Danielle

Philosophy of Education

//**I believe that children are our present and our future…**//

Learning is done every second of every day. It is more important now than ever before to realize such and help students utilize what they already possess in order to help themselves as well as their peers overcome the obstacles of everyday life and beyond. My classroom will be a safe place where students will look forward to coming into each day with stories and experiences of their own that will aid in the knowledge building process. By sharing stories and experiences, students will gain the pride they need in order to achieve their short and long term goals.


 * //Teach them well and let them lead the way…//**

Giving students a set of tools to use in their journey of life is the most important gift any educator can give. During class time it is important to practice using these tools in many different life situations that appear to us through literature. Being able to see situations from more than one perspective (cultural lens) and being able to rule out the solutions that will be less beneficial is a life skill that people use every day. Once students have left your classroom they should be more capable to handle real life situations; they should be better equipped at becoming a functioning active member of society. In order to achieve this educators must continue to make their students aware of culture. In her book __Diversity Matters,__ Spradlin states, "Society defines principles and values for present and future generations through customs, traditions, and rituals that the lens through which we view our lives and form our opinions" (5). Sharing what seems to be the obvious rather than hiding the truth is a huge theme that classrooms need to incorporate now more than ever.


 * //Let the children’s laughter show us how we used to be…//**

As educators it is our responsibility to make our classrooms out to be a safe fun space where students look forward to coming to each day. By creating an atmosphere that is suitable for the time (i.e. technologically advanced) students are able to portray what they have learned in a variety of ways while being able to express themselves creatively. By promoting an atmosphere that is fun and never mundane we can truly bring out the smiles of students by incorporating the past with the present in order to make for a bright and exciting future.

When I reflect on my own education the teachers I remember most are the ones who took the time to get to understand who I was as a person and as a learner. On the opposite end of the spectrum I also remember the "bad" teachers and what qualities they possessed that I want to make sure that I never put my students through. Learning from what we are confronted with whether it be a personality or an obstacle is what makes teaching so fascinating. As educators we should never rule anybody out or make them feel like just because they disagree with something that was said that they are wrong and should be shunned. Rather, time should be given the moment disagreement presents itself. There is not one answer to everything. There are only different perspectives. 

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Students and teachers are placed at the center and are known as a community of learners. Together they help one another create, reach, and analyze higher levels of thinking. Without the promise to promote this ability to think on higher, critical levels and help one another in the learning process, students will find it hard to engage and use tools, keep a positive attitude, share knowledge, apply what they already know, or learn from others. This is a process, but also a journey that invites students to create their own path and gladly pick up hitchhikers that can help make the journey a little easier to understand. No one path should be the same because no student is the same, however, by working along side one another, students will gain the necessary tools that they never knew existed. This is what it takes to create a participatory culture; it takes a community of learners to achieve everything participatory stands for. My Prezi touches on a few key ideas that you will see mentioned in my Five Points below.

The Five Points to having a Community of Learners.

Community of Learners: A community of learners is a safe environment in which positive attitudes are produced and cross cultural thinking is extended. This means that there is a spirit of inquisitiveness and critical thinking; a respect for reasoning and creativity, and an expectation th at all students will learn and understand. Classrooms are inviting to not only students but the community and all that encompasses it. The classroom should be a representation of communities and the cultures that occupy them.

Sub categories: Being aware of Diversity in your classroom is important to model and respect so that your students will do the same and know that it is something that is expected of them. (Operant Conditioning). Arrangement of desks, decorations on the wall, relationships both between teachers and students,and student to student, abide by class regulated rules, respect, high expectations.

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1. Meaningful Use of Knowledge: Expert teachers have elaborate systems of knowledge for understanding. They constantly think back over situations to analyze what they did and why and to consider how they might improve learning for their students. ======

Sub categories:
Differentiated Instruction, Teacher Strategies, Learning Process, Zone of proximal development.This includes but is not limited to: the deep connection they have with the material, show knowledge of general teaching strategies that apply in all subjects (principles of classroom management, effective teaching,and evaluation; the curriculum materials and programs appropriate for their subject and grade level; subject-specific knowledge for teaching: special ways of teaching certain students and particular concepts; the characteristics and cultural backgrounds of learners; the setting in which students learn; the goals and purposes of teaching.

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Mental habits that learners develop that will enable them to learn on their own. Teachers and Students share the same percentage of transferring and receiving new information among one another. The context in which it is given plays a huge role in how information is received and retained, or stored in students memory. ======

Subcategories: Zone of proximal development, memory awareness and activities for remembering, differentiated instruction, higher level thinking, learning process, teacher strategies, multiple intelligence, learning strategies. Journals, sharing thoughts evoked by class discussion.

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Learners are motivated to do their best work and thus develop an inspiration for learning. This is done through self reflection, one on one discussion with another student, or whole class discussions/debates. ======

Sub Categories: Differentiated Instruction, Memory, Teaching Strategies. Multimodal learning.

Creating a conducive learning environment in which learners feel accepted, safe, and perceive order.
Subcategories: Classroom Management, Operant Conditioning, Modeling for your students. Class rules displayed for everyone to see, serves as constitution for classroom.

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Learners must be guided in relating new knowledge to what they already know, organize it, and make it part of long term memory. They can present this knowledge through many different evaluation pieces which they choose to best fit their intelligence. ======

Subcategories: Summative and Formative Assessment, how/when/what to grade, higher level thinking, assessment of memory skills, assess learning strategies to gage whether or not students understand how to use and operate the tools you have given them not just in the classroom but in the community, differentiated instruction. Blogging, video, pictures, movies shown to convey previous knowledge or experiences.