Mr. Fields’s connection with students

Mr. Fields is a 9th grade ELA teacher at CJHS. He has good energy in his classroom and he tries to connect with his students on a deeper level other than just ELA. 

Mr. Fields reflects on his favorite teacher, Mr. Cassidy, his Construction Tech teacher. 

“There was one high school teacher I had that saw something in me. I liked the teacher’s teaching style. They didn’t teach, they taught me as an individual and not just as another student; I try to emulate that in my own classroom,” Fields said. 

Students in his classes say that they love Mr. Fields’s teaching style. The students feel connected with him because he is teaching the students and not just the subject. 

There are some difficulties with teaching, as Mr. Fields points out, “The hardest part, probably for me, is grading. I love all aspects of teaching, but grading can be very very time consuming especially with me because I give probably too much feedback, and a lot of times I’m learning that a lot of the kids are not even reading the feedback that I provide. So it’s a perfect balancing act, but the actual art of teaching, I love it.” 

If I were a teacher I would also dislike grading, from what I’ve heard it is a long and boring process.

Mr. Fields loves teaching even with the grading, “I think  the pleasure in teaching ELA has been watching kids grow. I really enjoy seeing where they are in August versus where they are in June; you see a tremendous growth in the way they interpret literature. Their  creative writing explodes, their ability to construct arguments improves greatly. It’s a slow process, everyone will see that incremental improvement as the months come up.” 

Mr. Fields shows that the best part of teaching is watching kids grow.