Belief Statements
These statements will create the foundation for my educational career in the classroom.
I believe that creating meaningful connections with students creates a positive learning environment that promotes excitement for school and learning.
I believe in the saying that children do not learn from people they do not like, that is why building relationships is so important. When a student feels as if you really care about them, they want to spend time with you and learn from you. Creating and establishing relationships with students helps them to feel positive and encouraged in the classroom. During the beginning of the year, I find it important to learn about the interests, family dynamics, and lives of students to create a connection with them that shows them you care. To ensure this dynamic, teachers should create time to invite students to share about themselves which can even be bound to curriculum. For example, asking a student to write about an important memory or asking students to share about their heritage during a social studies lesson. Read alouds can also be an effective time to give students the opportunity to share connections to characters and messages to learn more about them. It is important to ask and remember things about students to demonstrate to them that you care and listen, making them more comfortable and confident in the classroom.
I believe that opening space for collaboration in a classroom helps students build interpersonal skills and encourages students to learn from one another and work together.
Collaboration is such a beneficial tool within the classroom space that allows students and teachers alike to learn from each other. Despite the best of efforts, oftentimes what teachers are saying may not get through to every student, and another student, in these cases, may offer them a more digestible explanation. To ensure that collaboration is utilized effectively in the classroom, teachers should make room for group work in their lessons and allow for sharing of ideas during some classwork times. I believe educators should implement group work and discussion amongst peers frequently in ways that can be as little as turn and talk communication. This practice encourages students to work alongside each other, practice communication skills, and feel comfortable working as a team. This is an important skill that will follow them through the rest of their learning and most likely careers as well.
I believe in creating a flexible classroom that relies on different modalities of learning and educating.
Students will not learn effectively if they are only taught while sitting at their seats watching instruction. A classroom should give its students the opportunity to take control of their learning by offering them opportunities to express their learning in different modalities. Actively using different modalities of learning also keeps students in a better mindset increasing positive behavior. Teachers may utilize different opportunities to keep students engaged through different outlets of their learning. Different modalities rely on straying away from traditional lecture methods such as using the computer to explore or showing videos to explain rather than talking “at” students. This can be done well by allowing students to kindle their own learning using situations where they may use exploration and active learning to ask and answer questions on their own. Teachers may ask students how they would solve a problem before showing them the actual steps. Opportunities for movement and kinesthetic learning should be incorporated as often as possible to allow students some hands-on movement connecting to their learning. Flexible seating can also be a benefit and does not distract students as many think. Seating options actually makes students more comfortable in their learning. Creating opportunities to divert from traditional teaching, keeps students engaged and creates a more positive learning experience.