As I Enter the Realm of Teaching:
Royal Roads University: Gate that led me into the magical rose garden. A symbol of my entrance into my own classrooms
My dream is to provide curriculum and lessons that are inspired and guided by the personal and collective interests shared by the students. I want to enter the teaching profession with an approach that underlines Piaget’s beliefs in the need for a more social, explorative learning environment and value Vygotsky’s theories on the zone of proximal development to better understand my students levels of capacities. I also desire to promote a progressive curriculum that stems off of Dewey’s beliefs in valuing play and incorporating lived experiences into the learning process. With the challenges of time and rigid structure of classroom settings, a constant learning process for me will be to establish an educational community that cultivates each child’s intellectual, emotional, social, and moral potentials.
Be The Change:
A quote that has guided me through my life
My goals as a teacher include transforming the world through education with a vision of inspiring students to reach their full potential, and build successful, positive futures. As Palmer states, “we became teachers for reasons of the heart, animated by a passion for some subject and for helping people to learn” (Palmer, 1997). My style of teaching encompasses values of building respectful relationships with students, colleagues and community through collaboration and an understanding of diversity in learning. Similarly, I envision an educational environment that is innovative, engaging and inclusive.
Guided By My Practicum Experience:
Student portfolio of documentation of the many activities in our butterfly unit – a reminder of how much my students learned and how enjoyable this process was
My recent practicum completion in a kindergarten class developed my desire to strongly emphasize social emotional learning and project-based learning in my own classes. I plan on achieving this by constantly attending professional development opportunities that will educate me on new possibilities in facilitating this style of teaching. A few SEL programs I am interested in researching include MIND-UP, and Second Step. As well, I plan on researching more on the principles implemented in the Reggio Emilia approach.
Students working on creating their science observation notebooks used in observing the development of our class caterpillars and record observations
The exposure I received to this approach during practicum has solidified my desire to promote the arts and personal expression, while acknowledging diversity in learning. I feel I can achieve this through genuine conversations with parents, students and faculty to truly understand the needs and desires of the community I am apart of. Furthermore, my practicum experience has solidifed my goal of incorporating the nurturing of well-rounded students. Qualities of empathy, humility, integrity, respect, responsibility, and resilience will be consistently instilled in the students I teach, for I will interact with my students in this manner. This goal stems from Palmer’s beliefs that “good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integral and undivided self; they manifest in their own lives, and evoke in their students, a “capacity for connectedness”(Palmer, 1997).
Influenced By The Community:
Implementing a new recycling system at the Ecovillage by researching at recycling depots and creating an organized sorting system
Most recently, my Community Field Experience at O.U.R. Ecovillage has shown me the positive impact a hands-on experiential teaching and learning environment can have. Through this experience I have developed a need to establish an ecologically sustainable classroom environment. It has become evident to me that I need to continually learn how I can make environmentally friendly choices in both my everyday life and in the classroom. For example, I am keen on integrating students into the community, where they can also witness the consequences of environmentally irresponsible actions. This experience has also provided me with a greater understanding of what can and cannot be recycled and what can be reused. Recycling is an exciting topic that should be implemented into every classroom. My sustainability goals include incorporating Upcycling into every art activity and every lesson to help students learn to make upcycling a habitual action. These are valuable skills that students need to be building to allow them to be aware of the environmentally conscious decisions they can be making.
The Community Field Experience will impact how I organize my classroom and guide my students consumption and use of materials. For example, paper products are used extensively and frivolously in the class. How will students begin to understand that throwing out scraps of paper is damaging without knowledge of how the product we use is created and what happens when it is considered “trash”?
Building A Strong Community:
As I enter this profession, there are some key class management goals I will strive to attain. This includes, building a community that creates a safe, friendly, and well-managed environment, with rules, norms and routines developed as a collective. Since each child is unique I will collaborate with colleagues and parents on creating a variety of communication channels, and methods of being calm, fair, and consistent. For I believe with Noddings in that “relations of care and trust provide the foundation for both academic and moral education”(Noddings, 2006).
References
Noddings, N. (2006). Handle with Care. Greater Good.
Parker J. Palmer (1997) The Heart of a Teacher Identity and Integrity in Teaching, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 29:6, 14-21