I believe a student’s success stems from an intrinsic desire for knowledge and that it is an educator’s duty to develop or enhance a child’s interest in learning. I believe that intrinsic motivation is necessary to enrich students’ interest in becoming a lifelong learner. An educator must lead in example by sharing their endless curiosity and personal growth. Learning occurs every single day often without recognition. Teaching is an ever-changing profession therefore, I consider myself a lifelong learner and hope to inspire my students to become lifelong learners too.
Learning is a continual process, making it necessary for an educator to implement a range of assessments. Each student has a different way of displaying his or her knowledge. This requires the teacher to provide a variety of assessments and evaluations. Methods may include allowing for student choice, formative, summative, or authentic assessments. I have found technology to be a strong resource in gathering data during instruction to efficiently measure student understanding and inform my own teaching practice. Authentic assessments allow students to make connections between home and school while concurrently increasing students’ abilities to collaborate.
In my practice, I believe that collaboration is key. This encompasses communication between the teacher and parents, other professionals, and the community. Additionally, it is important for students to build upon their collaboration, oral and written communication skills. One practice that I have observed during my field experiences includes a school-to-home initiative in which the teachers provided food packages for students from low-income families each Friday to supply the student for the weekend. As an educator I believe that I can truly impact students lives most by taking the time to focus upon the whole child. I believe that by working together, a school can provide students with a stable community and support system, leading to higher levels of confidence and achievement.
My teaching practice is built upon differentiated, data-driven instruction that engages all students and ends with self-reflection to strive for continual growth. I believe equity is necessary in a classroom meaning; every student gets what he or she needs in order to meet his or her maximum potential. This is going to look different for every student, not just students with special needs. Differentiation could include various groupings, leveled content, mixed instructional strategies, or an array of data collection methods. During my student teaching experience, I aimed to incorporate a variety of learning styles into each lesson to meet all learners’ needs. I incorporated kinesthetic activities, collaborative activities, and independent work, along with visual and auditory instruction often enhanced by technology. In order to plan I had to learn the modalities that each of my students held. This led to stronger lesson plans resulting in higher levels of participation, engagement, and achievement. It is necessary to explain differentiation to students so that they understand that “fair” does not necessarily mean every student will always be doing the same thing.
In my classroom I believe that self-reflection is necessary for continual growth. I plan to model this for my students by implementing new teaching strategies and improving upon my practice. I will encourage my students to reflect upon their accomplishments to foster continual self-improvement.
By increasing students’ awareness that they are all unique and require different strategies to learn concepts, a respectful classroom community can be built. In my classroom, I plan to strive to achieve an environment where students feel welcomed, safe, and valued. I will encourage students to celebrate their differences to work towards increased confidence. I want my students to know that making mistakes is not something to fear but something to celebrate for that is how we learn. Strong classroom management skills are necessary in order to build a community of learners where students are held to high expectations. I plan to teach my students to take control of their learning and to manage their own behaviors. I plan to teach life skills alongside academics, for example, self-advocacy, responsibility, organization, time-management, and effective communication skills. In my classroom, I will always strive to aid my students in whatever way I can to ensure life-long success.
Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be." -Rita Pierson