“Great Teachers are Equal Opportunists” Chapter 12: Schmidt

I really enjoyed this chapter on lifelong learners. Currently as a student, I mainly think about taking extra courses like a master’s program, attending seminars, or becoming a member of an educational organization.  After reading this chapter Schmidt opened my mind to other unique ways that teachers can continue to become learners. Even though Schmidt did suggest joining organizations and reading journals, I liked how she talked about collaborating with other teachers is a way to become a lifelong learner within the school. I never really thought about a lifelong learner as collaborating, but as I read it made more sense when teachers collaborate and join classes or even share ideas across other curriculums.

As a future educator I hope to be able to integrate other units within my physical education class, and hope to find a teacher that would like to integrate physical education into their classroom. Together I feel that both teachers and students would benefit from collaborating and learning together listing and learning to appreciate different ideas and opinions.  

Another section I found interesting was becoming a cooperating teacher for a student teacher. I feel and hear often that teachers leave the class or become disconnected with the students and student teacher, for the student teacher to teach full time. I believe that may be effective for a day or two, but in reality a student teacher is supposed to be learning from a mentor that has experienced teaching and can teach and model best practices in the classroom to the student teacher. With my experience, I hope to have a student teacher one day when I feel that I have many good experiences as well as strategies to really help a student grow. I feel that at some point I would be able to take responsibility as a cooperating teacher and provide a student teacher with the experience they deserve to become an effective teacher.   

I have every intention as an educator to continue to learn and grow in order to stay current with the always changing students and units being taught in health and physical education.