Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jack Tanklefsky
Kailen Stover
Teacher Cadet
10 March 2019
According to Education.gov, the role of a teacher is to set the tone of the classroom, build
a warm environment, mentor and nurture students, become role models for these students, and
listen and look for signs of trouble. As a future teacher, many of these apply to me, as currently, I
am shadowing a class in order to dip my feet into the water before I begin my education to
become a teacher. In Eighth Grade Humanities, I am shadowing Mrs. Haug, a recent graduate
from University of Colorado Boulder. She co-teaches in this class, however, I interact mostly
with Mrs. Haug, as she is my assigned teacher. She is a fantastic teacher, with specific teaching
Every day, Mrs. Haug comes to the classroom with a chipper attitude, ready to teach
students about the wonders of the English Language. Her teaching style largely based on
student’s group work. However, she understand the value of independent work, especially
regarding the writing of the students. She wants every student to be able to express themselves
on the pages of their written work. Sometimes, she combines independent writing with group
activity work. Recently, she introduced an assignment for the class where they are to write about
a topic that is debatable, where they pick a side as a group and each write their reasoning behind
what they have written. The combination of these styles of learning is what makes Mrs. Haug’s
style of teaching specific and excellent for students. It helps the students not only work for
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themselves, but work with and for each other. Mrs. Haug also enjoys class-wide activities. She,
on a weekly basis, reads to the class and opens a class-wide discussion about what they read, and
how it is applicable to their lives, the reason why her style is paramount to the student’s success.
Her strengths are the latter. She emphasizes the importance of group work, allowing
students to work with and assist each other. Her strength as a teacher highlights itself in her
ability to allow the students to show their individual strength. The student’s work is a cumulative
effort where all of their strengths, weaknesses, and individual styles become apparent, all
through the classwork. But, because she is a young teacher and I am a her first teacher cadet, she
is giving me ample opportunity to garner my strengths as a future teacher. The first week in to
the shadowing, I was able to teach a small group about the differences between a dystopian and
utopian society. It felt nice to be given responsibilities so early into my journey of becoming a
Her weaknesses, however, are also tied to her ability to be so amicable. She is willing to
give students liberties so often, that sometimes, they take more. They are disruptive often, but
because she is rather bubbly, constant disruption almost never results in apprehension of the
students -- and if it does, it is mostly from Mrs. Turner. For this reason, most students respect the
wishes of Mrs. Turner more, because, although Mrs. Haug gives off nicer vibes, Mrs. Turner is
going to be the teacher that will holler at students from across the room when they are acting
poorly. Her nice attitude seems to sometimes backfire, for instance, when there was a substitute
teacher who didn’t have a firm personality, some of students chose to throw items at the
substitute teacher. When Mrs. Haug figured out, they were firmly spoken to, but there was little
else she did to punish the students. She is strong because she is able to let the students show their
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strengths as a team. But the amiability of her can sometimes be abused by students who may not
A teacher’s purpose is to help students learn their respected subject through their own,
individual methods that lead to a greater knowledge of both the subject and the students,
themselves. A teacher is to inspire and instruct those that attend classroom instruction. Mrs.
Haug does this with grace and a smile on her face day in and day out, a true teacher to envy. And
Voice and Tone -tone adds interest & -tone is appropriate - writing and tone -tone is not
Your score: 10 engages the reader, - for a reflective disregards personal reflective -writing is
shows confidence essay, -consistent insights, - indifferent -
and commitment to voice inconsistent voice - inconsistent voice
topic, -consistent speaks in
voice (1st or 3rd generalities
person)
Conventions • -writing is virtually -errors are so few -has noticeable -has frequent errors,
grammar, error free, -text is and minor that it errors in -errors greatly
punctuation, clean, edited and does not interfere conventions, -errors distract from
spelling, sentence polished with reading, -text begin to detract readability
structure appears clean, edited from readability of
Your score: 10 and polished the paper
- 5 paragraphs
Comments: