Back to the Basics by Emily

Back to the Basics by Emily - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

There are many different factors that go into being a great educator. A teacher is someone who has goals for the classroom, goals for the students, and goals for their own growth. I am currently in my second year of studying secondary education, english, and psychology; essentially, I am learning how to be a great teacher. I am learning how to be a great educator in a multicultural society. I am learning about how to make successful lesson plans. I am also learning about the psychology of education, and how that plays a huge role in subject matter and presenting of that subject matter in the classroom. If I looked back at a high school teacher and could give them a piece of advice that could have really helped me learn successfully in their classroom it would be to go back to the basics, remember them, and carry them throughout the whole length of your whole career.

I had several teachers in high school who were very diverse in their methods and diverse ways of teaching. Some were successful, and some were not. I find that the most successful teachers stuck with their knowledge of the basics. They know how to control a classroom, how to set and achieve goals within the school community, how to be a support system for each individual student, and how to understand diversity in the classroom. I believe that with most anything in life, including being an educator, that if you are stuck or unsatisfied with your work, that you should go back to the basics and remember how you were inspired to curve the minds of the future’s brightest individuals by being the best educator you can be.