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1. I believe my responsibilities as a teacher are to fully prepare my students for society, to be critical of their surroundings, to question their beliefs, and to develop strong morals.
2. I believe that learning is a joint effort and goes both ways. I believe the student has so much to learn, but the teacher never stops learning as well. I believe learning is so individualized, and that teachers must work with students to find the method that works best for them, and slowly integrate that into a more mainstream method.
3. I believe that teaching is the most important job in society. Doctors, lawyers, government officials all hold important jobs, but they would not have gotten there without a good education and a teacher that pushed them.
4. I believe the purpose of schooling is to aid in the education of students to fulfill their own path, whatever that may be.
5. I believe all my future students are capable and have potential, and it is my job as a teacher to unlock that for them, to help them see their own light.
6. I believe students learn best when they have somebody that they trust there to push them to be their best. I believe students learn best when there is somebody that knows who they are.
7. I believe my students will learn best when I take the time necessary to learn their learning styles and what they need, as seeing them more than a student but instead a person.
8. I believe community/family is an integral part of the schooling process, and although not completely necessary, it can be a huge help in the support of the students.
9. I believe collaboration is working together to find the best method or outcome. This can happen between teachers, a teacher and their students, or with the community. Whatever best aids the student, the teacher should make the collaborations necessary.
10. I believe being a teacher-activist is incorporating social justice and culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom so that students have opportunities to learn, grow, explore and question the society in which they are a part of.

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I believe the purpose of schooling is to help students find their path. This path is not defined; it can be to continue their education and follow the mainstream path, to follow a trade education, or to be innovative and be an entrepreneur. We as students are trained to follow the mainstream path, thinking that not following that means being a failure. However, the other paths are just as necessary for the function of society. As more students pursue careers that require degrees, the competition for these jobs becomes unattainable (inflation). What used to be enough is now not enough. Likewise, the trade jobs are experiencing a drastic decrease in future employees. We are taught that those who do not go to college are not successful, but those that are in trade markets can earn just as much as college graduates. Additionally, as chapter 4 in American Education points out, "Hacker notes that much of the original funding of higher education came from innovative industrialists who were not college graduates. Today, college dropouts lead the list of innovative developers, such as Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple), and Michael Dell (Dell)" (101).
As a future teacher, I will help students understand that all respected jobs are valuable to the economy, regardless of the path taken. Take a chance, follow what you want to achieve. Stop the mindset that only those who attend college are successful. Teach students the value of their work, rather than their paycheck.

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10. I believe being a teacher-activist is incorporating social justice and culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom so that students have opportunities to learn, grow, explore and question the society in which they are a part of. Students should feel safe in their classroom. With social media being such a big presence in student's lives, if it is a negative presence, students need to escape even that. Students need to be able to learn from what the teacher models about critical thinking and challenging the dominant narrative, and take that example into their own lives. Teachers should inspire students to find their own beliefs (without bias), and to follow through with social justice projects or initiatives. The social goals that school teaches (American Education, Ch. 1), students should have the opportunity to evaluate these and see how they are personally and those around them are affected.

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7. I believe my students will learn best when I take the time necessary to learn their learning styles and what they need, as seeing them more than a student but instead a person. As chapter 6 points out, the majority of teachers are white and push their Eurocentric culture onto students, regardless of the color of the students. By helping students identify and connect with their own personal culture and bringing that into the classroom both in major ways but also subliminal ways, students won't be so pushed into "whiteness"(American Education, p.175). Culturally relevant pedagogy!!

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9. I believe collaboration is working together to find the best method or outcome. This can happen between teachers, a teacher and their students, or with the community. Whatever best aids the student, the teacher should make the collaborations necessary. Collaboration can take place between teachers, how Cindy Ballenger worked with her Haitian colleagues to improve classroom management strategies for her Haitian students. Teachers should use any resources available, including fellow teachers, to improve their classrooms because others have a different lens and background that can help improve your own classroom. Collaboration can also take place between students and their teacher, like when Mr. Chilcoate asked his students to give criticisms about the class and work through together how to improve the class. Students should be able to collaborate with their teacher, as they are the ones learning and the teachers should be able to adapt their teaching, not the other way around. Collaboration should also occur between parents and teachers, because there is no way for a teacher to be completely knowledgable about every single culture. Home visits and communication with parents can help the teacher adapt the curriculum and management to suit any particular student (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke & Curran, 2004).

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I believe community/family is an integral part of the schooling process, and although not completely necessary, it can be a huge help in the support of the students.
I want to extend on this. Having a supportive community and family will significantly help a child with their schooling, but it is possible to do so without. There are students that do not have a good or safe home life that can still succeed in school. However, the community aspect comes into play. When I first read that prompt, I assumed it meant the neighborhood that the student is raised in, but now I believe the community can be anything. The classroom can be the community and having a community in your classroom is necessary for success. Students cannot choose their home life or their parents if they are not supportive, but that does not mean that every child that comes from a non-supportive home is doomed for "failure" (not being interested in their education, a lack of effort, not wanting to achieve higher things, continuing the cycle that they may come from) (Chapter 3, American Education).

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7. I believe students learn best when they are understood and respected. Students know when the teacher does not care about them, when the teacher does not take the time to connect with them, to understand not only their learning style in order to differentiate their lessons, but also understand a students culture, emotion, background and attitude. Teachers should be familiar with everything about a student in order to engage the student in learning. I do not want to be like the teacher in chapter one, who "struggled to connect with students, had difficulty getting them to respond to his questions, and didn't seem too concerned that he wasn't fully engaging students" (p.47). The teacher is oblivious to the students reactions, when in fact the teacher should be gauging the students reactions to better his teaching style and lesson plans.

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8. I believe my responsibilities as a teacher are to fully prepare my students for their society, to be critical of their surroundings, to question their beliefs, and to develop strong morals. Just as we are doing in this class, students in my future classroom will be challenged to analyze why they think the way they do and to consider other opinions. As a teacher, education is the main responsibility, but understanding and building a relationship with students helps find the best way to achieve education.
To build this relationship, I have to understand where my students come from, what their stories and struggles are, as the author of chapter four states "I had to find an approach to teaching that would empower each of my students while addressing their collective needs" (62). If i do not put that effort into my relationships with my students, I will not be able to empower them and address their needs to further their education. And doing this will involve finding their interests and adapting to their methods of learning and communicating, especially if it is not the same white form of communication I am used to. By getting to know students, I will be able to communicate in a way that both parties can understand. Learning this communication and creating a cypher will take time. This still simply fits into the broader category of respect. If I respect another's culture and bring it into the classroom, a relationship will form and learning will take place, and will create a safe environment where students have respect for each other as well.