How my philosophy will impact my classroom

My philosophy on education involves being very flexible, relaxed, and to be there to facilitate learning for my students through helping them create their own experiences. I want learning to be hands on, real world application so that learning is not see as a pointless thing to them. Classroom Organization is a huge part of making an open environment and allowing the kids to work the best. In my class It will be very open to seating, it will not be assigned but some days might include a horseshoe shape, some might include small groups of desk, but 99% of the time the desk will be together for them to learn from one another, because that is the best way to learn from each other. I will have basic rules of respect for myself and the other students, but the students are also able to suggest anything to add to that, as long as there is a mutual respect for myself and other classmates.  My room will always be an open door policy for kids to come in and do work or get help. Motivation is a huge factor in the classroom, not only do I want my students to be motivated, I want to be motivated everyday to come in and have the best class. I will instill this into my students by allowing them to really study what they want, and be completely involved in that process. They will have the freedom to discover whatever they would like into a unit. I want them to make real world connections, have fun and make they're learning a good experience. Content Area will be standard every year for categories, such as nutrition, exercise physiology, stress, alcohol and drug abuse, sex ed, family relationships and learning styles. But within each of these unit it is wide open to interpretation by the students, they can take each unit as far as they would like, I am completely open to allowing them to think outside the box, and doing things like an agriculture project for nutrition. Assessments will be mostly a presentation or hands on activity that shows that they were able to take the content knowledge and apply it to the real world and they know what they are talking about. Assessments will also be determined after the students pick what they would like to do, only because things can be varied a lot. Classroom Climate goes along with my classroom organization and motivation for my students. I will have open doors at all time, and they are allowed to come to me for anything, I want everyone participating and saying ideas out loud so that it sparks something amongst them. Learning Focus will include anything they want, and I will fit it to a standard, if they are really interested in a  topic I will try to integrate it and not tell the students that we don't have enough time to do. Technology integration These students will have grown up with technology so they already know how to use it, I will always incorporate some sort of technology but also be conscious of who has internet at home to do assignments. Teacher and Leadership Style As a person in general as well as a teacher, I am very Type A and have strong leadership abilities. I do not like being a follower, I have to at least put my ideas out there, and facilitate in some way. I take directions well but avoid roles in which Im a sheep following along the rest. Im a very hands on, go get them person and expect my students to do the same for their learning, if they want to learn something they need to take the initiive to go out and do it and I will help every step of the way. I believe highly in teaching them life lessons, because school should be coordinated with the outside world as much as possible.  

ELL Presentation

The ELL presentation was very well done. You can tell they really took time to figure out how to get us submerged, and see what it was like to be an ELL as well as take the opportunity to capitalize on that and show us how to teach to those specific people. I really like how instead of just speaking at us and having us watch a slide show or a movie, they broke us down into small groups and taught us that way. I really enjoyed all the hands on learning opportunities and that is what allowed me to really learn about how to teach an ELL student. I obviously know what an ELL student is, so for them to jump right into the next level and show us how to teach to them, and what it feels like to be one, really got my attention more then any other presentation. They did a very good job at each section explaining, and loved every single one of the activities and learned a lot, that I can use in my futures classrooms!

Voices

After reading through all the different philosophies on education I really think it narrowed me in on exactly what my philosophy of education is. I really discovered that I had the most relatability to the early philosophies of education, my first being Confucius’. I agreed with the statement that instruction should be conversation with one another and that students should be motivated and active learners. I also like the fact that moral principles were made up to guide education. Augustine’s was the next philosophy that I really connected to. He stated that “a teacher should teach like a father teaches his son, not to impart knowledge, but helping the child to understand words, signs, and concepts”. He also stated that teachers should figure out what knowledge a child already and that they should build upon that.

My favorite thing from Aquinas’ Philosophy was that she identified the important role of family, in an early education of children. Not only is early education important, so isn’t the role of the family all along in education. To go along with that Philosophy Christine stated that physical education should be in the model of the Roman training for the young, and civic responsibility and morality in the youth by exposing them to the lessons of history and the examples of famous people. There were really no philosophies I agreed with in the present except for Tyler’s and that was because he stated that the purpose of school was to help children learn and develop problem solving skills that would help them be citizens actively engaged.

With all of these bits and pieces combined, I really think it describes who I am as a person as well as an educator.

Teaching hope: EMPOWERMENT

The first story I chose which I think is important for everyone is story 137. This talks about how this one kid named Charlie was being severely picked on by his peers. They were calling him an "idiot, loser, or freak". His father was in prison and his mother abandoned him. He was out crying to attention and doing stupid things and earning himself suspensions. This teacher decided to start a reading/writing program with journals. Just like every other journal writing story in this book, once people were able to listen to Charlie's side of his story, they were able to relate to him more, and instead of being a freak, or a loser he was not relatable to people and they no longer called him those names.

Group 3: Alternative Schools Presentation

Group 3 gave a presentation over alternative schools in New England. I first off want to start by saying that I really enjoyed the fact that they kept this local, so that we could see where some alternative schools were located near us. I had no idea how close some of these schools were to me, and love the idea that surround them. I learned a lot about the different types of alternative schools and all of the different things that it can include such as animals, therapies, outdoor gardening. After learning about it, I really realized that this is what I would of liked to do when I was in school.
I did really enjoy the activities that we did, the only thing I would suggest if you had to do it again, is to show how alternative schools can be different, maybe make those activities in groups or doing something unique as an example of how it could be used in the classroom. Other then that, I really enjoyed the variety and loved all the examples that you gave us to go by!

Bright Futures

Before even beginning to read Bright Futures I thought it was going to be similar to standards and just make it harder for teachers to teach what they already have. After reading this article I found that this can be a very helpful guideline in directing kids to where they need to go in school, and what they need to learn. In this article they actually give a "standard" but it includes a MLTI, or MLR standard and they include this with a more elaborate explanation. They also provide an in class example and different goals for each section. It gives examples of how to tie one concept to another, like the internet with their history standards and how these standards that have been proposed can be up lifted to get kids to the point that they need to learn. This makes kids, make more connections across disciplines and subjects as well as allow kids to connect to their community, school and understand some basic concepts in life, that a normal curriculum may not provide for them. Throughout all of this, it is ultimately trying to make a whole, well rounded student.