“We need more people like you in the world” or “bless your heart” is often what I’ve been told when I tell people I’m currently enrolled in college to become an elementary school teacher. They view you as some kind of saint for going to the profession. Well, I appreciate the gratitude, it often leads to many personal questions on why one would say this. Many people from the outside don’t realize the why behind teachers and the strong motives behind wanting to pursue a career in education. Now don’t get me wrong there are many times when I have questioned is this something I really want to do? Is it really worth it? The short answer comes down to a simple yes. The positives outweigh the negatives in this career.
My Future Classroom Environment:
The first main thing I thought about was how I wanted my classroom to feel like and what was needed for students to be successful. The first thing being students need resources. Although it is possible to teach with very little resources, I believe students with an adequate number of resources learn best. I learned during educ 101-102 that as a teacher if your district doesn’t receive much funding there are various things you can do without digging in your pocket, from grants, to partnering with local business and communities. The biggest thing is to create connections and partnerships with others, you can’t be in a vacuum by yourself as a teacher. At my previous place of employment, I worked with kids who didn’t have the basic necessities they needed, and it impacted their moods, their willingness to learn, mental health, and their social development. When kids feel under cared for and lack resources, they often put themselves in a vacuum from embarrassment or sadness.
Throughout educ 101-102 I also learned the importance of switching it up in the classroom. I saw this a lot in the Village project on how quickly kids would lose interest if they were doing the same practices every day. Which is why in my future classroom I will be switching things up as much as possible whether it’s using different technology, utilizing different parts of the school, balancing between self and peer collaboration, or implementing lessons in ways that get kids moving. A great example of this is when we did the book tasting and the room was transformed. This stems from the concept we learned in class of the importance of switching things up in the classroom largely supported by the games unit, but also reinforced in all the projects we have done as well as supporting evidence linked to motivation from the slides. As well as links to the concept that, “change promotes attention”. Meaning students will be more engaged.
Another practice in my classroom that will definitely be implemented is mental health breaks. Mental health issues and increasing in today’s society and as a pre-service teacher I believe we have to do more to help students affected. Taking a five minute break may change a student’s mood completely and may even save a life. This specific example I found important in my job at a Boys and Girls Club where kids battled with many mental health issues they didn’t talk about, and breaks were needed especially after a long day of school or if they just time to think about the day or things going on at home. Breaks were utilized, and it had a tremendous impact on the kids behavior and moods by calming them down and putting them in a better mindset. I have a very strong belief of taking a break is okay when it’s needed. Everyone will need a break at some point in their lives.
Along the lines of mental health breaks, I believe implementing mental health practices will also greatly improve the environment of my classroom. Whether it’s as simple as asking the kids how they are doing, booking check ins, centering, or creating a same space for kids to feel comfortable to reach out. These examples again were both evident at BGC specifically in the social emotional learning advisor who also implemented lessons of SEL into every classroom, which helped the kids understand why they were feeling the way they were and allowed them to understand emotions are natural.
All of these elements will play a huge role in my classroom environment and that is one of the main things that affects the students, as if they are in an environment where they feel comfortable they are going to be able to learn more successfully than if they are in a negative classroom environment. These elements mentioned above are supported by the concept “Research suggests, for example, that aspects of the learning environment can both trigger and sustain a student’s curiosity and interest in ways that support motivation and learning” (Dr. R’s motivation slides.)
Morals I Have and Will Teach:
Another thing I have thought about is teaching practices and the importance of showing kids values. The first practice comes from a value of my own and it’s teaching kids empathy and respect for one another, doing this will provide kids with real life skills and social emotional learning. I enacted this in my VP this year as one student was sad she lost her necklace on the playground and she was crying and we had a class discussion right before it on how we can help others and let them know being sad, mad, angry, etc., is totally normal and it’s important to be accepting of that and it’s also known as showing empathy for each other. Another student then had gone up to the one crying gave her a hug and said, “I’m sad because you’re sad, let’s look for it at recess. Although these actions may have came naturally it cheered the girl who lost her necklace up. This is an example of how important empathy and respect for others is in the classroom.
