educational beliefs

Classroom organization:
I like groups of students but it is important to make sure that every student can see the board at all times. However, sometimes rows are good too. Of course my lesson plans will align with the MLR’s and my school districts, if not than I probably won’t have a job for very long. I will look at all of my students with special needs IEPs and those that don’t have an IEP I will give them a student identity survey(SIS) in order to get to know them and their learning styles. With the information that I gather on the SIS, I will use that to see how the students learn best and I will change my teaching technique to fit the learner. Also, the SIS and the diversity shield will help me to gather information about the multiculturalism in my classes and it will help me to teach those students better. I would love to try to fit in at least one interdisciplinary unit each semester, they offer so much more to the students than just a thematic unit. However, I think that a thematic unit, if done properly, can be very powerful and teach a lot. Assessment is tricky for me because I believer, as a poor test taker myself, that tests do not prove whether you know the material or not. They just prove that you can memorize information. I do not want to test my students’ memory; I want to make sure that they are learning something of value in my classroom. I like performance tasks for the end of the unit, but I think that weekly quizzes are good, in different formats, to check for understanding on a more frequent basis.
Motivation:
Motivation is a really tough thing for me because I was always motivated by grades, but that is not a good way to be. Also, I can’t expect that every student is going to care about their grades. I think that extra-curriculars are good motivation. I will probably push all of those activities to my students not just the sports but everything because it is good to be involved in something. I think that I will be responsible for motivating my students and I hope to learn good ways to do that when I do my student teaching.
Discipline:
I will set out rules that every student must respect the other people in the classroom and I will respect all of them. I like to have fun in the classroom; I think that is very important. I don’t think you learn very much when everybody is uptight all the time and just focused on learning. However, I do not like the idea of not learning anything and just wasting everybody’s time. I have a good sense of the middle of that spectrum and it has worked for me so far. My students will always know where they stand with me, and if I have to I will send them to the principle’s office to make sure that all three of us are on the same page.
Classroom Climate:
I really think that the Student Identity Survey (SIS) is a great way to start making connections with the students. Students respect their teachers until the teacher gives them a reason not to. The teacher has strong influence over the students. Hopefully my lessons will be interesting enough that my students will want to learn and enjoy coming to my class. That would make my job a lot more fun and it would definitely make the climate in my classroom a happier place to be. I love parents. Parents know their children very well. Knowing my students parents will only help me to be able to make personal connections with my students. I will most likely be teaching in a school with power grade and other technology pieces like this. This will give me a chance to email parents if their child is having difficulty. Also, I like the idea of the phone or even face to face if it is possible. The parents of my students will be brought in. I hope to be able to do a few projects that involve the parents and have them be honored and brought into the classroom to celebrate their children’s accomplishments.
Learning Focus:
People acquire knowledge at all times. There isn’t a specific amount of time that can be allotted to getting more knowledge. Once you have learned a skill, it will still take some time to master it. There is not a recommended amount of time for this either. It depends on the person that is trying to master a skill or concept. Assessment is very important and a lot of time should go into preparing an assessment because this will show the teacher if they are doing a good job in the classroom. The classroom is a great place to stick in a few little, miniature lessons about morals and values. There should not be huge units on it, but while studying a certain person you could spend a day talking about their morals and how they affected their life.
Teaching Styles:
I like lecturing for a few minutes at the beginning of class to get out the main idea of what the student need to know. Then I like to move on into asking the students to think about a certain topic of the day and then proceed on to a project for the day or the week, depending on the topic. I also like to do some moving during class instead of just having the students sit in their chairs for 80 minutes. I love group discussions and debates. I enjoy getting all of the student’s opinions on any given issue. I like to walk around and check on a rubric what they are learning during the class period. I hope to be teaching in a smart classroom and that I will have access to computers for each of my students so that we can do a lot more with technology. I think that each teacher should have their own sort of discipline and other methods like that, but the school should have a big cap of general rules that every teacher has to follow.
Leadership Styles:
I think that I am a leader. I started a club sport at UMF and am the president of it. I am one of the older students in my residence hall and all of the younger students look up to me. In high school I was in quite a few clubs where I was on the executive board. I love to be tested and put in leadership positions. I think its great, but it is always better if I have a team of qualified people to back me up and help me with the tasks.

I think that Ms. G's secret sauce is really great. Some of her ingredients are self explanatory to me, while others are things that I would have never thought of that would be problems in a classroom. I never thought that celebrating success was something that had to be thought of before. i just kind of go with the flow and congratulate students individually. However, my big thing is believing in all of my students and that is Erin's number 1 ingredient. I think that if I can have that ingredient than I think I will have a lot more than I realized.