Raasch, Nikki - PBlog

The Three Things I Hold Dear and Won't Compromise

I think it's extremely important that everyone knows at least three things that they hold dear and would never compromise for sure. Sometimes, we all get caught up in life and need to get back to the basics and remember the things that we truly value.

First, I could never compromise my spirituality or relationship with God. Being brought up in a Christian home, I've always been surrounded by parents with a great faith in and love for God which has therefore led to a great support structure for me coming from my whole family. At the same time, nothing was ever forced upon me and my parents allowed and encouraged both my brother and I to think on our own, therefore building our own, personal faith and beliefs. Of course, nobody's perfect and I have never and will never claim to even come close. I simply know that without my faith, I wouldn't be where I am now and would be struggling to get through life.

Next, my family is an extremely important part of my life. As I've gotten older, things have of course changed. However, my bonds with my parents and my brother have actually strengthened and our relationships have grown closer every year it seems. This is something that's starting to become a little bit stressful and worrisome to me as I don't really plan on staying around Wisconsin in the future. Although I can't know exactly how things will work out, I plan to keep an open mind and eye out for job opportunities around the country. So, I may come to a point that I'll have to accept the fact that my family might not always be a 30 minute drive away. I'll need to trust that our relationships are strong enough to last and continue to grow even with possibly hundreds of miles between us.

Lastly, this may sound strange, but I refuse to compromise the fact that I want to have my own life, career, etc. before I decide to settle down and share my life with someone else. I need to always know that I can take care of myself and find happiness in the things that I value and enjoy. I believe, and this is only my humble opinion, that too many people get caught up in desperately trying to find a mate for life and by doing so, end up forgetting what their own life goals and aspirations were. And, for some people, they find themselves 10 years down the road with a job they don't love, in a place they don't love, with kids and tons of responsibility that no longer allows them to do the things they once dreamed of. I don't mean to be so negative, but it's just something that I've observed all too often and is one of my greatest fears. So, I refuse to compromise that.

What are Schools for? What do They Offer?

I particularly liked this question because I think that, for obvious reasons, it's important that we as future teachers clearly understand what we think the purpose should be of the institution we'll be entering into for a lifelong career.

First of all, I think that a school should be a place that provides a family-like environment for students who may not be so lucky to have that kind of environment at home. Schools should be places that provide a sense of safety and security for any child that walks through the doors. Unfortunately, as the years have gone on, schools and their in inhabitants have often become the victims of unnecessary acts of violence. Despite this, I think it's important to remember that there are certain situations that will never be able to be prevented and that as teachers, we need to still provide the safest environment we possibly can for our students. It's crucial that students feel, for the most part, that a school is a place where they don't have to worry about being physically, emotionally, or mentally abused in anyway during those 8 or so hours of their day, even if they can't count on that anywhere else. I do understand that this may seem to be an idealistic, illogical hope. Bullies and gangs will always exist to make the lives of other students a little more difficult, but we then need to make sure that as authority figures we do everything in our power to prevent any of the teasing or violence that might be caused by such students.

In addition, I believe that schools offer to students the means and experience in order for them to explore their interests or different hobbies and then hopefully come to an ultimate conclusion about what they want for their own lives (i.e. What kind of career? A family? Goals? Dreams?). By providing our students with an abundance of knowledge and the opportunities for involvement in various sports, clubs, or musical events, the students should come to a much better understanding about themselves as individuals and the things that they truly value and enjoy. This is essential in the lives of our youth as, once again, some students' home environments don't provide this kind of guidance or opportunity. After all, I feel that one of the ultimate goals of teachers and schools in general should be to prepare and shape an individual who will be fit to function successfully in society as well as an individual with goals and ambition to both better themselves and the world around them.

What Makes Me Marketable as a Teacher?

My Weakness....

This question caught my attention as I believe we'll all be going into our respective fields carrying certain weaknesses along with us. However, I feel it's important to be aware of these weaknesses and then to prepare for the difficulties those weaknesses may bring.

After I thought about this for a while, it occurred to me that as of right now, my weakness is feeling unready to be a teacher and therefore lacking the confidence that I'll need in order to be able to successfully manage a classroom as well as teach my students. Yet, I'm really not as worried about this as I feel it is something that by the time I have finished all of my courses in Education as well as my specific disciplines, I'll have the knowledge needed. And, of course, after a semester of student teaching, I'll have a better taste of what the classroom will really be like and will hopefully at that point have improved my confidence.

So, something that I know I'll always have to work on and be aware of about myself is wanting to be “pals” with my students. Throughout my education, I've always enjoyed the teachers who have had the ability to make students feel at ease and comfortable, and yet also gained students' respect and obedience. However, this is a very fine line that can so easily be crossed. What I'm most worried about is not finding the equal balance between being a teacher as an authoritative figure and also an adult-figure who students can feel comfortable around and know that I'm their friend in the sense of providing help and support when they need it.

I've already had some experience with this in my 2 past summer jobs. I was a counselor at the Wisconsin Lions Camp and then last summer was a nanny out East. In both jobs, I had to constantly make a conscious effort to realize when I was losing my position of authority with either my campers or the children I took care of. So, I believe that this is something that I'll need to always be watching for and will take more experience to realize the best way for myself to find the “perfect” balance.

When thinking of ways to prevent this problem in the classroom someday, I think that one of the techniques that will be essential will be to have my students always be completely aware of my expectations for them, both behaviorally and academically. Also, I'll need to immediately establish the disciplinary system I decide to use so that the students will understand right away that, although I want learning to be fun and to also run a comfortable classroom, there will be repercussions for any actions that go against my expectations.

Therefore, this is something that will have to be worked on with further experience in similar types of situations, but as of right now, the above is a way that I plan to help improve this weakness.

Why I want to be a Teacher...

As far back as I can remember as a student, I've always known that I want to be in a school forever, as strange as that may sound. So, what better way to make sure that that could happen than becoming a teacher? Of course, that's not the only reason that I've decided that teaching's for me. Throughout my 13 years of going from kindergarten to 12th grade, I've been lucky enough that I can say I've had an overall very positive experience. And, I feel that I can give a lot of the credit for this to a few of the special teachers I've been privileged enough to have.

Therefore, I really do believe that a huge portion of a student's success and happiness with school has to do with their educators. A teacher who lacks passion, understanding, and love for the students could be the end to a student's interest and effort in his/her time spent in school. More specifically, I've heard about many incidents where students simply give up on a certain subject area forever because of a bad experience with the teacher of that subject. At my junior high, Spanish was a perfect example of this as the woman who taught it constantly expected too much from her students, who of course were taking a foreign language for the first time ever, and continually degraded those who were not catching on as fast as she thought her students should have.

So, I've always been convinced that I could be, and would love to be, a positive force in the lives of students someday, at least being able to perhaps touch a few and spark their interest in learning and furthering their education in the future; and, although it may sound cliché, I think that a person's education is one of the most beneficial, useful, and essential aspects of his/her life.

I also plan to be a positive element within the faculty that I'll be sharing a school with in the future. I truly believe that it's just as important for a teacher to have a strong bond of support with his/her peers as it is to have such a bond with the students. To me, teamwork is essential for teachers to truly affect and successfully teach students. Therefore, I plan to have a relationship of open and constructive communication with my fellow teachers and other faculty members some day as we then will all be able to be the best educators we can be as we'll be working together instead of trying to solve problems on our own, which never works out very well.

Two Topics I'm Excited to Teach About