Meeting the needs of Students

I think is what scares the most about teaching, is failing and not meeting the needs of my students. I am scared that I am going to do what I need to but it would be enough, and I will not have given what my students need to succeed in future grades. From reading the article, I understand that having a connection with your students is going to be very important. But where do we draw the line between having an emotional connection and becoming too attached to the students. I know that many first year teachers’ dreams are to have some sort of lasting impact on all the students one comes in contact with. But I am afraid of being coming overall attached, and making myself emotional overwhelmed. I feel again with this article I am left with many questions; looking forward to being in a classroom, and seeing how the answers will come about. The classroom is going to be a two way street the students are not only going to be learning from us, but we as teacher are going to be learning from the students. We are going to have to learn how to make adjustments all the time. We are going to have to find creative ways in which we engage the students. We can teach, “…through making learning more relevant to their lives and purposes,”(pg. 843). It means showing them what they are learning in the classroom can be applied and found out in the real world. Again in this article it brought up the topic of teachers, “…wanted to provide a safe, secure environment, a caring environment…”(pg. 844). There was one last point that I thought was interesting that Hargreaves brought up about a teacher how was scared that she was not meeting both needs of the students who were exceptional and demanding, but now is worried about the “the average child’. This really got me thinking about anytime we talk about children it is the ones who are coming in behind, or falling behind. It is always talk about what we have to or can do to help these children succeed. There is always talk about putting these children on 504’s or IEP’s because this is the extra support we can give them. Then you have the students who we call “gifted” who come in above grade level, or who “just get” the materials. We can move them in gifted classes with other children like them, or given them extra worksheets, ones that challenge them. But we are forgetting about the students who are where they supposed to be. What are we doing for them? It got me thinking that we kind of push them aside because they are meeting standards are not on either ends of the learning spectrum. What are we doing to push them, challenge them?