Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program--and Beyond

One of my concerns for when I become a teacher is maintaining control in the classroom.  Managing twenty or more teenagers at once is a daunting task and I worry that it will be too easy for me to let my class get out of hand and then affect their education. Another concern of mine is knowing what to teach my students.  English is a challenging subject to teach and I am not sure that I will know what to teach. I am also concerned with being an effective teacher and not providing my students with a quality education.  My other major concern is job stability. I have already been told by a current teacher to have a back up job in case the teaching profession goes down hill, so that is definitely a concern of mine.

The area of concern that is most present is Self, which is described as "having enough information and wanting to know more are of concern as well as concerns about one's adequacy and ability to be a successful teacher. Doubt might be about knowing enough content, controlling the class, knowing how to teach a particular lesson, or being uncomfortable when standing in front of the class," (528). This statement is for the most part a more elegant way to phrase what I had listed for my concerns.  I did not reflect Task or Impact in my statement, but now I realize that I do have some concerns in those areas. I did not reflect the Unconcerned area at all. I am definitely concerned with various aspects of teaching. My concerns were centered equally on my "ability to succeed, the management of teaching, [and] what [my] students are learning," (529). Under the Self stage of concern, I fall under PERSONAL.  As the description states, I am "uncertain about the demands of the innovation, [my] inadequacy to meet those demands, and [my] role with the innovation," (529).  These personal concerns are certainly where the majority of my concerns lie.