Priorities as an Educator

During our fieldwork meeting on Wednesday we had a brief discussion on some things we had learned or been reminded about public schools through our Fieldwork III experiences. Many people were bringing up negative things. Negative things about administration, student standardized testing and the way they have been assigned to evaluate teachers, and students who struggle in school and do not get the support they need. Surely all of these things are important to be addressed. Often administration does not support the teachers they way they need it, therefore the state prescribes these mandated evaluation systems, all the while effecting the students and their success and learning. My point here is that everything that happens above ends up effecting each individual student.
Instead of making these issues our main concern, which is difficult to do as they have become the talk of New York state teachers, we should be making individual students our main concern. Something I was reminded of during my Fieldwork was something that I did not get a chance to bring up at our meeting. This is the importance of creating a comfortable and positive classroom environment. My mentor teacher had surely done this. Sure there were students who were chatty and occasionally slacked off but there was a certain respect that was apparent throughout each of her classes. She created an environment where she treated her students as responsible individuals and they respected her for that. She mentioned that although she has been working on dealing with these mandated testing requirements, she is still making her students her main priority. She has not let these things get in the way of how she is going to run her classroom. She eats her lunch in her room because there are students who come in to talk to her, to ask her for advice, and do some extracurricular art work. During her free periods there are always students in her room, asking if other students can come in, even if just to have a place to go to do homework for other classes. This atmosphere reminded me of why I decided to become an art teacher in the first place. I was reminded that in high school the art room was the place I used to go to when I had that free time and needed that comfortable space.
So when reflecting on our conversation in our fieldwork meeting and all of the negative things said, I wanted to shed some positive light on what can happen in public schools. Creating an atmosphere in which your students can learn and feel comfortable doing so should be your main priority. Not to say that you should not deal with other things such as your administration and state mandated things, because you are going to have to, but you should consider where it all steams down to. The bottom line is, it really is for the students, so your priority should begin with them. Maybe then those students who struggle in school will get the support that they need. Just a thought.