Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and understanding of the areas they teach.
This standard expresses an educator’s wide variety of knowledge base. As educators, we must be comfortable in the areas we choose to teach. For example, if we are teaching about Ancient Greece, first we have to ask ourselves, “Well, what do I already know about Ancient Greece?” If the answer is “nothing,” then we have to either find another subject that we are more comfortable teaching or educate ourselves to the best of our abilities before even beginning that subject with students.
As an educator, I feel comfortable teaching most subjects. However, I like to review all my lessons before I teach them. If I am teaching adding fractions with different denominators, often I will practice doing equations on my own and I write down the process it takes me to complete them. Then and only then do I feel 100% confident teaching that to my students.
Teaching doesn’t just require educators to teach students. It involves preparation, research, and many other things for just one lesson. An educator’s broad knowledge base comes from the knowledge they acquire as a student. However, it also contains what they learned during their undergraduate and the education program. Teachers, myself included, put a lot of work and energy into creating lessons that are accurate and entertaining for students to learn.
As a future educator, I promise to continue broadening my knowledge on the subjects that I teach so that my students can benefit from that knowledge and pass it on to the next generation.