My Mission Statement and Goals

          This week in 350 we came together as a class and came up with a class mission statement. Ours was as follows: In Education 350, we will become better educators through immersing ourselves inn diverse populations to better meet the needs of our students by creating a sense of community inside and outside the classroom. Seems like a lot right? We thought so too once we thought through it and wrote it all out. But, this is can be a part of our mission throughout our entire career of educators. This mission should and will not end when I leave EDUC 350.
We also made a set of class goals for this semester:
                           1. Get a good grade/pass
                           2. Build/create class culture
                           3. Leave more confident and learn how to embrace all culture
                           4. Learn how to deal with hard situations
                           5. Learn how to know our students individually
                           6. Differentiate lessons
                           7. Be aware of biases and keep them from affecting instruction.
Once again, these goals should be long-term goals. These are things that I want to carry into my future classroom and throughout my entire career.
          For my outside research this week, I wanted to look up an actual definition for what "class culture" is. We mentioned that one of our goals was to build and create class culture. But, then the question arises, what are we actually trying to build and create? According to teaching channel.org, "class culture is the foundation of a successful classroom, setting the tone while communicating and maintaining clear expectations. It also sets students up to hold each other accountable in reaching the classroom expectation and their shared goals." https://www.teachingchannel.org/class-culture
I love how this website defines class culture as the foundation of a successful classroom. Everyone knows that the foundation of anything is what holds it up strong. How cool is that?!
           I believe that our process of writing a class mission statement and making a list of goals relates directly to NCTCS standard 5 which is reflection. A part of this standard is modeling the development of meaningful professional goals. We need to have goals as educators and we need to strive everyday in our teaching careers to reach those goals. Having goals is an important thing because it gives us something to work towards and gives us expectations to set for ourselves.
          Many connections and information were made aware during this process of making a mission statement and list of goals. I realized that these would all be long term goals in my life as an educator. These goals that I want to strive for can't be complete in a few weeks. Education is about learning constantly and I can't do that if I stop moving toward a goal once I think I have reached it.
         I have mentioned a few times throughout this post that I want to take this mission statement and list of goals and carry them with me throughout my entire career. I want to have these goals along with many others in my mind to ensure that my students have a successful education. Everything I'm doing and working toward is for the better of my students!