A Teacher's Impact

    Teachers impact their students and the environment of the classroom. While growing up, my teachers have all had an impact on my learning whether it was positive or negative. I can remember back in middle school and high school which teachers and subjects were my favorites and least favorites. I mostly remember my negative experiences, sadly enough, because they effected my view on the subject that was taught or that teacher made me feel a certain way that was not positive.
    Starting with a positive, my favorite subject in high school was art. I loved every bit of that class and my teacher made it even better. I absolutely loved the subject that was being taught and all of our art projects throughout the years. I remember how encouraging my teacher was towards me academically and also personally. I remember how she would take time to help her students individually when they needed her assistance. She was always on the move in the classroom and was constantly engaged with her students. I also remember her being very personable and approachable to all of her students which is one of the main reasons why I enjoyed her as a teacher as much as I did. She was even organized with her lessons and very knowledgeable in her subject of teaching which was shown to me through her passion for art and her students.
    World History was unfortunately one of my least favorite subjects in high school and it was not because of the subject. I sadly did not enjoy most of my history classes in high school because of the way the subjects were taught by the teachers. Specifically, I can remember my World History teacher making us type vocabulary words almost every week. I remember her also having us answer the questions from the textbook in the back of each chapter while she would sit in the back of the room at her desk staring us down to make sure we would not talk.
This teacher did not seem to know her content well which then led into poor teaching techniques. She also did not create assessments that truly tested our knowledge of the class, but instead created tests that were strictly from older TAKS tests to help us prepare more for our end of year test as she thought.
    Reflecting back to when I was in grade school, I know what it feels like to feel left out from the rest of the class, and I also know what it feels like to feel included and important in a classroom. I struggled with learning in certain subjects because I had mild dyslexia which effected the way I learned and comprehended information. I want to create a warm and welcoming classroom where my students feel encouraged but also challenged. I want to use words of encouragement to talk to my students and create high standards in my classroom for my students to be successful in my course. I would like to incorporate many things that I have seen in my own teachers, but also change a few things. I am so thankful for all of the amazing individuals I have been blessed to have as my teacher over the years because I can learn from their positives and negatives of teaching to bring into my own classroom.