Nicholas Foster

Professor Wolfe

ETEC 424

EPS Final Draft

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” -Albert Einstein.

This is a quote that I remind myself of often while teaching. As a teacher is it so important for

me to understand the material I’m teaching forwards and backwards. If I cannot explain the

material in a way that my students understand, I am not familiar enough with it.

As teachers we have the ability to change and inspire young minds. The most

important step to becoming an effective teacher is building a relationship with your students.

Students need to understand that you’re on their team. You’re not against them! If the

students truly understand how much the teacher cares, they’ll strive to do much better i n your

classroom. I’m speaking from experience. When a teacher can teach, and the students truly

grasp the material, the teacher is impacting the worlds future minds. Another important

purpose of teaching is the fact that some students will come into your classroom seeking

refuge from their reality. Sometimes their ‘school life’ is significantly better than their ‘home

life.’ As a teacher I have the opportunity to help students break their families ‘cycle’ starting

with their education. I have the opportunity to make them feel like they can trust me, they’re

safe, and loved. Those are two major purposes in teaching.

In my experience I found very quickly that my community lacked male role models.

So many young men did not have a man at home to teach them how to treat people of

authority, women, and their friends. When I saw this major need I created a club. This was a
handpicked club. I chose 5th & 6th grade boys I felt needed some extra guidance, and a role

model. I can successfully say that most of those boys are going into high school this coming

school year and I’m proud of them. They have applied what they learned from me, and are

well on their way to becoming model citizens. All because they realized a teacher saw a need

in their life, and filled it. A teacher stopped, and made them feel cared for and loved. A

teacher stopped and gave them someone to look up to. This all goes back to relationships. I

will preach that until the day I die. There is a difference between having good relationships

with your students, and being their best friend. My students know who is in charge, they know

that I demand excellence and respect, but they also know that if they’re having a difficult time

that I will stop whatever I’m doing to help them address their situation. That I’ll do whatever I

can to put a smile on their face, even though it makes me look like a fool to everyone else.

They know that I constantly have their best interests in mind.

An effective teacher knows whatever they expect their students to learn. You cannot

teach if you are not prepared. Preparation is so important! I had an amazing opportunity

present itself to me last semester. My boss, at the local Junior High I worked at, asked me to

be the eighth-grade social studies teacher. She had to sit down with the superintendent to get

this approved, since I do not have a bachelor's degree yet, and I’m not a certified teacher. I’m

sharing this because I haven’t taken American History since I was an eighth grader! I had

extra homework every single night because I had to study forwards and backwards what I had

to teach the next day I had to be extremely prepared for any and every question I would be

asked. Which brings me back to the quote I opened up with. Studying like that every night

was a lot of work, but it was detrimental to my student’s education. Had I just said, “I’ll just
wing it tomorrow!” Not only would my job had suffered, but my student’s education would

have suffered. That would not have been an effective way of teaching.

The Junior High I worked for had a motto. This motto was, “Do what’s best for kids!”

As a teacher sometimes that means we put our students needs ahead of our own. It means

sometimes we miss family dinner to go watch a game, or listen to a choir concert. It means,

spend an extra two hours working on your lesson plan to make sure your lesson is engaging

and invigorating. It means, spending your own personal money to buy prizes for improving

test scores. I will teach by that motto every single day. No matter where I work, that will be

my motto. I’ll be the teacher that students look back on and say, “He always did what was

best for us.”