My Current Reality

Hello. My name is Tessa Mauer, and this is my

current reality presentation.

I'll start with a short introduction about myself and then

move into the questions I chose for this project.

My background and teaching is pretty limited.

I have worked in tutoring settings with kindergartners and college

students and an online summer program for middle school students

I've never had to make created in your my own

plans. So I'm definitely excited to get started with this

class and learn a planning conception before, I have really

had time to build up my own biases or habits.

After finishing this program, I planned to go teach secondary

English. And for this project, I chose questions based on

either a what I thought were areas of weakness for

myself, or be ideas that I really want to become

core to my teaching and think that I should be

considering every single day.

So the first question I chose was, what choices have

I given my students lately?

It's not a question I had ever really considered before,

because so much of teaching seems structured from the top

down, and choices seemed like a privilege, not a right.

But it's huge for student growth, and it creates opportunities

for critical thinking in building decision making skills.

So I don't have a lot of practice in thinking

about how this would apply.

And to be honest, I had a hard time thinking

about how to fit this in Is that go forward?

But it's definitely something that I'm excited to learn about

and plan to keep my mind on as I'm going

through this course and all of the others, Um, but

in the past, what I thought about areas I have

incorporated choice.

We're pretty simple, just giving kids a choice between what

home if they wanted to work on.

So if they were having a hard time with a

math worksheet, well, you could try a different math worksheet

or we could move on to reading or something like

that. So, like I said, I don't have a whole

lot of ideas for how to implement choice more so

in the future.

But one of the things I did think of, but

they had actually played this game at work, and we

were told that we had to choose between two things.

Whatever we didn't pick would be erased from the world.

So, for example, if you choose between pancakes or waffles

and you choose pancakes, nobody gets to have waffles for

the rest of their lives.

And then you take whatever you picked and compare it

to the next thing.

So pancakes or apples and you keep going down that

list. And as you can see, the options and choices

get more important and more impactful.

So it's really fun to see people's thought processes and

why they pick what they pick.

I thought this would be a really good thing to

do with my students early on toe.

One. Just get to know them as people on their

preferences, but to to kind of see where they're at

and how they make decisions and use that going forward.

My second question is gin an area of weakness?

What new strategies have I tried lately that might benefit

student I'm struggling with So an example I thought of

from the past was working with middle school students.

Kid was having trouble with a math problem, so I

pulled him out of the online program and I remember

having a cup in a ball and trying to explain

the concept, using those using something that was physical, individual

and he was really engaged and you could tell he

want to get it.

But just anyway, I tried to explain.

It was not connecting, and for the life of me,

I couldn't think of anything else to do outside of

just giving him the answer.

So it was definitely something that waas frustrating.

And I'm really looking forward Thio building up that repertoire,

having creative things to pull from when I get stuck,

especially in the world of education, because as you'll see

here, I have ideas for how to help myself in

the future.

But they're all kind of based on just general human

principles and how you're acting with kids.

So to get into those ideas, some of the things

I thought about where one asking another teacher because it's

great to use somebody else's expertise.

That, of course, can't happen so much in the moment.

So you know, it's a little bit more of a

reflective thing, um, to asking another student, I think with

the shared perspective that students have just out of the

fact that you know they're similar ages doing similar things

exposed to similar content.

They might have a way of framing something that makes

more sense to somebody, um, for lack of a better

word like them.

And the third one, I think, is just being honest

with a student in saying, Hey, I'm really trying to

help you out and for some reason we're just not

communicating. I think that helps quell frustration.

And then that opens up space in both of your

brains to really think about the problem and hopefully move

forward to figuring it out.

And then, lastly, asking the student what they would like

to try giving them input, builds, buy in, and then

that increases the efforts they're willing to put it so

Like I said, these ideas, they're not entrenched in education

and they focus more on the academic, not social behavior,

behavioral side of education.

So I think I definitely have a lot of room

to grow here.

But moving on from these areas of weakness, the next

questions that I chose to focus on are the big

ideas that I want to keep in mind every day.

So the first one being how is my attitude?

How is my demeanor and attitude towards my class today

effective for student learning.

I think this is embodied really well.

In a quote by Roald Dahl.

If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of

your face like Sunbeams, and you will always look lovely.

That quote applies because it captures the idea that what

you internalize is what you externalize and what other people

see and observe.

So when thinking about the kind of attitude demeanor I

wanna have, it's not about striving to appear one way,

but what motivation I need to draw from internally toe,

then express the things that I want to express.

So I'm thinking about that.

I separated out attitude and demeanor based on my understandings

of the words.

I didn't actually look up definitions.

So this is just the connotations that are meaningful to

me. I tend to think of attitude as a little

bit more temporal, and demeanor is a little bit more

stable, but I think those differentiations air a little bit

arbitrary. Um, so some of the things that I want

to express in tthe e idea behind what I have

internalized I wanna have enthusiasm for learning.

