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.