Another value I believe is important is teaching kids healthy boundaries and healthy friendships, many kids don’t realize what this looks like and it may affect them negatively. Going hand in hand with this is the importance of teaching kids to advocate for themselves. This is a value I believe everyone deserves and needs to have. I enacted this when I noticed at my previous job that some students friendships did more harm than good and it then inspired a lesson on healthy friendships, and how we can stand up and communicate for ourselves. After this I noticed a decrease in arguments and an increase in mental health and friendships as they learned the importance of communicating.
As a preservice teacher another one of my morals is that I will always encourage and uplift my students in any way I can. Kids these days deal with enough negativity that they don’t deserve, they don’t need anymore. A little comment or words of encouragement goes a long way. This became clear to me throughout VP as well as kids were constantly down when trying hard things and the little, “I believe in you”, made their eyes light up and gave them the motivation. Kids who know they have someone rooting for them and in their corner is a huge motivator. On the flip side of this I remember being young and receiving negative comments and that didn’t only put me in a bad mood but then also has an effect on people around me if as I was being shown negativity is okay and that’s not a good moral at all.
All of these elements will teach and set an example of the morals we should all have. As well as these elements play a huge role in teaching and aiding the decision of right from wrong. As I enact all of these elements it also creates a model and a good example for them to follow and pick up on things from.
My Values
Another thing I rely greatly on throughout my journey of becoming a teacher that I know will benefit me is my strong morals. My biggest moral became more evident this year. It’s the value of my students and being there for them is more important than sticking to a lesson plan. I want my future students to know that them and their needs will always come before learning and sticking to standards. My kids will learn much greater lessons from this that will apply more to their lives than learning the material. This is also a moral for me because in high school I struggled with learning the required material when I was confused or knew my needs were not being met which essentially just wasted time. On the other hand, if my teachers had taken the time to check in and then moved on to the material for the day me and lots of other students would have benefited more greatly and learned more of the required material. As I have learned and been shown various times things as a teacher are constantly changing so what’s one more change?
Throughout my time in the Village project so far it has developed a strong moral of the importance of creating bonds. I believe that in order to teach and be respected by your children you have to get to know them. This was enacted in the Village project on my first day there because the kids did not respect me as they didn’t know who I was. Once I began to talk and connect with them, they began to respect and listen to me more and more.
Another thing that really became clear to me specifically in Edu 102 and throughout village project especially was the importance of how you word compliments and feedback for students, as sometimes they can be taken significantly, or they pick up on what you say to one student and don’t say to them. For example, if a student solves a problem and you say, “wow your so smart.” If another student isn’t able to solve it, they might think they are dumb. Which is never the case. When you finetune the compliments you make more towards the process on how they got there and not their ability it doesn’t promote a negative reaction from other students. This goes along with the concept of “praising process rather than ability sends message that intelligence is under their control” (chapter 8). Which means it can be changed, and one day they will solve the problem, and that they can do hard things.
Lastly, my biggest belief for the profession is that learning should be done in school, no kid should have to go home and teach themselves a lesson in order to be able to do the assigned homework. Lessons should be taught in school and the learning should be reinforced with homework. This is my biggest belief as I remember spending hours at the dinner table crying trying to teach myself math because in class it was just silent work time. Students come to school to learn. I also found this evident in my pass jobs when kids would spend time trying to teach themselves homework, I fixed this by simply teaching them what they were being asked. In the end they learned more, and it was also more effective and efficient. This is what I value the most and is currently what I am most excited for to help change the stigmatism around school, as I think sending kids home with lots of homework and expecting them to teach it to themselves is where stigmatism arises. Along with this I believe there is value in rewarding those who put in the hard work for this example it would be doing their homework. By rewarding those who are putting in the effort it tells the others that hard work really pays off. (Chapter 8.) This also can provide motivation to put in the hard work, which is crucial for learning as, “… children who are motivated tend to be better engaged, persist longer, have better learning outcomes, and preform better than other children on standardized achievement tests” (Dr. R’s motivation slides).