I mean, whether that's a student learning a new book

have word understanding how to make an effective argument, doing

well on a math test, learning new football roots.

Just anything because I think that inspires happiness and that

creates ripple effects that we will never see.

I also want to express resilience and flexibility, one because

it makes me a better teacher if I can recognize

that something isn't working and change course, but too, because

those air characteristics that I want students to learn, especially

in today's world, when standards are high and my sleeps

can feel earth shattering they're not.

And it's important for students to have an example of

and start to build into their own internalization that you

can change course and still be successful.

I also want to express calmness that seems in opposition

to enthusiasm.

But I think both could be achieved by changing up

your communication style.

And I think communist is important because it creates the

best environment for learning when students feel like they can

slow down and take their time.

That's when I think you can getting depth and really

help them grow.

And then I want to express it a sense of

being approachable and I think that's kind of generated out

of Communists, so those match together pretty well.

But if my goal a student growth, I always want

them to feel like they can come and ask me

questions without fear of looking dumb or I don't know,

for for some reason they would think that they would

get in trouble.

But I hope that's never something that they would feel

coming to talk to me.

Um, so that's kind of the picture I've created for

myself from the goals that I have set for moving

forward and really trying to tie them to a new

internal priority so that it's easier to achieve them in,

keep them in focus.

Next question I selected was.

Do my actions as a teacher show my belief that

all students can learn at a high level.

And to me, this just feels like the crux of

teaching, helping each student realize that they're valuable no matter

their skills, talents or intelligence.

They have something to give and that I mean, it

makes my heart grow saying that and that is absolutely

something that I want to be in the forefront of

my mind all the time.

and again, I think quote embodies this.

Students don't care how much you know until they know

how much you care.

So to me, that means students make the most progress.

When you A have a meaningful relationship and b, they

feel supported.

So in order to show that support or belief, um,

things kind of blend together, But obviously you need to

say it and show it.

One of the big things for me, I think, is

countering gout.

So when I was working with the college students, we

were in a room of about four kids.

Why was working with one on an English assignment?

And he was having a hard time, I think, picking

up like a theme of a book they were reading.

And so the other students had already finished their project

and they were in that same class.

They're kind of rising him about it.

And it was just immediately I knew I had to

shut down what they were saying about him and then

also focused on that student and try my as best

as I could to redirect him and not let those

statements get in his head.

To be honest, I don't know how effective I was

when I did that, but it was an instant priority

for me, and I know that it needs to continue

to be a priority.

Some other things I could do are praising engagement and

improvement. I think those are important because again, those don't

focus on the knowledge or intelligence of a student.

But the effort that they're putting in, um, Prezi engagement,

I think a lot of that comes from your tone.

It's really easy to take a positive tone with people

who contribute something that really fits in with the point

you're trying to make.

And it's a lot harder to somebody is a little

bit, you know, off the mark to encourage them to

remain engaged.

So for me, a lot of that comes down to

tone, um, and then praising improvement again.

That's not about where the student has ended up, but

where they started and the growth they have made from

there and then in demonstrating it.

This is where please get a little bit trickier, but

I think it's important to as best you can give

equal attention to all students.

So again, on that line of contribution when you have

kids speaking up in class to make sure that they

feel like whatever they have just done is receiving the

same amount of recognition as a student who is Maybe,

you know, really on point all of the time, the

equal responsibility piece is trickier.

I I was thinking about that in terms, I guess

of, you know, if I start a group project trying

to put kids in spots, that they might be a

little bit more uncomfortable and requires a little bit more

of them.

It may not always work, but probably worth trying it.

So that's kind of how I plan to move forward

with showing my belief that all students can learn at

a high level.

Then the last question that I chose what have I

done lately to relieve stress and focus on my own

mental health to ensure I remain an effective teacher?

This is another great question because if you don't take

care of yourself, you can't be effective.

It's counterintuitive to say I'm going to stop doing this

thing. I need to dio that I can enjoy myself

and then be better at the thing that I was

doing but that's exactly how it works.

So for me, that means listening to music and dancing

a lot of times because I think that physical release

helps with stress a lot, too.

It means taking breaks.

I had gotten in the habit of making a giant

to do list and then feeling like I needed to

get all of that done before I could rest, and

I am learning that that is not effective.

It is a lot better to just create chunks for

myself and get a few things done.

When I feel myself getting burnt out, Go listen to

music, go watch TV, go read a book, go for

a walk and then come back.

And I feel refreshed tackling the next activities on the

list and then lastly, making a plan.

So along with having that to do list, creating space

for myself to do that, and that is my process

for mental health

My Current Reality

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated