My Teaching PlatformWorking with children has always been an absolute passion of mine. I have been working with kids since middle school. I was introduced to it because of my mother who is a Kindergarten teacher at an elementary school in Tampa. I am also an instructor for the HOST program at her school. So I interact with about 50 children every day ranging from Head Start to 5th grade. Having the knowledge from my mom’s classroom and the HOST program, I was not as nervous as some of my peers may have been. I feel that being able to observe my mom for so long, I essentially have a foundation for myself on how I would operate my classroom.
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Introduction
Working with children has always been an absolute passion of mine. I have been working with kids since middle school. I was introduced to it because of my mother who is a Kindergarten teacher at an elementary school in Tampa. I am also an instructor for the HOST program at her school. So I interact with about 50 children every day ranging from Head Start to 5th grade. Having the knowledge from my mom’s classroom and the HOST program, I was not as nervous as some of my peers may have been. I feel that being able to observe my mom for so long, I essentially have a foundation for myself on how I would operate my classroom. I was also introduced to classroom management early so I was able to compare the classroom management used in my mom’s classroom to my collaborating teacher’s management techniques. The school that I am interning at is in a very rural area. The school is located in Plant City with about 709 students in attendance. The students are predominantly White (53.03%) and Hispanic (41.33%). Cork is a Kindergarten through 5th grade school, with an option for a Pre-Kindergarten, Head Start program. The school often has a period of time where students from migrant families come in and begin school. The school also has a high percentage of English Language Learners. This is apparent in the high percentage of the Hispanic population throughout the school. The classroom I am in is a very positive learning environment. My collaborating teacher and her pair strategically placed the students in each of their classrooms. The classroom I was placed in has the higher-level students. Since they are all leveled so high, they collaborate very well together. They also are very engaged with each of the teachers. It is really so awesome to see them collaborating together and working together to solve problems.
Articulation of Beliefs about Teaching
Belief 1
A belief I have about what makes an effective teacher would be ensuring that children have an equal chance in the classroom no matter their background. This belief puts a focus on student needs in its entirety. Students posed with economic struggle who attend Title I schools that may feel as though they have hit a glass ceiling, need an effective teacher. An effective teacher will support, provide, and care about student’s as individuals. A student who is lacking the socio-emotional support in home can potentially cause a problem in the classroom. A patient and understanding teacher, who can identify the correlation between the two, will make the student comfortable. The teacher provides the opportunity that the child may not see or believe in. Allowing students to collaboratively and individually grow in a safe environment will create a sense of unity, and ultimately equity. In my classroom, it would not only be a safe classroom, but an equal one. I believe equity is one of the most important aspects of the classroom. These students are already going through the industry v. inferiority complex. Within this stage the student will often feel the need for approval by demonstrating specific competencies that may be valued in her classroom or exhibited by others. Providing necessary materials to create more opportunities for equity will leave little room for competition. I believe that this concept is actually present in my cohort. We as a cohort in our classes collaborate and each has equal opportunities to succeed.
Belief 2
I believe that an effective teacher enforces conscious discipline in their classrooms. Conscious discipline teaches that it is within ones own power to get upset or let things get to you. It also allows you to present yourself as their teacher and someone they may want to become. Often teacher’s action on a child can create a life-long memory that later in life influences in a very positive way. It teaches the child to set limits respectively and then in turn educate the children on how to learn from their mistakes. Student’s who learn from their mistakes and ultimately succeed often increases the child’s self-esteem. My collaborating teacher promotes conscious discipline. Pairing this discipline along with the seven habits of a happy kid will create and instill procedures in the classroom. Since my teacher promotes this, an interesting change in the classroom occurs. This interesting change is the removal of classroom rules poster that would usually hang in a classroom. Since the procedure attitude is already instilled within the students, they are not necessarily pressed to read rules from a classroom wall. An effective teacher will instill the procedure, continue to promote it, and praise the children when exhibiting the habits. An example of this would be, in my collaborating teacher’s classroom every morning the students come in and automatically know to grab their pencil boxes and place their backpacks in the opposite classroom for dismissal.
Belief 3
My last belief is tied into the seven habits of a happy kid. My internship school promotes and has instilled these habits throughout their entire school. The seven habits teach students to succeed and become leaders in and out of the classroom. The first habit is about being proactive educates students that they choose their actions, attitudes, and moods. The second habit is called; begin with the end in mind. This teaches students to plan ahead and set goals for themselves. The third habit is called, put first things first. This encourages the students to spend their time on things that are most important. The fourth habit is the idea of think-think-win. The concept behind this habit is balancing courage for getting what they want with consideration for what others want. A concept arose from this specific habit that my internship school promotes; bucket filling. These buckets are emotional bank accounts. The idea is that students will choose to make an effort to do and say kind things to one another. The fifth habit is seek first to understand, then to be understood. This teaches the students to view things from another person’s perspective and have an open ear about other student’s ideas and feelings. The sixth habit teaches children to synergize. Synergizing promotes a positive environment in the classroom. It teaches children to understand that together is better and to get along well with others, even those who are different from them. The last and final habit is to sharpen the saw. This promotes healthy eating, taking care of your body, and finding meaningful ways to help others. It is really interesting to see these habits at work and have students commenting on each other using the seven habits vocabulary.
Shifts & Expansions of My Beliefs
I feel that my beliefs have not exactly shifted but more so increased. I was introduced to conscious discipline and the seven habits throughout my internship experience. Therefore my internship experience actually solidified my beliefs about teaching and being an effective teacher. I have always strongly believed in be ensuring that children have an equal chance in the classroom no matter their background. I do not feel that, that belief will necessarily change but more so expand in a sense that I will only become more passionate about it. I constantly work with students who come from different backgrounds and I always have the urge to just make sure they know that they are capable. They are worth it. They mean something to someone. I believe that I will continue this thought process and make it my mission to instill my belief into every child I come across.
Felt Tensions/Ongoing Wonderings
A continuous struggle that I have during my internship is finding and keeping the confidence in myself when presenting my lessons to the students. I have presented 3 read alouds to my students and have not been confident in any one that I have presented. I think that I continue to have this struggle would most likely be due to my constant analytical attitude of myself. I am constantly looking for areas to improve in but although I find these areas, it will often weigh on my self-esteem and confidence. So I end up constantly questioning whether or not I am doing something correctly. This feeling however makes me wonder about how I will do in different grade levels and when exposed to different lesson plans for different subjects. However, I am very confident in my belief in ensuring and promoting and equal chance for children who come from different backgrounds and low socioeconomic areas. This belief was actually instilled in me by my mother who has worked with children in low socioeconomic areas for over 22 years. I would constantly see the difference she had made in so many students’ lives. I dreamed of being able to make those same differences.
Conclusion
These beliefs represent the complex nature of both teaching and learning. Providing equal opportunities for students of various backgrounds, teaching them responsibility for themselves, and seek to understand the ideas of others.
Working with children has always been an absolute passion of mine. I have been working with kids since middle school. I was introduced to it because of my mother who is a Kindergarten teacher at an elementary school in Tampa. I am also an instructor for the HOST program at her school. So I interact with about 50 children every day ranging from Head Start to 5th grade. Having the knowledge from my mom’s classroom and the HOST program, I was not as nervous as some of my peers may have been. I feel that being able to observe my mom for so long, I essentially have a foundation for myself on how I would operate my classroom. I was also introduced to classroom management early so I was able to compare the classroom management used in my mom’s classroom to my collaborating teacher’s management techniques. The school that I am interning at is in a very rural area. The school is located in Plant City with about 709 students in attendance. The students are predominantly White (53.03%) and Hispanic (41.33%). Cork is a Kindergarten through 5th grade school, with an option for a Pre-Kindergarten, Head Start program. The school often has a period of time where students from migrant families come in and begin school. The school also has a high percentage of English Language Learners. This is apparent in the high percentage of the Hispanic population throughout the school. The classroom I am in is a very positive learning environment. My collaborating teacher and her pair strategically placed the students in each of their classrooms. The classroom I was placed in has the higher-level students. Since they are all leveled so high, they collaborate very well together. They also are very engaged with each of the teachers. It is really so awesome to see them collaborating together and working together to solve problems.
Articulation of Beliefs about Teaching
Belief 1
A belief I have about what makes an effective teacher would be ensuring that children have an equal chance in the classroom no matter their background. This belief puts a focus on student needs in its entirety. Students posed with economic struggle who attend Title I schools that may feel as though they have hit a glass ceiling, need an effective teacher. An effective teacher will support, provide, and care about student’s as individuals. A student who is lacking the socio-emotional support in home can potentially cause a problem in the classroom. A patient and understanding teacher, who can identify the correlation between the two, will make the student comfortable. The teacher provides the opportunity that the child may not see or believe in. Allowing students to collaboratively and individually grow in a safe environment will create a sense of unity, and ultimately equity. In my classroom, it would not only be a safe classroom, but an equal one. I believe equity is one of the most important aspects of the classroom. These students are already going through the industry v. inferiority complex. Within this stage the student will often feel the need for approval by demonstrating specific competencies that may be valued in her classroom or exhibited by others. Providing necessary materials to create more opportunities for equity will leave little room for competition. I believe that this concept is actually present in my cohort. We as a cohort in our classes collaborate and each has equal opportunities to succeed.
