Being an educator professional is a challenging experience. It requires a lot of effort while preparing to become one and then carrying out teacher’s functions. It is vital to understand that a teacher’s role is not only sharing knowledge with his or her students but also shaping their worldview and making them ready for life in an economically, culturally, and socially diverse environment turning a teacher in one of the drivers of social changes.
Receiving a certificate, Reading and Literacy, in my case, is taking another step to becoming an educator professional. Taking a closer look at the program outcomes, I have found out that there are areas where I feel both confident and verdant because I still need to develop additional skills and gain new knowledge.
For example, as for now, I believe I am competent in understanding different types of assessments and their strong sides, selecting and interpreting them for specific purposes, using a wide range of texts from various resources in reaching set goals, and have some knowledge of the diversity of society and its value in building relations with people around me. However, I still need to learn how to employ different texts and assessments and “design [and] implement an integrated, comprehensive, and balanced curriculum” (Walden University, 2016a, para. 4) and instructions as well as apply them to practice and take advantage of my knowledge of and respect for social diversity in teaching.
Because I am not a teacher yet, this program will add to my competence because it will help nurture the necessary skills of communication with my future students and creating a fruitful learning environment in my future classrooms. Moreover, it will be advantageous for fostering my development and achieving learning outcomes in M.S. in Education because this program will not only contribute to my apprehension of diversity and applying it to teaching but also benefit me in exploring and developing ways to monitor and organize my future students as well as treat them equitably and increasing the effectiveness of school by establishing productive learning environment (Walden University, 2016b).
What is even more significant, my professional preparation can become a ground for enhancing positive social changes in my educational setting, community, and beyond. Bearing in mind that fostering social change implies finding ways “to apply what [was] learned in the classroom to the real world and make a difference in lives and community” (Walden University, 2016d, para. 1), it will be beneficial for a couple of reasons.
First, it might become a source of positive social change because teachers are those people, who participate in formulating their students’ worldview. For example, treating students equitably today will teach them to treat everyone else equitably in the future. It is vital to be an example to younger generations because they are more passionate about the future and changes in society than older adults (Walden University, 2016c). Moreover, promoting social change is impossible without acknowledging and respect for social diversity whether it is economic, cultural or racial. In this case, a teacher is that person, who can help students realize this simple truth, thus guarantee long-term positive social changes not only in a particular educational setting but also in the community as the whole.
That said, becoming a teacher involves a thorough learning process as well as taking responsibility for making the world a better place to live because a teacher is that link between a family and community that ensures that students become decent members of society.
References
Walden University. (2016a). Elementary Reading and Literacy (PreK-6). Web.
Walden University. (2016b). M.S. in Education. Web.
Walden University. (2016c). 2014 Social change impact report. Web.
Walden University. (2016d). Social change. Web.