SED 533 Charlie Johnson

Proactive overlaps somewhat with assertiveness in that a teacher cannot sit around waiting for someone else to take charge of their classroom. They are the person in charge, the leader, the one who determines whether or not the class is productive and stimulating to learning. Thus, being proactive is essential to being a teacher and as such something I should be aware of as it is a profession I am considering.

Another facet of being proactive, beyond just assertiveness, is the idea of not being dictated by stimuli but rather assessing the situation and acting as one sees fit. This applies to teachers because they need to maintain the respect of their students and keep control of their class. Students may try to push a teachers buttons and get them to “react” to behavior that some may find frustrating or annoying. It is imperative that a teacher maintains their composure and addresses these situations in a way that can help everyone involved, not merely humiliate or get back at the student. This way the teacher can hope to achieve an environment of mutual respect where the best interests of the students are given priority rather than the capricious nature of one person.

If life can be labeled as something, it could definitely be described as unpredictable. Unpredictability permeates the fabric of our existence: from meteoroligists telling us what the weather will be to varying degrees of success; to sports analysts providing us with their “expert” super bowl picks; to people budgeting for the coming year, noone can say with absolute certaintity and unfallibility what the future holds. However, thats not to say people cannot plan, predict, or expect certains things to happen. What it means is there’s always a chance everything will not always go according to plan. Thus, because a person cannot ‘know’ what will happen they should be ready to accept change if need be.

These same principles apply to the classroom and, consequently, teachers should ‘plan’, or perhaps a more apt word would be prepare, for contingenies. A teacher needs to accept changes rather than trying to fit life into a neat little box which will undoubtedly prove unsuccessful while leaving all parties frustrated. Flexibility allows us to meet life’s unpredicatiblities and adapt to what life, and the classroom, gives us and react accordingly. The concept of being flexible goes beyond the willingness to just ‘go with the flow’ however. It also includes the ability to still accomplish what one set out to do in the beginning, but maybe just not the same way originally planned. In other words, the willingness and ability to be flexible allows one to ride the metorphorical wave that is life.

This is a picture of Guam taken shortly after Typhoon Paka in 1998, if I remember correctly. I lived here between the ages of 2 and 13 and during a visit a couple years ago I came in contact with a teacher from the Department of Defense school on the Island. After this interaction I discovered that DODEA would be a great way to work, travel, and experience a different part of the world. So, upon graduating in May 2012 it is my hope that I am able to obtain a teaching position somewhere overseas, preferably with the DOD.

Body language and a person’s overall demeanor can relay messages about what they are thinking, their emotions, or how they perceive a situation. These signals are not always accurate but someone perceiving these messages may read into them whether they do so consciously or not and whether or not the person sending them is even aware about what they are doing. Because of this dynamic of human interaction and the classroom reality that a teacher is often in front of the entire class and many times the center of attention, body language is something the teacher needs to be constantly aware of to ensure they are not sending negative or discouraging signals to their students.

A teacher who is sending ineffective signals to his students such as never smiling may lead the class to think the teacher does not want to be there or dislikes the people in the classroom. This may be an oversimplification and just one small example, but even so a simple smile once in a while may help the teacher build stronger relationships between him and his students. In turn, his students may prove to work harder and behave themselves better in class. Granted, as I said this is a bit of an oversimplification but the idea remains that body language sends messages, whether the sender means to or not, and those messages can often have consequences through the perceptions, and sometimes reactions, of other people. Teachers, as a result, should keep this in mind while interacting with their students.

I started about nine years ago.
  
Sometimes we’ll stay at one spot and other times we’ll float a good portion of the river.

The best months, I’ve found, are May through August although, with a wet suit, it is possible to enjoy year round.

A desert sucker is the most common fish to spear at the salt river (and the easiest) 

To spearfish I use a 5’ long aluminum pole spear.

An elastic band on the end is looped through the crook of the thumb and stretched along the length of the spear to create tension. 

The spear is shot by releasing one’s grasp while keeping a barrel shape to guide its path. 

The tip above is a three-pronged ‘paralyzer’ although I usually use a single-barb tip which has a foldable flap to ‘hook’ the fish once it has passed through the body.