Belief 2
I believe that an effective teacher enforces conscious discipline in their classrooms. Conscious discipline teaches that it is within ones own power to get upset or let things get to you. It also allows you to present yourself as their teacher and someone they may want to become. Often teacher’s action on a child can create a life-long memory that later in life influences in a very positive way. It teaches the child to set limits respectively and then in turn educate the children on how to learn from their mistakes. Student’s who learn from their mistakes and ultimately succeed often increases the child’s self-esteem. My collaborating teacher promotes conscious discipline. Pairing this discipline along with the seven habits of a happy kid will create and instill procedures in the classroom. Since my teacher promotes this, an interesting change in the classroom occurs. This interesting change is the removal of classroom rules poster that would usually hang in a classroom. Since the procedure attitude is already instilled within the students, they are not necessarily pressed to read rules from a classroom wall. An effective teacher will instill the procedure, continue to promote it, and praise the children when exhibiting the habits. An example of this would be, in my collaborating teacher’s classroom every morning the students come in and automatically know to grab their pencil boxes and place their backpacks in the opposite classroom for dismissal.
Belief 3
My last belief is tied into the seven habits of a happy kid. My internship school promotes and has instilled these habits throughout their entire school. The seven habits teach students to succeed and become leaders in and out of the classroom. The first habit is about being proactive educates students that they choose their actions, attitudes, and moods. The second habit is called; begin with the end in mind. This teaches students to plan ahead and set goals for themselves. The third habit is called, put first things first. This encourages the students to spend their time on things that are most important. The fourth habit is the idea of think-think-win. The concept behind this habit is balancing courage for getting what they want with consideration for what others want. A concept arose from this specific habit that my internship school promotes; bucket filling. These buckets are emotional bank accounts. The idea is that students will choose to make an effort to do and say kind things to one another. The fifth habit is seek first to understand, then to be understood. This teaches the students to view things from another person’s perspective and have an open ear about other student’s ideas and feelings. The sixth habit teaches children to synergize. Synergizing promotes a positive environment in the classroom. It teaches children to understand that together is better and to get along well with others, even those who are different from them. The last and final habit is to sharpen the saw. This promotes healthy eating, taking care of your body, and finding meaningful ways to help others. It is really interesting to see these habits at work and have students commenting on each other using the seven habits vocabulary.
Shifts & Expansions of My Beliefs
I feel that my beliefs have not exactly shifted but more so increased. I was introduced to conscious discipline and the seven habits throughout my internship experience. Therefore my internship experience actually solidified my beliefs about teaching and being an effective teacher. I have always strongly believed in be ensuring that children have an equal chance in the classroom no matter their background. I do not feel that, that belief will necessarily change but more so expand in a sense that I will only become more passionate about it. I constantly work with students who come from different backgrounds and I always have the urge to just make sure they know that they are capable. They are worth it. They mean something to someone. I believe that I will continue this thought process and make it my mission to instill my belief into every child I come across.
Felt Tensions/Ongoing Wonderings
A continuous struggle that I have during my internship is finding and keeping the confidence in myself when presenting my lessons to the students. I have presented 3 read alouds to my students and have not been confident in any one that I have presented. I think that I continue to have this struggle would most likely be due to my constant analytical attitude of myself. I am constantly looking for areas to improve in but although I find these areas, it will often weigh on my self-esteem and confidence. So I end up constantly questioning whether or not I am doing something correctly. This feeling however makes me wonder about how I will do in different grade levels and when exposed to different lesson plans for different subjects. However, I am very confident in my belief in ensuring and promoting and equal chance for children who come from different backgrounds and low socioeconomic areas. This belief was actually instilled in me by my mother who has worked with children in low socioeconomic areas for over 22 years. I would constantly see the difference she had made in so many students’ lives. I dreamed of being able to make those same differences.
Conclusion
These beliefs represent the complex nature of both teaching and learning. Providing equal opportunities for students of various backgrounds, teaching them responsibility for themselves, and seek to understand the ideas of others.