EDTE 531

Raylene McCreath
November 27, 2015

Identity paper:

Through the years of my life in school, I have experienced both positive and negative situations.
During my days in elementary school, I use to be picked on from other student boys, they use to kick and
push me around. I never knew what to take away from those; I never knew what I did to get picked on? I
remember going home to my mom and telling her what the boys did to me that day; I was in tears a lot,
and use to just wonder why me? However, I had two older brothers growing up, so I learned to tell them
what happened to me and let them deal with the boys who picked on me. All my years in school, I came
to terms that I would experience both good and bad things, but it was up to me to make the best of those
situations. As a future teacher, I know many students will either experience bullying within a school or
outside, neglect from family, trauma, and many more situations. However, I want to be able to help those
students make the best out of what they have to offer and not set my expectations too high. I want to be
that teacher who understands her students struggles, capabilities and to be a role model that they can look
up to, and talk to about anything. Throughout this paper, I will focus on my experiences to reaching this
point in my life and describe the what teaching strategies I will implement into my future classroom.
My school experiences were both positive and negative. The negative situations had to deal with
some teachers not being clear about their expectations on assignments. Most of my teachers had us doing
worksheet style work, which I always found boring after a certain point. One teacher would always read
from the text, I felt that I never got to learn as much as I wanted that way; it was dull, I wanted to be
challenged and to learn from not reading directly from a textbook.
My favourite teacher was my grade 4 & 5 teacher. She was a very understanding teacher, I
remember we had to do a book report for her; I had no idea where to begin or what book I would want to

write about. I went home after school that day and hid in my room because I was too scared and shy to
ask her for help on my assignment. The next day at school, she noticed I wasnt as joyful or talkative as a
usually am in class. She took me aside when we went to the computer lab to start our reports. She was not
a mean teacher at all to me, some students thought otherwise. However, she talked to me very gently and
asked me what was wrong. I finally confessed my challenges about not knowing what book to write
about. She got my input first about what books I have read and what ones Ive enjoyed. We managed to
narrow my choices down to one book Charlottes Web by E.B White. I was so happy afterwards
because I was able to start my work and it was on a book I was very interested in. My mom had just
bought me that book that year before school started, so I was super excited to read it and write about it.
This teacher was a big influence of mine to becoming a teacher. She was very considerate of her
students and their well-being. She always made sure we understood what we were supposed to do and if
we were unsure, she would go over it again to make sure we all understood what she asked. This teacher
will always remain a positive influence in my life and choice of career. She was a teacher who took her
job very seriously and took her students thoughts and ideas into considerations when it came to projects;
for example, when I was stuck and had no idea where to begin with my report, she was there to help me
and guide me. She never told me what books I had to do, she allowed me to choose one that I was
interested in but was also appropriate for school.
Another teacher who had a positive impact on me was my grade 7 teacher. He was amazing! He
was the type of teacher who prepped you for high school. The work we did was challenging but he always
made his lessons interesting. I remember one unit we did on Greek mythology; in the beginning we got
to do a research report on one particular Greek God/Goddess, and by the end of the unit we were
competing in Greek/Roman Olympics of our own. He organized on the stations but it was a great lesson
because he took us outside of the classroom and we were all able to participate against each other in
different Olympic Games. This made the lesson much more fun because we got to do hands on activities
and play games at the same time.

By the time I got to high school, I was nervous because I was going to a whole new school, new
teachers and be with more new students. My high school was not the largest; we had less than 300
students from grades 8-12, which consisted of people from two different towns, 2 reserves and
communities.
One huge thing I disliked about my high school was there were hardly any extra-curricular
activities for us students after school. I remember I had a basketball team to play for in my grade 8 year,
but after that I had no school basketball opportunities. I played on my own time, where my mom would
take time out of her evenings to bring me to basketball practice in Ucluelet with my Junior All Native
Basketball team. My high school was more interested in wrestling as a extra-curricular activity which
only of the school participated in. What about the other of the school students? We were more
interested in basketball, soccer, baseball, and volleyball, but not one teacher took the time to organize
these sports for us to participate in, except for the boys in the schools. They always had a male teacher
who would coach the boys teams. The girls didnt have those opportunities offered to them, I found that
highly unfair!
After I graduated high school, I took a year off to make some money for myself and to make sure
I went to school for a career I was meant to do. This time helped me understand that teaching is the
profession for me. I work great with children; I have the patience and have always been able to be myself.
Ive never felt that I had to change my personality towards children; I can be serious and strict when I
have to be but I am also able to be silly where appropriate. Children Ive worked with or babysat in my
past have always said to me that Youre so fun and cool!! Ive taken that statement with me everywhere
because I like being relatable to other students/children. There comes a time though when I have to set my
fun aside for a moment to make sure I am getting to where I want myself to be. Ive come to terms with
knowing that this career choice of mine is one Im looking forward to and all the experiences to come
with it.

