Lessons Learned From Great Educators!

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While completing my masters, I ran across research noting that teachers’ instructional styles are influenced by the way they were taught. My favorite teachers definitely helped mold me into the teacher I am today. However, I was also heavily influenced by watching what I call “ineffective” teachers. These were teachers who would call students stupid and tell them they would amount to nothing. However, this post is about recognizing two great educators in my life and what I learned from them!
Mrs. Lopez My kindergarten teacher showed me how much showing you care really helps students look forward to going to school. I love technology, but have learned that caring about my students has made the real difference! When my young English language learners begin to misbehave I have found saying you care about them after telling them what they did wrong goes a long way. When I taught some really difficult teenage boys, I would let them calm down then we would talk. The first thing I would do is say, “What is going on? You know I care about you.” We would talk then get back to learning. I remember to tell all my students I care about them.
Professor Salinas– My Visual Rhetoric professor helped me to teach outside the box. His homework entailed evaluating episodes of The Simpsons for subliminal messages! This was one of my favorite assignments that reminded me learning can be effective and fun. I really enjoyed the textbook and still use it today. He also let us work on projects on our own and did more facilitation than teaching. I created some of my favorite work in his class.
I was fortunate to be blessed with a plethora of amazing educators and am thankful for them all! In the spirit of the holidays, I would like to continue this spirit of recognizing amazing educators who have made a difference in your life and what they taught you! Therefore, I am doing a post tagging and a challenge. I hope you will join me in this challenge. The goal is to tag a few bloggers who you think would post about their favorite educators and the lessons they learned. Please leave the link here so we can read them as well!
I am tagging you, Arjana Blazic, Monika Hardy, Tamas Lorincz, Mary Beth Hertz, and Aniya Adly.

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For each of you, remember you are an amazing educator making a difference in several students’ lives everyday! Let no one make you feel that what you do is any less than one of the most significant jobs in the world! I dedicate this poem to you, What Teachers Make, by Taylor Mali.

Challenge:

Tag! You’re it! Go appreciate the educators who influenced you in your blog!

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