John Appenfeldt's Blog

Our interviews give us a great insight on the perspective of an impactful teacher. These interviews gave great advice on specific topics and here is what I learned from the two interviews.

The most important thing is to be personable. What I mean by this is that everything is not just math, german, or history class. Sometimes the kids you are teaching need some time, and sometimes you may need time too. It is okay to give them a break from math and it is okay for the teacher to have a small break as well.

Another thing I have learned from these interviews is that the connection you get with some of your students is something that will never go away. These are your students for the rest of your life, and even if you dont recognize them after they have been out of your class for a while, the impact you made on them will allow them to recognize you for the rest of their life.

The final and one of my favorite things I learned form these interviews is that you are going to mess up, and that is okay. You will be able to lean on the people around you when you need it. Along with this, sometimes people will have to lean on you. The most important thing is that you do not give up because there are other people relying on you. It is bigger than just yourself, it is all of the students that need you.

The Wisconsin Schools project allowed us to take a look at an area where that we may not be familiar with. Along with this, we get to understand specific things such as the demographic of the area, the amount of students in comparison to staff/teachers, and many more important things. Looking at an area like Milwaukee, where there is such a great diversity of people can really change these numbers. Along with this, it makes some of these variables more difficult to find. One of my favorite parts of this project was seeing the student to teacher ratios. Some of these amount might surprise you seeing how some school can have far more students yet the same amount of teachers.

The most valuable thing I learned from the Wisconsin Schools Project was that everyone is in a different situation, but the schools will make it work for the children. Each school we looked at and will look at throughout the semester will do whatever is best for the students. This is because the staff understand that the world doesn’t revolve around themselves, and that they are there for a reason bigger than themselves.

The Ed Talks that we created and watched throughout the past weeks all gave great information on different people in different situations all over the world. These situations gave us an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and ask what we would do if we were involved with these kids lives. Some of these instances include racism, homophobic remarks, and other things that may happen to our students when we become teachers. When we look at these situations it allows us to put our heads together and ask how to handle it, while also getting feedback from our peers in the classroom. These Ed Talks also showed us that collaboration can really help sometimes. Often when questions were asked to the whole class most people stayed silent or did not have ideas. While when some people had us form groups, many more ideas were produced.