My Teaching Philosophy

I believe that when you are a teacher, you need to make yourself different from all of the other teachers. One way that this can be done is by your teaching philosophy. Teachers are continually learning, and you should use that continuous knowledge to teach something new. Respect is another concept that should be brought in the classroom. The students should be respected along with the teacher. Communication is also a big concept in teaching. You must be able to communicate and communicate well. This leads into another concept - honesty. You have to always be honest - whether it is to a student, parent, fellow teachers, and administrators. Positive reinforcement is also a big concept that needs to be used all of the time in the classroom. If a student is wrong, you need to say "Good try, but that's not the answer I am looking for" and not just say "NO!". I want to keep the curriculum fun and interesting too. Students will get bored if the class is not interesting, so I want the students to be engaged. I will add technology to help me with that interest. Last but not least, we are teachers. We must enjoy our job; if not we hurt not only ourselves but our students, parents, and fellow teachers.

Just Keep Blogging

Another type of technology that I will use is blogging. Blogging is a good way for students to show off their work and development through the year. Blogging also is a good way to post information. Blogging also can allow students to receive feedback from other students to help them fix their work, and to see what they do well also. Blogging is a way to create a intellectual journey of what you have done in the past. Blogging was something I had never wanted to do, and now I want to introduce it to the class. A blog has the ability to share videos, images and text with others.

Parent Involvement

Parent involvement is a big factor in a child's success in education. Parent involvement is an essential component in becoming a good teacher. I am going to encourage it in my class in variety of ways. I am going to help by doing hands on and just encouraging communication with the parents. Parents are the teachers outside of the classroom, so if parents are informed, they will be able to help the student achieve good grades and help students to want to continue their education.

The variety of ways of communication and instruments that I will be glad to use is newsletters (weekly or monthly - depending on the class), blogs, websites, and Skype. I know that it will be more work, but it is worth it. If the parents feel connected to the classroom, they are more likely to help. This information being posted in different places also helps to keep the working parents updated too. I also want to collect e-mail addresses to send e-mail. I don't want all of this to take away from parent/teacher conferences; I just want to help keep the parents updated when they have a hard time stopping to meet me.

I also want the parents to be welcomed into the class. When I was younger, we had room parents that would come in and help with activities in the class. They would read to us, or show us arts and crafts. This was a very fun and educational way to keep parents involved. We also would have holiday parties, and some parents would come to help set up and distribute the food. I don't think that I will let the parents just come in whenever, but on special days, times, and events, it would be good to have structured activities. I want to encourage parents to become active in the education process, because this creates a sense of team between parents and teachers. This way both of them are striving to help the student succeed. I think parent involvement is a big priority.

Not Being Afraid To Try Something New In The Classroom

I believe that life is full of experiments, and if you don't try new things you never know what the outcome will be. I want to transfer that idea to the class. I know that people think in different ways, so that means people approach things differently. I am up for learning and trying different techniques. If I have no idea how to come about teaching something, I want to learn a new way from another teacher or person and see if it accomplishes my goal. I want to teach lessons differently, show new technologies and experiment with that. I believe that we shouldn't just stick to the past; we need to prepare for the future, so we must experiment and change things up. The world is rapidly changing, and we as teachers need to have the ability to change with it.

Technology

How will I use technology in my class? I am planning on answering that question with programs on the internet. I am planning on using Skype, Google documents, and blogs. I was planning on using Skype for chats with student, parents, administrators, and classes around the world. It was a wonderful program to use in a class to show students how other classes are being run. Google is a wonderful discovery. Google has programs that are like Microsoft but cheaper. Google has a word document, powerpoint, spreadsheets, drawing, and form. The access of Google documents are free and saved on the internet, so you can access them from anywhere. Students can work on assignments, and the teacher can see the progress as they're completing it. It's also good that it automatically saves the document, so there is no excuse for not turning it in. You also can now have your computer memory saved, because the documents aren't saved on your own personal computer but on the internet. I want to thank Google for giving us this ability.

Students Should Be Equal

How would you describe a perfect class? Would you want a class filled with perfect students? Students who have no behavior problems, students that knew everything; so you wouldn't have a hard time teaching the students. The point is that classes are not like that. You will have classes with good students and not-so-good students. You will have smart and not-so-smart students. The thing is that all students need to be treated the same. All students have a right to a fair education. This is something I have learned that classes are now inclusive, so every student is included in everything, and that should be how it is. I am going to be a teacher that will try not to judge my students. I must treat every student the same. The class where every child gets the same education, the same treatment, and the same privileges. That is what I call a perfect class.