In the field of education, I believe that the role of education is to provide students an opportunity to learn from a foundational base of knowledge while teaching them the skills necessary to become self-motivated, life-long learners. As a future teacher my role is to facilitate an environment where students can become self-directed learners. Students should have access to vast amounts of multiple resources. The classroom should be focused on students exploring concepts and creating their own understanding as it relates to them personally. The student is emphasized as the center of the classroom environment where I, the teacher, provide an atmosphere that is open to reflective and experiential learning.
As a student I had educational experiences that were positive and negative. One teacher in particular I had in elementary school exemplified excellent characteristics that in my opinion all teachers should posess. She presented the class with information, procedures, guidelines, and reasons for the content. Her focus was on the content as well as each student’s personal growth and achievement. She effectively explained abstract concepts to me in a manner that I could understand. She also provided enough guidance and scaffolding that I could formulate a logical and reasonable answer or solution. This teacher helped me learn what it meant to think critically when analyzing a problem and formulating possible solutions. I believe it is important for students to be able to think critically about the concepts that govern their lives so that they may become more highly educated individuals in a productive and ever-changing society.
I see myself as a co-learner with my future students. In an effort to be a continually growing teacher, I believe that I need to be open to learning from my students since they have different perspectives from their classmates and myself. Students should immerse themselves in an intense study of the content while structuring their own meaning and understand how those concepts relate to them.
I believe the classroom environment should be a place where students work with their hands to manipulate and experiment with multiple objects. Students learn best through hands-on activities that are engaging and fun. As a future teacher, my role will be to facilitate learning by creating an environment that is relaxed and welcomes new and diverse perspectives from all students. I believe that cooperative learning is a crucial component of effective learning as students are able to learn about new concepts together with their peers. They create a stronger social networking structure by learning together as well because they are experiencing new and exciting ideas together. Since students have different interests and learning styles, my classroom will be centered on the idea that students can choose their own activities so long as they fall within clear, objective guidelines.
I expect my students to put forth as much effort as possible in learning new content. I believe that grading should be based on effort and improvement as well as achievement. Students will also be evaluated on the breadth of materials and information used in their projects. Students should construct their own meaning and develop personal understanding of concepts presented to them.
I believe that students need to take responsibility for their actions and conduct. Students and I will develop a list of rules, procedures, and expectations as well as consequences. I will model the behaviors I wish my students to exemplify. I believe that children of all ages are very influential and that my role as the teacher is critical in developing good and respectable behavior in students.