Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teaching Education Program-and Beyond

My first concern about becoming a teacher is, what it will be like to be in front of the class? Also concerns about how to best handle difficult situations with students who are struggling in school. Teaching will never be easy and I think it to best handle my concerns is to do the best I can to prepare for each and every class.

My biggest concerns fall under the area of Self. I feel that I'll be able to teach students well and have a positive impact on my students. But my concern is how to control a large group of students. I work really well teaching small groups and that is something I've been doing for a few years. Standing in front of many students and teaching a lesson is where I want to improve. I only do this well if I'm really prepared, otherwise I struggle to make myself clear.

This sense of confidence is where I really want to improve over the next few years. It will take practice and patience, but I think I can gain confidence and become more clear when I present in front of a class.

Chapter 13: Improving Teachers and Schools, and School Reform

Before I graduate I look forward to gain valuable experience from practicum and student teaching. Both of these experiences will give me the opportunity to work within a classroom and gain experience with building and carrying out lesson plans. All that experience will be valuable for myself when applying for a teaching job and for if when I receive a job in teaching.

Within my first five years of teaching I'll be looking to increase my qualifications as a teacher. I'll look into seeking outside sources of training and learning from more experienced teachers. Each year of teaching adds valuable experience and its so important to continue to grow as a teacher day after day, looking to learn more and more about how to teach in the classroom.

Chapter 7: Thinking about Teaching and Learning

Information I would like to include in my philosophy paper:

1) How to organize the classroom? I need to put some thought into whether I prefer to have a classroom with rows, groups, or different for the occasion. Each style of organization has it's positives and I need to look into what would best work for the classroom atmosphere I'm striving to create.

2) How to teach the students? Knowing that not all students learn best from the same teaching style, I need to give a lot of thought into how students learn, what they should learn, and how they should learn it. I'll need to set classroom goals that my students should be guided to achieve. No class is going to be taught the same way, but having a foundation to build off of will be a start.

3) What Values and Ethics to establish in the classroom? Its vitally important to demonstrate moral values and ethics in the classroom, and not only demonstrate them, teach them. This takes being a good role model, saying and doing the right thing, and present yourself in a respectful manner. This is probably one of the most important aspects of teaching and one I need to address in my philosophy paper. How I want my image to look and practice being respectful of everyone around.

Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

I made a power point concerning the subjects in chapter 6. My digital artifact will be uploaded on the wiki soon.

Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

The school my group built known as "Healthy Living" probably has some similarities with a few school in the United states. Its teaching focus is to teach how to teach many aspects of a healthy life. While still be able to teach core academic subjects. The first question to address how the school is organized. This is something our group didn't look at, but it was presumed that our school would have an ordinary chain for teachers and principals. This means there would be a principal, assistant superintendent, an teachers. Another organizational aspect of our school that we didn't address was the relationship of schools to the state. I believe the relationship could be good, because the state will look at the focus of the school and how it can have an impact on students lives. The third thing we should have looked into was the role the Federal Government will have on the school. The school will be a charter school. Which means it will receive public money, but won't be restricted in what it can teach. The fourth and final thing to look at when starting up a school is how it will be paid for. This is never easy for any school, especially in today's modern economy. The "Healthy Living" school would be expensive to run so it would need to collect money from various revenues. When building our school we overlooked many of the struggles you want to try an avoid when building. It costs a lot of money and the money needs to come from somewhere.

Which Theories and Historical Influences Should Most Impact the Schools we'd Like to Have?

How Can Diversity in The Classroom Help me be a Better Teacher?

Diversity in the classroom can help me be a better teacher.