Going Back to My Philosophy

Personally, I feel that my biggest impact in learning this week was going back over and really reworking my philosophy of education. I feel like I have even changed and grown as a person and future educator since the first time we turned in a draft. I felt that I learned and really noticed what all goes into teaching. My students are all depending on me. Their futures depend on what and how I teach them. Obviously this is something I had known before, but reading back over my philosophy and seeing the words, "my classroom" and "my students," really hit me hard. I realized that in a few short years those students will be coming into my classroom to hear what I have to say, to expect me to keep them safe, and let them know that their opinions and lives matter to me. All of those kids will become my kids because I will be caring for them and making sure they are protected and learning all they can.

When I was thinking about what my moment of learning was for this week, I immediately had no idea of how I would relate this to the NCTCS because I felt it was more of a personal moment of learning than an actual policy. However, there is actually a teacher candidate standard that I feel goes hand in hand with my learning this week and that is 2a. Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults. That's exactly what I came to realization with. My students will be depending on me. Their futures depend on me and what I teach them in kindergarten follows them through their whole life. If I don't provide them with a good experience then it stays with them and they have to recover from my actions. It's my responsibility to provide an environment in which my students can come and learn and feel comfortable with me as an adult who cares about them as a person and their future.

For my outside research this week I decided to take it another step further and find ways to make my classroom and all around better place for me and my students. Here are some of the things I found; some are ones we have already talked about in class:
-In the beginning, it's important to sweat the small stuff. If I start out the year by letting small things go, then my students will get the impression that I let small things go which could lead to a bunch of small things turning into a big thing.
-Identify yourself: I need to let my students know why I'm there, who I am, and what my expectations of them are.
-Have a plan: My lesson plans need to be very precise for each day and I need to have a clear plan of what the day is going to be like and how it should play out.
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/7-tips-better-classroom-management-tyler-hester

In my future classroom, I hope to try and use all the things we have talked about in class and the few strategies I found in my outside research to manage my classroom efficiently and in a way that my students can learn and be successful. I'm so glad a philosophy of education is a requirement because it really made me stop and think about how I wanted my classroom to be and how I was going to make it possible.

Integration: How and Why?

Integration is the act of bringing smaller components in to make a large unit. How does that look in my classroom? All of the subjects I will be teaching to my Kindergarteners may have a connection and it's my job to make them aware of those connections so they can see them and apply them to better their knowledge of that subject or topic. My moment of learning this week was that it is my responsibility to make sure my students see and understand the connections of all the subjects they are being taught because this will make them better students because they can have a sense of confidence in knowing a topic already. 

This is important to us as educators because they are teacher candidate standards that require us to integrate. Such as, teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines and teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. Both of these standards expect us to be able to make connections for our students through the various subjects and make our students aware of the resources they have around them that can be utilized. 

In my future classroom I plan on making the connections between the subjects as often as possible if that connection makes the subject easier to understand. I never want to confuse my students even more, so if there is a word used in two different subjects that means the complete opposite, I will probably stay away from using that connection because if it doesn't better their learning then I don't want to use it. I learned why I needed to incorporate integration in my classroom, but I wanted specific strategies I could use to ensure this was being done efficiently. These are a few ways I found in relation to integrating technology into my lesson plans: 

- Fuzzy image: Have only a portion of an object on the screen or zoom in to where the image is fuzzy and have the students guess what the image is as a hook for the lesson plan

- Slide for each day: After the lesson each day, the students add to a powerpoint slide their takeaway from that lesson so at the end of a unit there is a collaborative student piece that shows what the students have learned

- Lyric/Music video: Have the students take a song they like and change the lyrics around to fit the lesson

https://www.powtoon.com/blog/13-simple-ways-integrate-technology-lesson-plan/ 

My Own Personal Biases

I feel that I had an important moment in my learning this week when we had to think and talk about our own personal biases that we may have going into a classroom and how those could affect our students.

For me, I felt that I had a bias towards students that acted out in the classroom either by not listening or following directions or even just always being disruptive. I felt as if these students just didn't care about their work and they didn't want to be at school and that's why they acted that way. In reality, there could be so much more going on behind the scenes. For example, a student could act out because they are bored, want attention, have something going on at home, etc. There are a number of reasons as to why a student is acting out in class.

It's important for me as their teacher to still accept them and not have biases toward them because they have as much of a right to learn as the student sitting next to them that always does their work and never interrupts. I felt the need to research different ways that I can handle students like this in my classroom because I want to know how to talk to these students and how to handle the situation when it arises. Here are some strategies I found:
- Remain calm: There is no sense in "adding fuel to the fire." The student may be striving for attention and that would be a sure fire way to make sure they get that by getting upset about what they are doing.
- Make sure the student understands that you are not upset with them; you are upset about their behavior at the time: This was important to me because often times as educators we may be the only person in that child's life that doesn't scream every word they hear at them. It's important to let the student know that what they are doing is not acceptable, but that you still care about them as a student and want to help them.
- Listen: There is obviously a reason that student is acting out or upset and it's important to listen to find out what that is. Sometimes all a student wants is for someone to listen. We don't always know what the situation is like that we send our students home to.
- Speak to a student in private: There is no sense in humiliating that student in front of their entire class because they aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing. Students have feelings and nobody wants to be called out in front of their peers.
- Ignore minimal problems instead of disrupting: Some students are always going to tap their pencil, make noises, etc. If it's not seen as distracting to the other students, sometimes it's just best to let it go. I don't want to cause a bigger disruption by calling them out than the actual thing the student was doing.

This correlates directly with the NCTCS Standard 2: Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students. We are going to face many different types of learners in our classroom and we have to respect each one of those. We have to understand that some students are dealing with things at home, some are striving for attention, some are bored and need to be challenged more, and so much more. All of our students are diverse and learn in different ways. We, as their teachers, need to make sure they are learning based on their personal needs.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/25-sure-fire-strategies-handling-difficult-students

Seeing Firsthand on How to be a Successful Educator

My last two posts have been about my observations in the schools, so I can't leave our last observation at the high school out because it was actually very enjoyable.

I do not want to teach high school. I have a hard time leading and connecting with people close to my age. It's not because I don't try to, and that I can't. It's just that it's harder for me to develop a confidence to teach teenagers rather than elementary age children. Because of this, I thought that being in the high school I would be completely out of my comfort zone and probably not even enjoy it. However, that was not the case.

I was placed in a former Cleveland County Schools Teacher of the Year's classroom and I can honestly say there is a reason she was nominated Teacher of the Year. I have never seen a high school teacher relate so well to her students and take history and make it to where the students were excited to learn it and were actually recalling the information they were being taught. I took four units of history in the same high school and never had that type of experience.

You could very well see that she possessed all of the teacher candidate standards and carried them into her classroom, just as she should. You could tell that her students felt safe and comfortable in her classroom and it was a diverse environment where the students could freely come to learn and express themselves.

One thing that I loved about her teaching style was that she was very interactive with her students. She made guided notes for them to ensure that the students could follow along and have all the information they needed to be successful. She grabbed their attention by showing them a relatable video that put the national debt into perspective for a high school student. Also, before even starting the new lesson, she said, "candy time" and the students were prepared to answer review questions from the previous lessons to receive candy. I saw this as an effective strategy that I could even use with my kindergartners.

I felt that this observation was very successful to me because it showed me ways to relate to my students and to make them feel comfortable in my classroom. Even though I was in a high school class, the strategies she used to teach would work for even elementary school students. There are many articles out there that talk about how rewarding students makes them want to learn the material more because they are prepared to answer the questions so they can get candy. I enjoyed sitting in on her class so much!