My role, as a teacher, is to prepare students to be successful in their future endeavors.  This is why teachers should foster the needs of the whole child.  I believe that social interactions play a significant role in children’s learning.  A teacher should provide each student every opportunity possible to grow and learn in a safe and welcoming environment.  This is done through building a caring classroom community that focuses on positive behavior and success.  By teaching students to tolerate and embrace each other’s differences, I will create a learning environment that encourages growth and understanding.  As a teacher, I will be preparing students to be active members of their own community by having them be active members of our classroom community.

 

            Each individual student is unique and has their own style of learning.  Therefore, as a teacher I should incorporate and adapt to these different learning styles.  By differentiating instruction in my classroom, I can encourage the development of all individual students’ needs.  Some students learn best by visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile instruction and thus my instruction should include all different types of learning styles.  It is important for me to use a variety of instructional strategies so that all students in my classroom can learn effectively, regardless of their differences of abilities.  By doing this, I will create a learning environment that allows each individual student to be successful.

 

            Students are motivated to learn when they have a concrete goal to focus on.  This is why, it is necessary for me, as a teacher, to set and hold students to high academic and behavioral standards.  I will encourage each student to achieve their own high personal goals so that they may feel a sense of accomplishment and pride as well as being challenged to reach their full potential.  By setting their own personal goals, students will have a drive to be successful in their own learning.  I believe that students have a desire to meet the teacher’s expectations.  If the students believe that I expect them to fail, then they will fail.  This is why I should provide students with the tools necessary to be successful while holding them to high standards.  With a focus on positive reinforcement as well as multiple opportunities for success, the students will be engaged and motivated in their own learning.

 

            Each individual student has unique cultures and experiences.  To place a value on these differences will promote meaningful and relevant experiences in the classroom.  A classroom benefits from focusing on the interests and experiences of the students.  By taking the time to get to know my students, I can encourage learning in the classroom.  It is more motivating to a student to learn about something that interests them or to present content in a way that is interesting to the student.  By engaging students in hands-on experiences and interdisciplinary units, students will become active learners.  Students have more interest in their own learning when they have the opportunity to be apart of the instruction.

 

            Adults and other peers can help students learn in the classroom by scaffolding instruction until students can complete tasks on their own.  I believe the to-with-by model is beneficial to scaffolding and modeling in the classroom so that students knowledge can be fostered with others help until they can securely become responsible for their own work.  In the to-with-by model, the teacher introduces and models a new strategy or skill to the students.  The teacher then practices the new strategy with the students to clear misconceptions and help students be more comfortable in their use of the new strategy or skill.  After, students use the new strategy and skill by themselves.  Modeling is beneficial to students because it enhances student achievement and provides multiple examples for students to securely understand new concepts, strategies, and ideas.

 

            As a teacher, my classroom should be a mutual respectful environment where students are comfortable in their own learning.  The students and I form a partnership in order for the students to reach their full potential.