I believe that learning is highly self-motivated. Every person has an intrinsic desire to learn, and this desire can be fueled or extinguished by educators. As a teacher, I will fuel students’ desire to learn by gauging their interests, incorporating their interests into the curriculum, and reinforcing positive behavior and effort with positive rewards. I will strive to engage students with content emotionally, physically, intellectually and socially, in order to better understanding. Additionally, I will model asking good questions, and encourage students to conduct their own research and inquiry outside of the classroom, rather than depending heavily on the teacher as an endless repository of knowledge.
I believe that learning is an interactive experience. Students learn from one another, experiences, the teacher, and through engaging with thought-provoking materials issued by the teacher. In my classroom, I will give students optimal opportunities to reflect on their own thinking, participate in discussion, interact with rich material, and collaborate ideas and skills. As Howard Gardner would suggest, I believe that every person learns best in different ways, however, no student should be limited or restricted to one modality of learning. To meet every learners needs, I will incorporate a variety of diverse activities and instructional strategies into my classroom, appealing to every learner, and encouraging growth in each child’s areas of weakness and strength.
What do I believe about teaching?
I believe that teaching should be geared toward student understanding rather than simple regurgitation of information. If teachers can be replaced by computers, they should be. Therefore, teaching should seek to offer students what a computer cannot. Teaching for understanding refers to teaching that allows students to transfer what they have learned to new, diverse and authentic situations. I will accomplish this in my classroom by first assessing students’ prior knowledge, determining what understandings students should take away, developing diverse assessments that will measure these understandings, identifying the content that will lead to these understandings, and lastly, planning instruction that will teach the content.
I believe that teaching should adhere to, but not be limited to the standards of learning. Standards of learning are necessary to hold teachers accountable for covering the essential content. Additionally, standards of learning are important because they determine students abilities to succeed outside of the classroom. For example, today's education system is highly based on standardized testing, and therefore, students need to be able to perform well on standardized tests. Therefore, I believe that standards of learning are important and when planning for instruction I will use them as a reference point, building on them according to the needs, abilities, and interests of my students.
What is my role as an educator?
My primary role as a educator is to foster positive relationships with students. Children need adults who give them praise, affirmation and direction in order to blossom into mature, confident and successful adults. Children need to learn to respect themselves, one another, and authority figures. However, children do not respect adults who do not show them respect in return. I will respect children as people who have inherit value and worth. Although I am an authority figure, I will remind students that they have a voice, and that it is their responsibility to use their voice to communicate their needs and thoughts with adults and classmates. I will give students optimal opportunities to speak and discuss and I will listen to what students have to say rather than dominating the conversation. I will also give students the opportunity to listen to and respect one another's thoughts and ideas. This will serve to teach students that I value and respect them as people and build positive relationships and a safe and strong classroom community of learners and collaborators.
As an educator, I will look for ways to involve each child's family in their student's education. This may involve participating in formal classroom events, or it may involve contributing to building a better child-parent relationship, which I believe will in-turn result in a more positive educational experience for their student. Family involvement is essential to student success and I will do whatever it takes to communicate the victories, needs, and goals for each child to the families of children in my classroom in order to build a firm and dedicated support system for each child.
What is the role of the students?
In my classroom, students will be encouraged to be active and responsible learners, citizens, and community members. Students will be expected to turn their work in on time, follow directions, seek additional help when necessary, and use instructional time wisely. Students will also be encouraged to seek their own information outside of the classroom, and should be held accountable for their own learning to some extent. Students should be expected to contribute positively to the routines and duties that make the classroom run efficiently and effectively. Lastly, students should be expected to look for ways to be helpful and kind, even outside of routine duties. For example, being partners with a student who no one else wants to be partners with, etc.
Ultimately, it is my hope that students would be motivated to belong in a thriving community, offering their own unique skills, ideas, and passions. In order to achieve this goal, I will strive to create a social, collaborative and accepting learning community in my own classroom.