Crockett 1

Dana Crockett
Valerie Foster
EDU 221
2 September 2014
Teacher Snapshot
Being in school for over twelve years, you start to notice and observe quite a lot about
your teachers and their behaviors. I never thought in a million years that I would want to be a
teacher until recently. So naturally I started to reflect on my past teachers and what their
personalities and teaching styles were like. There is one teacher that will always stick out in my
mind and that was my Senior English teacher in high school, named Ms. McEmie.
Its pretty safe to say that Ms. McEmie definitely did not find much joy in her career at
all. Her personality was very dull and gray. She always spoke in a monotone type of voice that
usually put students to sleep. I thought teachers were supposed to be lively and colorful? With
her personality being the way that it was; it was near impossible to create some sort of teacherstudent relationship with her. English was not an easy subject for everyone so I think it should be
crucial that the teacher develops some sort of rapport with the students in order to ensure their
success in the classroom.
At some times I was almost sure that Ms. McEmie hated her career, but there were a
couple times when I could tell that she was right where she wanted to be. Anytime a student

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would ask her an intelligent question or would engage in a class discussion, her face would light
up and she would give them helpful feedback. I could tell she liked to be a teacher and really
wanted to succeed as one, but wasnt sure how, so she just taught with boring presentations and
silent reading sessions. I also think she was a bit shy and timid, so she was afraid of stepping out
of her comfort zone, or what she was taught on her road to becoming a teacher.
I had observed how Ms. McEmie did not show respect for herself, so when it came to
disciplining students who would disrespectfully lash out in class, her only choice of action was to
send them to the office without trying to calmly defuse the issue herself. The only sense of
discipline she had in class was to yell at the unruly student, which proved over time to be useless.
Once the students saw how much disciplinary skills she lacked, they would act out on a regular
basis, reflecting the lack of respect that Ms. McEmie had for herself. For example, one class day
at the end of the year, Ms. McEmie had my class silent read from our books and soon enough, a
few of the boys were talking and rough housing. They started throwing classroom property
across the room at each other while Ms. McEmie was yelling helplessly at them from her chair.
Soon enough a boy threw a computer mouse and it hit me on the side of my head, giving me
quite the unsightly swollen bump. Even though I sat right in front of Ms. McEmies desk, she
didnt notice I had been hurt because she was too busy yelling at the boys and was not taking any
concern for the safety of the rest of the class.
As far as classroom presence, Ms. McEmie had next to none. She always attended class
but it never really felt like she was there. Anytime she gave a lecture or read out loud to the class,
she always sat in her chair in front of the room. Even when we had silent reading sessions, she

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would sit at her computer, instead of walking around the room to make sure that we were all
doing what we were supposed to, and most of the time we were not all reading. Anytime she was
giving a lecture or reading to the class, she never forced us to engage in the lecture or
conversation. Rarely when she would ask the class a question in an attempt to engage the
students, no one would answer and she would easily give up and move on with her lecture.
Personally, that made it uncomfortable for me to come to her when I needed help. It was very
clear with these actions, who actually ran her classroom.
I think anyone can agree with me that Ms. McEmie is a bad example of how a teacher
should act and go about teaching. She first needs to show respect for herself to the class so that
the students may show her respect. Its also obvious that she never took any risks by switching
up her lesson plan or teaching class in a different style. That will also help her disciplinary skills
so that she can defuse a situation in the classroom herself, without any resistance from the
students, so she may continue class without having to send anyone to the office. Teaching does
not have to be so unpleasant. There are ways she could have made class time, not only exciting
for the students but for herself as well. There is a lot to be learned from a teacher, but there is
also a lot to be learned from the students and Ms. McEmie could easily have taken advantage of
that opportunity. She could have done so by walking around the room and actually observing
what the students are doing and why. She could have asked herself what she could have done
better or differently instead of accepting that her students will never engage themselves in the
classroom. If she just had an open mind, she could teach herself different learning styles and
even learn from her fellow teachers. All teachers need to constantly step out of there comfort
zone in order to give the students the attention and help they need so they may thrive inside and

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outside of the classroom. Ms. McEmie is an excellent example of how not to teach in a
classroom, and has given me the motivation to become the best possible teacher I can be.