Forums

Hi Chandler!

I am Paige Morrison and I am studying Elementary Education at Wartburg College in Iowa. I understand that believing in all students can be a challenging task, but a way to ensure that we are correcting our mindsets and using our experiences to do so is to set reminders for yourself. Because I am a preservice teacher, I have not had my own class to try this out in. However, I have had different field experience placements that have offered different ideas and ways to set reminders. I think that setting a daily reminder - either on an electronic or a sticky note on your desk of why you are there can help you to believe in all students. Sometimes, just like students, teachers need to remember their why. My why personally would be to encourage growth and aim for success in my future students' educations. I would want to remind myself that all students are living different lives and all students are learning in different ways. I would want to remind myself that I do not always know what they are facing when they leave my classroom and that it is possible that I am the only one to believe in them in their lives. Given that I could be all that they have to encourage and believe in them, I would tell myself that no matter how hard a day was, I am still going to be on my students' side no matter what. I am there not only to teach them but to help them develop into citizens of our society. I am there to be a comforting face and someone to trust. I would want to constantly remind myself that I am there for them and that is why I will believe in all of them, no matter the circumstances. I do think that as I gain experience in the field of teaching, I will find ways to strengthen my views on this and I will find ways to be better at this as I go. I think that you are asking very important questions and I look forward to reading more responses on this!

 I think you should not become an educator if you cannot believe in all of your students. Your students are the reason you are there and you need to remember why you wanted to be educator. All children are capable of learning, and all students deserve to have someone who cares for them and believes in them. Every student comes from a different background and you have no idea what they are going through and having your students know you care and believe in them could make all the difference. As a preservice teacher you need to know your why for teaching and you need to remind yourself of that every day.

Hi Chandler! 

In my experience, I gave learned a valuable lesson. It is important to have faith in the potential of all students. This is something we must just believe in. We as teachers have to arrive to the classroom believing that all of our students have the same potential. The problem is that some students have outside issues that might affect that potential and performance.  It is normal to have doubts about a student’s potential when they are underperforming, however, this is when your job is to do some research into what is affecting the student’s performance. Always remember at some point all students will struggle with something in their academic career but you should always have high expectations from them all.