Alicia

= Philosophy of Education =

 I believe that teaching is one of the most important and rewarding jobs a person can have. As a teacher, throughout the years, hundreds of vulnerable yet eager children are given to you with a blank slate and it is your job to help educate and shape what and who they will be for the rest of their lives. Without your guidance their abilities become limited but with it they are limitless. I use the words "help educate" and "guidance" because so often it is the teachers who are blames for a child's lack of morals or knowledge or work ethic, but their are so many other people that shape a human being that all we can do as a teacher is our best. We can help and we can guide but we cant work magic, other people have to help and guide, and lets face it, people have to want help and guidance in order to succeed and have those limitless options available to them.

I don't think of myself as "knowing everything" because if you know everything then you have nothing else to learn, and there is ALWAYS something new to learn. I lived in the city when I was growing up and I still have a strong connection to it and from living there I know that often people don't give you the benefit of the doubt; you are assumed to be uneducated and unruly and often times that is exactly what you become because of the mere fact that if you hear it enough times it must be true so why try. I also had the opportunity to intern at a city school and although there were some teachers that I absolutely loved that engaged the students and made them feel special there were still others that used the chalkboard as a life line and used screaming as the main form of communication. On the other hand I went to a Catholic school and I had some of the best teachers, always engaging, always entertaining (telling jokes, talking about their weekends, doing crazy experiments and activities) not just teaching and I think I gained the most knowledge and life experience from them. they didn't hate being there and they always had extra time to talk if you needed help, their classes were small and it felt like our time with them was endless. Still another experience; I went to a public school in the suburbs for high school and the teachers were still warmer than in the city but not nearly as accommodating as the catholic school; but they had so many students that they had little to no time or patience to help anyone if it was outside of the 45min class time. And if children didn't understand what was being taught it was because of their lack of listening skills or their impatience to learn.

From all of this knowledge I have obtained, my teaching philosophy is simple; as a teacher I plan to:

1. **Always be positive and enthusiastic about teaching: **  Loving your job is important so make sure you always walk into your classroom with a positive attitude because your students can tell if you don't want to be there, and if you don't want to be their to teach why should they want to be there to learn? Lets face it; teaching is hard work! Its long hours inside and outside of the school setting with little pay and it is easy to get frustrated with your work. And its okay to get frustrated, everyone does, but you should never take that frustration out on any of your students. This aspect is so important to me because I know that if my students dont see that I love what I do, then they wont love what their learning and chances are they wont apply it to anything in their real life.

2. **Keep things interesting: ** Its impossible for us to want to do things as adults that we think are boring, so how can we expect a student that hates math to learn math? Keep it interesting! Learning can be entertaining if the teacher is entertaining, play some games, tell some jokes, make them feel like they can get it and chances are they will learn something without even knowing it. So many teachers rely on the blackboard to teach but no matter how many times you write something out it wont sink in until they can really understand it. I think it is important for teachers to take the time to get to know what their students are interested in and try and apply that to their teaching. I know that you cant always keep everyone entertained but its worth it to try. They more fun you have when you learn the more you remember. When I was in 2nd grade we were learning about gravity and force and my teacher filled a huge bucket with water and spun it around to show us that if you move something fast enough the contents stay in the same place because of the force; then he proceeded to swing the bucket slow and dump water all over the floor. I will never forget that lesson, it was hilarious to a second grader and the concept stuck just because we were entertained.

3. ** Always make the students feel like you care: ** The one thing that drives me crazy about some teachers is they forget that their students are just kids. And if you are working in a city school then most likely they are kids with a lot of problems outside of school. As a teacher I want to make sure that my students know I am not just another person that is going to tell them their stupid or that they cant do anything. I always want them to feel important in my classroom and I know that making time for them is one of the best things you can do as a teacher. Even if you only have a minute or two to spare after class ask a student how they are or if they need help with anything. Never assume that everything is fine and never assume that they don't need you just because they don't ask. If a student feels like your there for them then they are more likely to take the time to learn something new. And if they feel like you care then they are more likely to try.

As a teacher we cant always be perfect, and we cant always help every student we run across, but there is always room to try. We teach our students to try their best so its only right that we try ours. And I have every intention of trying everything in my power to help all of my students succeed.

Framework:

