Devrani Narine-Gadar Student ID: 04740401

Assignment 1

How do you think about yourself as a teacher? Develop your teaching metaphor.

In an ecosystem, the producer is the starting point of all food chains and food webs. It contains

the most amount of energy that can be passed from one member to the next. Without the

producer, the network simply cannot be sustained. In the world of education, I often view myself

as a producer, a tree.

A tree plays a variety of roles. It provides food, shelter and support to other members within the

ecosystem. The organisms that depend on the tree for survival are equivalent to my students.

The various roles of the tree within an ecosystem all ensure the growth and development of the

organisms that depend on it. Likewise, the teacher, in the delivery of the curriculum, is

responsible for providing the relevant information required for both academic and personal

growth. Teacher-student interactions also create a framework for academic and personal support.

The tree, on the other hand, depends on its abiotic environment to ensure its own sustainability.

The curriculum can be likened to the abiotic environment. The environment is the means by the

tree obtains and creates the energy to be transferred. Likewise, it is essential that I efficiently

absorb and utilize all that the curriculum provides, so that I can competently interact with my

students and impart relevant knowledge unto them.

Furthermore, the ecosystem is equivalent to the school. They both house multiple producers

capable of interacting with other members; thereby creating a balance within the domain they

occupy.

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Devrani Narine-Gadar Student ID: 04740401

Interesting the tree in its ecosystem is an apt metaphor. Ecosystems also suggest an interaction

between all parts for balance, and this also seems to be the case.