Week 3 readings

For this weeks reading I chose to write about the Flemings' article. I found this article to be very eye opening and informative. I like how this article gave advice from actual teachers who are going through/ have went through what we will be doing in the next few years. This article really made me think about the importance of having good teachers in urban schools. A quote that really stuck out to me was when one of the teachers said that “the role in the classroom is not only that of a teacher but also a mother, nurse, counselor, social worker, etc.” Reading that made me stop and think about how any actual teaching is able to get done. The students in those school systems need so much more than what can be planned in a lesson plan. As a teacher in an urban school you would have to find a way to somehow balance all of the students’ needs as well as do your job of teaching them.

The article mentioned how often times teachers’ cycle in and out of the schools, this made me wonder if they weren’t just becoming burnt out from all of the unknown they were faced with. As the article mentioned these classrooms often have few materials or resources and the students in them are usually of a different background than the teacher. I can only image the stress that would place on any teacher especially a new teacher who is still trying to find their footing in the profession. In teaching programs we’re told about urban school and we are able to talk about different teaching strategies but we are not given any advice on how to handle all of the emotional turmoil that goes into teaching students who may be hungry, cold, homeless, etc. I worry that if I were to teach in a school similar to the ones mentioned, I would have a hard time not becoming too attached or involved in the lives of my students. I would want to help them and “make everything better” but in reality that wouldn’t be my job and there isn’t enough time in a day for that to be done as well as lessons.

Overall I really enjoyed this article, it got me thinking about some of the issues I may be faced with as a teacher and it pointed out the importance of teaching in an urban school.