The purpose of education is to prepare children for their life outside of school. As teachers, it is our job to equip them with the knowledge and skills they need for after they graduate. It is extremely important to have a philosophy and plan in place so that an effective classroom can be run with full learning potential.
After reading through the six philosophy resources, the one that I most closely identify with is Constructivism. I believe a classroom should be student-centered where high-level thinking and student autonomy are encouraged. There also needs to be a reflection time so that the students can figure out how and why they got their answers. Constructivism places a lot of responsibility on the students and keeps them accountable for their own learning.
The role of the learner is to seep up information that will prepare them for the future. Also to expand their knowledge off of what they currently know and incorporate it in their everyday lives. The role of the teacher is to set up a classroom that encourages all levels of learning. Lesson plans need to encourage higher-level thinking and the teacher needs to serve more as a facilitator than a lecturer. Children need to be challenged, but also supported and encouraged to do well.
My objective as a teacher is to run a positive classroom with set expectations and rules. There will be order and organization in my classroom so that full learning potential can be met. I will have the students work in groups more often than not so that they can learn from one another. I want the children to learn to think for themselves and learn to come up with answers on their own, rather than them sitting through a lecture and writing down notes. I don’t believe that just lecturing allows the students to use their brains in creative ways, nor does it encourage high-level thinking or student autonomy. I believe a student can grasp a concept best if they try to figure out the problem on their own. Of course, the teacher should always be there to help and to guide the students. I also will have a fun classroom, learning needs to be seen as fun and enjoyable so that maximum learning can occur.
I like to look back at my previous teachers and see what had the best effect on me. My worst teacher was my 2nd grade teacher. She was very mean, always in a bad mood and was very hard on us as a class. That is the complete opposite of what kind of teacher I want to be. I want to be more like my sophomore year World History teacher. While her class was very tough and challenging, it was also fun. We worked a lot in groups, doing different projects and activities. I believe I learned more this way, since I was actively learning, rather than passively learning.
I will hold true to my philosophy on Constructivism and set high expectations for myself and my students. My students will always be expected to excel on their assignments and completely fully and to the best of their ability. I will hold myself accountable for them as well. If a student is struggling, I need to recognize it and come up with a plan to help them understand and ultimately do well in the class.
Reflection
Response to Stephen Downes- I think blogging is an excellent medium to communicate thoughts, ideas, news and interest. I think it's great to incorporate into a classroom because I believe the students will see it as more interesting versus just writing a paper for the teacher. This allows the students to share their thoughts and ideas publicly, therefore welcoming feedback by other peers as well. Blogging, like many other types of social media, has developed more over the past 8 years. I disagree with Downes when he says that blogging is not over content, but can be expressed personally in short spurts. I say that because in today's world, children have FaceBook for that. I strongly believe that blogging is over content, and people blog to share more serious news, like what is going on with today's world, or even subjects like food, rather than personal stories. I think we have met this today because of social media outlets like Twitter and FaceBook, reserving blogging for everything but personal stories.
Response to Alan November- The area that stood out to me the most was number 6, Collegiality is What's Needed. I am a firm believer in having a student-centered classroom. I think that by including children in the technology training process will give them a sense of being included. The teacher does not want to become automated. The classroom needs to run as a whole, not separated by teacher/student. This also can give students confidence to do well and behave well. If the student's are being included, they will feel respected and therefore, show respect. This will also build a relationship between the teacher and the students, where the students will feel comfortable coming to the teacher with questions or problems.
