My biggest take away from all of the readings is my continued notion that teaching is hard. It seems that teachers are always under a microscope with their actions and how it could portray back onto the community or the school at large. It reminds me of what life might be like as a politician.
Other than what I already knew about teaching being hard, I also learned quite a few ethical standards that can be related back to the online teaching world. From the Pennsylvania Code 235.4, it states, “Professional educators shall maintain high levels of competence throughout their careers”. This is important with an online environment because online tools and technology are always changing. It is important to stay up-to-date and remain competent in the ever-changing technology. With remaining competent, it is important to continue professional growth in an online community. As stated in principle 2 from the Association of American Educators, professional growth is an important part of being a teacher. One way that online educators can continue professional growth is through taking online classes, like I am doing with this course.
With professional growth comes an urgency to reflect on how the information will be used in your classroom. In the toolkit we looked at this week, it talks about how “teachers should be motivated by universal respect for human life and guided by principles of caring…”, to me that speaks to how we should use the other websites we read and how we should use the codes to be the guiding light for us as educators (Dreon, 2018, p.5). Dreon earlier notes that “a teacher’s ethical stance will govern how he or she instructs and assesses students…how a teacher interacts with students, with colleagues, with administrators, and with the community at large” (2018, p.4). This is important to understand in an online environment because as a teacher you have to reflect on the standards for ethical conduct and where you fall into those standards. Especially online, where it is easier for things to be taken out of context, rather than if you are face to face and they can read your body language.
As I was reading, nothing was too surprising. Most, if not all, seemed like common sense to an “effective” educator. I could see how some of these code of ethics could be an issue to first year teachers coming out of college, but as you become more skilled in your craft, it doesn’t seem like it should be a problem to understand.
One piece that I want to remember from my readings is from the National Education Association, “The educator, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being…”. In all forms of education, it is important to put the person first and remember why you teach.
References:
Association of American Educators. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aaeteachers.org/
Code of Ethics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/30442.htm
CODE OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND CONDUCT FOR EDUCATORS. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pacode.com/secure/data/022/chapter235/chap235toc.html
Dreon, O. (2018). EDUCATOR ETHICS AND CONDUCT TOOLKIT.
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