Greg Ellis shares his learning journey from childhood experiences with family to his time as a student and vision as a future teacher. As a child, he learned golf from his grandfather and guitar from his father, experiencing important early learning outside of school. In high school, he discovered his passion for teaching science due to an enthusiastic teacher. Ellis believes good teaching requires making lessons relevant and challenging while also developing relationships and interests in students' lives. His goal as a teacher is to show students their potential and help them achieve great things through hard work.
2. The Beginning: Home
•
Such an important part of growing up and learning the
rights and wrongs of life come from parenting and a
persons home life. As a child I was extremely lucky to have
a very close family life. There were entire family gettogethers weekly and many other activities gave the
opportunity for our family to spend time together through
the week. The first form of learning and being taught
which I can remember, is when my grandfather taught me
how to golf. All of my family members golf. Golf is a
wonderful teaching lesson, it teaches a person
discipline, self control, practice and much more. I was
lucky to have such a great teacher to scaffold my learning
as I grew up. Another childhood learning experience was
learning to play the guitar. My father was the lead guitar
player in “The Ellis Family Band”. He showed me how to
play the guitar, and supported me in getting better with
lots of practice. Both of these activities were excellent
learning experiences which occurred outside of
school, which is where children are taught for the first
time.
3. Family
Family plays such a large role in a persons development. They make a
person who they are, and instill traits which will guide them through life.
4. School as a Student: AH-HA!
•
Thinking back through my years of grade school, I
can pick out what I feel makes a good teacher
and what aspects of those teachers I would like
to portray myself. I truly realized that I would
pursue the role of teaching in my high school
years. I immensely enjoyed going to school each
day, but loved even more helping my friends
through subjects they struggled with. When I got
into my grade 11 Biology class I realized that I
wanted to be a science teacher. I had the same
teacher for grades 11 and 12 biology and I was
extremely lucky to have had such a great
influence. There were a few things that I really
liked about his teaching. Firstly, he was very
enthusiastic and excited about our subject. He
kept up to date on everything happening in the
world of biology and made his students excited
by introducing us to the relevant information he
was learning.
Grade 3 Homeroom
5. The 3 Legged Stool of Learning
Relevant Rigorous Relationship
“Students learn what they care about, from people they care about, and who
they know, care about them.” ~ Barbara Harrell Carson (Dyck 2012)
As I mentioned, for student to be drawn in to a
subject a teacher must be able to make the
material relevant and exciting. The material
must also be rigorous, meaning that it must
challenge a students ability to learn and grow
their knowledge. An important factor which is
sometimes played down is how important the
student/teacher relationship is. If a teacher
shows some interest in a students life, in and
out of school, the teacher can gain the respect
and trust of a student. This may be the
difference in a student enjoying a course, but
possibly even make the difference in them
passing. (Dyck 2012)
7. Important Quotes
• “Don’t just teach kids how to count, teach em what counts.” ~ Karen
Salmansohn (Dyck 2013)
• “More than ever, the sheer magnitude of human knowledge renders it’s
coverage by education an impossibility; rather, the goal of education is
better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and
learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge that allows people to
think productively about history, science and technology, social
phenomena, mathematics, and the arts.” ~ Bransford, J., Brown, A.&
Cocking, R.
• Focus on the culture of excellence and the structures will evolve to
support that culture." (Stolp & Smith, p. 14, 1995)
8. My Vision
• As a future teacher, I have set my sights
high and intend to do many great things. I
believe to be a great teacher, more needs
to be done than showing up each day and
getting through the curriculum.
Connections need to be made with
students, support needs to be given and
passionate teaching should be seen
through the students eyes. Although there
is a curriculum to follow, I will find ways to
engage the students interest. It is inevitably
important to make connections with
students of different race and culture as
well, to make sure each student knows that
school and the classroom are a safe and fun
environment to be a part of.
9. Reach for the Stars
• Each person has something
simply genuine about them.
My goal as a teacher is to
show my students their
potential and let them know
that with hard work and
determination they can be
truly great.
