Successes

It is inevitable that at times in the classroom, we as teachers will have our good and bad days. The goal, as in any profession, is to have those good outnumber the bad. There are a few steps I have noticed that I can control in order to try and achieve just that. The first one in is preparedness. When I walk in to school for the day and already have everything laid out and ready to go I have a more comfortable feeling which allows me to enjoy the class period even more. I can then take the extra time in the beginning of class to sort of ease the tension with students and talk for a few minutes about life outside of the classroom. It is days like these where I see true connections occurring which only carries over to the students motivation to do work and learn. When they can see that I am putting an effort forward for them, they will return the favor and do the same.

Some of my best successes have come from making those connections outside of the content. I make it a priority to try and find something in relation to each student to try and connect with them over. Teaching here in Baltimore County provides a unique and diverse student body, and with that comes some students who bring a very low motivation to succeed in the classroom. I can think of two different students who arrived in my classroom with little to no work completed on the year and carrying barely passing grades of Ds. The teacher I had took over for had essentially told me not to worry too much about them, but I felt it necessary and the right thing to do to still give them a chance regardless of how late it was in the year. The first few weeks consisted of their same old behavior however little by little I started talking to them about random things and not getting on them too much about missed or uncompleted work. Eventually we found a bond in connecting over shoes, music, and some other aspects of pop culture. It was crazy to see how quickly, once they realized I was just another person like them, they would complete work and participate. Both these students are now carrying B averages for the last quarter after failing to get higher than a D the first three.

The MAT program has prepared me in so many ways, but none more than through events such as the one mentioned above. The coursework made sure to always go back to creating a foundational relationship with students. This above all in my opinion defines a true and valued educator. The second biggest aspect the MAT course has taught me is the value in Hands-on engagement type activities for students. Through examples in coursework and my own Action Research project I see the difference it makes to incorporate STEM-like activities and increase the demand of 21^st century skills for students. This is especially the case in students who have trouble focusing or caring about material they cannot find relevance in. At least with a hands-on activity they are forced to remain focused and experience more of a connection in completing their own work and thinking in new ways as it demands that from them. Overall I could not be more thankful and appreciative for the MAT program, in the beginning they asked what we wanted out of it and I answered relevance, I got just that.