Under my “Philosophy” page I have stated a few of my goals as an educator. In particular, building relationships with my students and making school a safe and fun place to attend are key to my philosophy.
Goal 1: Building relationships with my students
Building relationships is a very important goal in my teaching. This key aspect in my teaching allows me to design lessons and assessments with students in mind, build a classroom community, aids in classroom management, and lets the students know that I care about them. To reach this important goal, I eat lunch with my students as much as possible, inquire daily about their lives both inside and outside the classroom, and ensure that I am making an effort to find out what the students are interested in and incorporate this into the curriculum as much as possible. I found that eating lunch with my students was a great way to circulate to different table groups and learn about my students lives outside of school. Morning check-ins are very important in my classroom. I have my students show me a thumbs up (they are good), thumbs to the side (they are okay), and a thumbs down (they are not doing well) each morning as they enter the classroom. I then go around to each student and find out what is happening. Building relationships with my students is my first priority as an educator as I feel it lays the foundation for a successful classroom.
Goal 2: A safe and fun classroom
Creating a safe classroom is very important to me. I want all of my students to feel welcome, supported, and cared for by myself and their peers. As my classroom will be inquiry based, there will be many group activities and discussions, and I would like all students to feel comfortable sharing ideas in class. Further, all classrooms have diversity, and I would like my students to be accepting and welcoming to others’ differences. Modelling and teaching important skills such as cooperating, resolving conflict, listening, and respecting others will aid in this goal. For instance, during my practicum, when students disagreed with each others ideas, we discussed a way to respond to other students that was not shutting down their thinking. Teaching students to say “That’s an interesting idea. I think…..” instead of “You are wrong” was helpful in creating a safe place for sharing ideas. This goal will start on day one with a classroom agreement and with class goals to be caring and kind. During my practicum, the students would remind each other of our class goal to be kind if they felt someone was not fulfilling this goal. Further, having a fun and engaging classroom is important to me. This goal is reflective of building relationships and teaching with students in mind. Making school an enjoyable place to be can be achieved through providing DPA activities such as dance breaks to the Cha-Cha Slide, lessons that have students moving and using manipulatives, and creating lessons that get students thinking and playing an active role in their learning.
These goals are at the top of my priority list as I feel they are linked to the rest of my teaching goals. How exactly they are implemented will be reflective of my class and what works best for my students. I look forward to working towards my current teaching goals, and adding more goals to the list over the course of my teaching career!