Best and Worst Teaching Moments
Best Teaching Moment
My greatest teaching moment took place a few years ago when I worked at a rehabilitation center for struggling teens called LifeLine for Youth. At this rehabilitation center, we frequently ran and taught group discussions/lessons to help these individuals work through their struggles and promote personal growth. More specifically, my greatest teaching moment took place during the first lesson I taught at this location where we discussed personal accountability and acknowledgment. What made this lesson so memorable and significant was I was able to truly see how vulnerability can contribute to growth and development. During the lesson everyone would go around and share personal experiences to which they wanted to take accountability for and how they could have altered a different response. Not everyone in the group shared experiences, but the handful of people who shared their experiences were truly able to reflect and take accountability for things many of them were vulnerable and self-conscious about. Afterwards several of them talked about how opening up and being vulnerable in a supportive environment helped them process information that they had been struggling with for quite some time.
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This experience truly opened up my eyes about how a positive and supportive environment can contribute to growth and development for those who open up and are vulnerable. Within Physical Education, there is a high likelihood that many of our students will come into the class self-conscious about themselves and their health. It is our jobs as educators to influence a positive environment to where these individuals can feel safe enough to be vulnerable to work and strive for personal growth and development.
Worst Teaching Moment
My worst teaching moment took place within an After-School Program located at Mount Ogden Jr. High School. During this experience, I was teaching a lesson surrounding the topic of “Saving The Environment” to which the students would learn about the benefits of recycling and how to make an impact in their own neighborhoods and schools. Unfortunately, from the very beginning of the lesson I had an extremely difficult time getting any of the students’ attention or respect. The lesson was supposed to last 45 minutes and we were unable to get to any of the important points/topics of the lesson which left me feeling frustrated and like I “failed” the students.
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While this experience was a very frustrating one, I am still thankful for the opportunity to learn from the experience and being able to look back to see all of the progress I have made as an educator. Believe it or not, this also helped reinforce the idea that I wanted to go into education to help make an impact in student’s lives. Knowing that I still wanted to work with kids after this experience (that would leave many teachers wanting to quit) was a solid reinforcement that I was going into the right career path. I think it’s also crucial to realize that in order to appreciate the “highs” of teaching we also have to experience the “lows” as well.