Everyone's journey begins

Everyone has the chance to make a difference in people's lives. We just need to navigate in the right direction. For instance, teaching can make a huge impact in the students' lives. But it could be a good or even bad impact. When I was reading "Our Journey Begins," by Susan Bernheimer explains how a teacher tries to find ways to reach her students to better their education. She went through many obstacles but never gave up. One way she reached her students, was asking a question about "what they think is most difficult about raising our children today?"(Bernheimer 4) In result, students made conversations because it was towards they interest.

Furthermore, another topic that is giving children tests. Do children improve their test scores from taking tests? This issue creates a lot of conflicts within the education society. I believe children create more anxiety and low self-esteem when taking tests. The story "Think Less Benchmarks," by Amy Gutowski explains how children are taking tests called adequate yearly progress (AYP). A teacher feels AYP is not appropriate for children because the test does not relate to teacher's benchmark/format. Hence, this teacher believes children could do something more productive than just filling in bubbles. Some studies discovered that children develop a negative thought about tests. Children will tend to score bad because there's so much anxiety. C

In conclusion, I believe we as teachers need to find ways to open up children and make them feel comfortable. Working with each individual and finding their interest can help children's motivation towards education. Also making a positive environment can help them achieve more obstacles. For example, I work with special needs children. I always try to keep them involved with many different social groups to help them feel comfortable, and they are no different from the others. In result, they feel comfortable in their skin and have confidence to asks anyone for assistance.

My journey had been through rocky roads, but I will keep on moving forward and find my destination to be a great teacher who makes a difference in children's lives.