Professionalism in Education

Introduction

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     Professionalism in our education system is a vital part in ensuring a successful learning environment for students. Professionalism is showing the ability to have competency of all knowledge and skills that are required to be an exemplary educator. It is also the ability to have strong communication and relationships with student’s and their families to help develop and support student growth and learning progression. In this paper, I will describe what professionalism means to me and what I expect to see in the teaching field.

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Professionalism Means to Me

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     Professionalism to me means the ability to show mastery of subject knowledge. In order to effectively teach, one must be able to clearly instruct students to learn and comprehend the meaning of the material. It also means the ability to identify different learning styles and differences and have the ability to adapt instructional methods to meet each and every student’s needs. Educators must be proficient in time management and planning skills. This is a vital skill set needed to cover all the material and give students sufficient time to practice, learn, and retain the material presented. Professionalism means to me that I am setting high expectations and goals for myself to be able to clearly communicate to students to effectively teach lessons that identify to each student’s learning style in an organized manner with a positive and encouraging attitude. How can we set high expectations of our student’s if we don’t set high expectations of ourselves?

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Expectations in the Classroom

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     My expectations to see in the field is a very real look at the day in the life of an elementary classroom. I expect to see a variety of teaching and instructional methods used to present the different material to the students. I expect to see how a teacher organizes and manages an effective environment for students to learn. I hope to see and gain knowledge of how a teacher uses different strategies to create a productive learning environment while managing and redirecting student behavior disruptions. If teachers don’t provide a safe and secure learning environment for students, how can we expect for them to productively learn?

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Conclusion

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     A professional and effective teacher must be able to demonstrate a wide variety of skills and knowledge. Teachers must not only be knowledgeable about the content, but also how to present the material in a way that reaches different learning styles and developmentally different levels. They must be able to efficiently use their time to teach a wide array of material in one day while also meeting the fundamentals of providing a safe and secure environment for learning to take place. It takes all of these skills in order to make a complete professional learning environment in which students can grow and be challenged to do their best every day.