I chose the image of connected hands because I believe that all the aspects I present as my framework should be viewed as a whole and not individual distinct points that are not connected. As in the picture all of these aspects should be help tightly together and used as a unit to create a unique and lasting experience for the students. If one of the hands in the picture was not connected it would no longer create a linked circle and therefore it would be flawed and I feel this would be true for these five points of my framework as well, if one piece of the information is flawed or left out then the classroom and therefore the learning experience for the students would be incomplete and flawed.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #9750af; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Positive Environmen <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**t**-In this section I would include an appealing classroom look with lots of colors and warmth to make each student feel welcome. I specifically plan to work in an ESL class so I would love to consider having children bring in something that reminds them of where they are from and the culture in it. Excepting views on multiculturalism is a huge must in my classroom. I also consider this area to include a nurturing environment in which all students feel as if they are a unit and can collaborate together and feel comfortable with each other. I would also consider it to be of great importance for my students to feel comfortable with me as a teacher, I feel as though it is my responsibility to get to know my students and give them the comfort they need to be able to come to me with any concerns not only inside my classroom with people and materials but also any concerns or difficulties outside of the classroom as well. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">(If you click the picture it has a great idea to iimplement for behavioral managment) (Click the picture to find a great site for Global Communication!)
 * <span style="color: #c036c0; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Planning and Preparation **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">-In order to keep kids engaged in learning the proper planning and prep needs to be done to make the lessons seem to be worth learning. In this section I would consider time frames for activity lengths and assignments as well as take into consideration any accommodations that need to be made to promote an optimal amount of learning for all students in my classroom. Without the proper planning and preparation going into the lesson and without considering all students in one lesson or all students in a range of lessons any method of teaching will be diminished to chaos and screams of boredom which will not lend itself to a well learned task.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Differentiated Instruction
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Knowledge of how children learn(Learning Styles)
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Learning Process
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Teacher Strategies
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Being Aware of Diversity in your classroom
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Taking into account students memory capacity when planning lessons
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Classroom Management
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Operant Conditioning
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Learning to implement Person First Language in the classroom
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Being Aware of Diversity in your classroom so children learn to be respectful of peers
 * [[image:logo_epals.gif link="@http://en.community.epals.com/student_creative_writing_center/default.aspx"]]

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">media type="youtube" key="aEFKfXiCbLw" height="315" width="420" <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> > >
 * <span style="color: #b463d0; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Powerful and Engaging Lessons <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">- **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Making a lasting impression is important for a proper lesson to be remembered years down the line. In order to do that it needs to be engaging and powerful. So many teachers just resort to writing on the board throughout class and lecturing students on a topic. I know that some students learn from this form of teaching and therefore do not plan on throwing this method away however I want my students to not only learn materials, I want them to REMEMBER and CONNECT them. In order to do this they need to be fun to learn, and they need to be understood. That is why I plan on taking into consideration as many forms of learning as I can in a giving task and applying them to the lesson. If a student needs more visuals I plan to add them, if a student needs more physical activity(role playing) I plan to add that when possible and so on. With this open mind in my classroom and while teaching my lessons I hope to not only be a teacher they remember as valuable down the line but I hope when they run into a situation in real life they will remember some part of my class and think "oh yea...I remember learning about this!"
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Differentiated Instruction
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Knowledge of how children learn (learning Styles)
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Operant Conditioning
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Higher Level Thinking
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Learning Process
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Teacher Strategies
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Multiple Intelligence
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Learning strategies (note-taking, highlighting...)
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Being Aware of Diversity in your classroom so you can incorporate cultural views in classroom lessons
 * <span style="color: #f218f2; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Assessment and Reflection of Knowledge <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">- **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I grouped assessment and reflection together because I feel as if a test OF knowledge (summative) is only one small aspect I want to address in my classroom and I am a firm believer that reducing a child's abilities to a single number or grade is not only demeaning to them for all the hard work they did but can cause them to not want to achieve success because they are getting no acknowledgment of it anyway. Because of this I plan to not only give a grade(when necessary) but I also plan to give a comment and acknowledge the hard work that they have down or simply acknowledge that they are having difficulties and be there for them with further help. I also feel that it important to test FOR knowledge (formative) meaning I would like to be able to assess where a child is before and during a lesson as well as after because in order for a child to understand a lesson we as teachers have to understand if they have any prior knowledge of the lesson. This can be done by asking a simple question at the beginning of a lesson to gauge where all the students are and can similarly be done throughout the lesson to make sure they are understanding it. Reflection of knowledge I think plays a huge role in this because if children can not reflect on what they know or what they learned then they may need more support from the teacher.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Differentiated Instruction
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Summative and Formative Assessment
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Grading- After doing research I came across a guys blog. His name is Joe Bower (Read all his posts, there very interesting!) and he is a teacher in a school and he has decided to abolish grading for his students. When I say grading I mean giving students a number for learning. I find his research interesting and enlightening on how children DO learn because of our society and how children SHOULD learn!
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Higher Level Thinking
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Learning Process
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Assessment of memory skills
 * Assess Learning strategies to see if students understand and can use the tools


 * <span style="color: #863d86; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Professional Responsibilities Outside of Classroom <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">- **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">In this area I would include keeping up to date on any new theories or articles published about teaching, I know think seems like a lot but I don't expect to be able to read up on everything but I do expect to be knowledgeable and learn new things to because learning does not end just because your the one standing in front of the class. I would also like to include keeping in contact with the parents in this responsibility, it is important for the teacher and the parents to feel as if they are on the same page, it will not only help the teacher feel more confident but it will help the parent feel important in their childrens learning and therefore make them want to be more involved and it will also help the student because if the teacher and parent work together then it shows the student that they are a unit as well and that they are only there for the student and not to prove who is right or wrong in their philosophies of teaching. This section would also include any other responsibilities to the school.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Staff Development
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Parent Teacher Conferences
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Being Aware of Diversity in your classroom by researching the different cultures presented in class so you don't offend parents or students