Planning and Instruction
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of the fire
-William Butler Yeats
My Approach to Teaching
When I visualize my future classroom, I see a teacher-student, shared approach to learning. It is my opinion that students learn best when they are involved in the planning and decision making processes, as they feel like they have more of a connection to what they are learning and are, thus, more motivated. When students begin to take on more responsibility in their learning process, such as helping to decide themes, deciding the difficulty of their task, and participating in learning centers and group discussion, students will begin to reflect on their own knowledge and thinking processes, on a deeper level. In my opinion, my role as a teacher is to guide students in their learning process by supplying support and scaffolding and by providing opportunities for inquiry, exploration and experimentation. This will steer students down a path that will allow them to discover and question concepts and ideas, make connections between information and their own experiences and take pride and ownership in their own learning. If I have learned one thing throughout my time in the teaching field it is to never underestimate your students. Each and every child is a capable and competent being and we should believe in the great potential that each of them has!
When I visualize my future classroom, I see a teacher-student, shared approach to learning. It is my opinion that students learn best when they are involved in the planning and decision making processes, as they feel like they have more of a connection to what they are learning and are, thus, more motivated. When students begin to take on more responsibility in their learning process, such as helping to decide themes, deciding the difficulty of their task, and participating in learning centers and group discussion, students will begin to reflect on their own knowledge and thinking processes, on a deeper level. In my opinion, my role as a teacher is to guide students in their learning process by supplying support and scaffolding and by providing opportunities for inquiry, exploration and experimentation. This will steer students down a path that will allow them to discover and question concepts and ideas, make connections between information and their own experiences and take pride and ownership in their own learning. If I have learned one thing throughout my time in the teaching field it is to never underestimate your students. Each and every child is a capable and competent being and we should believe in the great potential that each of them has!
Assessment and Planning
I think that assessment is an essential component of a classroom that is conductive to learning. In my classroom, I will perform on-going, regular assessment of each child so that I can plan lessons appropriately, according to the level and ability of my students. I will modify and adapt the content and material to best fit their individual needs, in order for them to reach their personal goals. This regular assessment will allow me to get to know each child better and become knowledgeable of which kinds of activities and teaching methods work best for each learner. Filling out a KWL chart, with my students, is one of the great methods that I use when preparing and introducing a new unit.
Here are a few pictures of the many projects that I introduced to my students:
- Language arts lesson on lucky charms, related to the Thousand Paper Crane book that we were reading as a class.
- Unit on on plants/growing
- Art project on focal points
AND
A few of the many teaching strategies that I learned from cooperating teachers, which I incorporated into the classroom:
-Homework board: encourages students to set and work towards goals as a class, in order to get their homework done.
-Word vine: each petal that is applied is a new word learned by the class.
-Calender and weather chart, which I made for my students.
- Language arts lesson on lucky charms, related to the Thousand Paper Crane book that we were reading as a class.
- Unit on on plants/growing
- Art project on focal points
AND
A few of the many teaching strategies that I learned from cooperating teachers, which I incorporated into the classroom:
-Homework board: encourages students to set and work towards goals as a class, in order to get their homework done.
-Word vine: each petal that is applied is a new word learned by the class.
-Calender and weather chart, which I made for my students.