After experiencing these types of things made me think that when I become a teacher, I will set
time aside to do extra-curricular activities after school. I want students to feel that they can have fun and
be able to have a place to go and be with their friends. The activities dont all have to be sports either,
even though thats my background. Im more than willing to learn about what my future students are
interested in and working those ideas into extra-curricular activities, such as Art. Im definitely not an
artist but Im willing to set times to learn and expand my abilities for those students who want to do art
activities. Us as teachers take chances and make sacrifices for students; its all a part of our learning
system and helping those students rise and become stronger students/learners.
I wanted to become a teacher for many reasons; one main one being is that Ive always worked
well with children. I have the patience; I get along with children very easy, whether its me being silly
during a lesson and making it more fun for them or participating in little activities during recess or after
school programs. For instance in a classroom, I would pretend I didnt know how to spell certain words
and have the students spell it aloud for me as a whole class; or for extra-curricularI participate in
activities after school such as a basketball game, allowing the students to see that I can be strict within a
classroom but I know when to have fun too.
As a teacher, I believe that each student has that ability to learn, all abilities are different. Each
student has their own strengths, weaknesses and learning style. As teachers, we must take into account
that each child has a special gift to offer and we must not belittle the students. With have a diverse set of
students every year, me as a teacher will take all learning styles into account as well as my students
interests, therefore being able to implement those into future lessons throughout the year(s).
I believe each and every child has the potential to bring something unique and special to the
world. I will help children to develop their potential by believing in them as capable individuals. I will
assist children in discovering who they are, so they can express their own opinions and nurture their own
ideas.

I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating
atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically and socially. It is my
desire as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential in these areas by providing an
environment that is safe, supports risk-taking and invites a sharing of ideas. There are three elements that
I believe are conducive to establishing such an environment, (1) the teacher acting as the guide, (2)
allowing the childs natural curiosity to direct his/her learning, (3) promote respect for all things and all
people.
When the teachers role is to guide, providing access to information rather than acting as the
primary source of information, the students search for knowledge is met as they learn to find answers to
their questions. For students to construct knowledge, they need the opportunity to discover for themselves
and practice skills in authentic situations. Providing students to access hands-on activities and allowing
adequate time and space to use materials that reinforce the lesson being studied creates an opportunity for
individual discovery and construction of knowledge to occur.
Equally important to self-discovery is having the opportunity to study things that are meaningful
and relevant to ones life and interests. Developing a curriculum around student interests fosters intrinsic
motivation and stimulates the passion to learn. One way to take learning in a direction relevant to student
interests is to include student dialogue about the lessons and units of study. When given the opportunity,
students generate ideas and set goals that make for much richer activities that I could have created or
imagined myself. When students have some type of ownership in the curriculum, theyre motivated to
work hard and master the skills necessary to reach their goals.
A strategy I like to incorporate in to my teaching practice would be to have the students work in
groups and talk to each other about the topic(s) being discussed. I want to go through with this method
because if the children are more interactive with one another about the subject, they could consider each

students understanding of that particular topic. With having the students describe what they learned it will
help the other children see other perspectives and different shared ideas.
I want to incorporate educational games to keep the children motivated in the classroom. For
example, when a student has to write a description of their topic, they can make up their own drama
lesson; they can act out their presentation and describe their topic to the class. With a lesson of this type, I
find it to be more interesting because the children are getting involved with each other, acting out
characters, which could create an easier understanding of their topic/character and it helps with
memorization. This method could be useful because not all children want to sit at a desk doing
worksheets; children want to be active and having them act out their lesson would keep them interested
and focused on what Im teaching them.
Helping students to develop a deep love and respect for themselves, others, and their environment
occurs through an open sharing of ideas and a sensible approach to discipline. When the voice of each
student is heard, an environment evolves where students feel free to express themselves. My classroom
will be a caring, safe, and equitable environment where each child can blossom and grow. I will allow
children to become responsible members of our classroom community by using strategies such as class
meetings, positive discipline, and democratic principles. In showing children how to become responsible
for themselves as well as their own learning, I am giving them the tools to become successful, to believe
in themselves and to love themselves.
Teaching is a lifelong learning process of learning new philosophies and new strategies, learning
from the parents and community, learning from colleagues, and especially learning from the children.
Children have taught me to open my mind and my heart to the joys, the innocence and the diversity of
ideas in the world. Because of this, I will never forget how to smile with the new, cherish the old and
laugh with the children.