On September 14th one of Professor Dresser’s former students visited our Education class to discuss what it is like to be a teacher. Ian Cole is now a teacher at a private school in Yonkers. Ian has taught many subjects including social studies, science, and gym. Also, he has taught grades six to eight over the past two and a half years. He expressed the amount of experience he has had with student behavior, teaching techniques, and student learning methods.
Besides Ian’s expression about his love for the classroom, he expressed to us how being a teacher is very difficult. Ian explained how as you teach kids, they teach you as well. Understanding that every student learns differently is one of the biggest struggles for teachers. Teachers must be able to learn more than one or two ways of teaching for the students so they are able to comprehend the lessons. Ian told us how researching and learning disabilities helped him discover new ways of teaching that improved his student’s ways of learning new material. Providing lessons where you as the teacher can relate to the kids seemed to be one way of teaching that has helped the kids. Ian explained to us how he sometimes modifies assignments for specific students who struggle in school so they can comprehend the lessons better.
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Being an entertaining and relatable teacher tends to make students feel comfortable with the class. Disciplining students who misbehave help the students grow out of bad habits that may affect their socializing or learning skills. Ian stressed that as a teacher you always need to be very aware of what you say to the students because if you say the wrong thing it could turn into a dispute with staff or parents. Growing good relationships with staff helps you become a better teacher because you can always ask for advice on something that happened in the classroom or even just for help with a lesson