What Have I Learned?

     The responsibilities of a professional educator are something that I am actually rather familiar with.  My father is in education, and spent about 10 years in the classroom, and has now moved into administration.  I have, however, expanded my knowledge of these responsibilities during my time in this program.  With the prominence of social media in today's world, it is important for teachers to maintain ethical relationships with students inside and outside of the classroom.  During our digital footprint lab, we learned more about how teachers can protect themselves on social media.  This was an issue that I had some trouble with.  I am from the area that I am doing my clinical placement and I have coached for a few years prior to beginning this program.  Since I have done this, and am very active in my community, I already followed many students at the high school, and many students already followed me.  I went through all of my active social media accounts and blocked all the students I had, except for a couple of my family members who are students.  I will admit, much of the ethics of teacher is frustrating.  In conversations I have had with other cohort members and current teachers at my clinical placement, teachers, especially male teachers, have to watch everything they do so not to offend or put themselves or students into suggestive situations.  For example, when I and facilitating a lab and walking around the lab tables, which is usually a crowded area because of the large class sizes we have, I keep my hands in my pockets at all times.  I do this because I am a young male teacher, and not that I think any of my students would, but if my hand were to brush a female student's rear, they could say that I did it on purpose and jeopardize my professional status.  I try to be as conscientious as I possibly can so my integrity does not come into question.

     One of the most beneficial experiences in terms of professional responsibilities I have had is our meetings with the PAGE representative and lawyer.  The most recent meeting we had that discussed retirements, payment and interview information was extremely helpful.  Much of those are things that a lot of people do not think about until they are offered a job, and by that time it may be too late to make a decision to take another position. 

     Something that I feel is one of the most important responsibilities of educators is the attendance of professional development.  We have discussed on multiple occasions that if a teacher feels that they have mastered the profession and that they do not need to grow anymore as an educator then they are lying to themselves.  Every educator has the responsibility to not only themselves, but to their school and students to attend professional development sessions.  Our meetings with the science consultant was an example of a professional development that the entire Biology department at Habersham attended, and it did help advance our classes.  Another professional development I have attended is the STEM Forum.  Sadly, the sessions I attended and had the highest hopes for learning things that would help our students, were canceled.  There were three sessions I went to that the presenter did not show up.  I do feel that if the presenters showed up, the forum would have been very beneficial.

Responsibilities of Professional Educators