student one thing, and then doesn’t follow through with what they earlier

exclaimed, they students will not take them serous.

When a student is told something, they prepare themselves for what they were told.

When they then don’t actually have to do what is said, they no longer respect what the teacher

says. They will always prepare themselves to do less than what the teacher says each time.

Teachers need to realize that when they say something, students are expecting that outcome.

Being able to show humility in your teaching was another great thing that we talked

about during this course. Teachers need to be able to show that they are humans as well. We

are not all perfect and it helps when kids can see that. The students need to know that it is okay

to mess up and to have to relook things. They need to know that when they fail, it is okay to do

that a few times. We won’t always be getting 100% on our tests or quizzes.
 I think that storytelling was one of the main focuses of this course. Being able to take

what we have read or seen and sharing it with others is so valuable. It is also super helpful

when the students can talk about what they know, so that other students can have a been view

on the topic. Most of the time, kids learn better from other kids. It is great being able to have

time to talk and learn things, for the students and the teachers.

We also did a some talking on Black Elk and how he learned so much information. He

had so many stories to share by the end of this section. I think that it was a great story to read

and that it had so much important information that went along with this whole course.

I really enjoyed taking this course, and I feel that I have gained a lot of wonderful

information from it. I hope to be able to make everyone in my classroom feel welcome and feel

comfortable. I am so excited to see where my future leads me.