Teaching Beliefs

Empower children to learn.

Children need to know that they are powerful and have autonomy over their learning. My classroom provides the space students need to explore their own strengths and passions. Students gain confidence in themselves and through this self esteem, they rise to their potential. I offer detailed feedback on students’ strengths when reviewing their assignments before providing constructive comments on their work. Using a strengths based method of teaching and assessing students helps to build their esteem and provides me with valuable information on how to build on their strengths. Since learning happens by building new knowledge onto already established understandings, this method is particularly effective. When introducing topics, I utilize open-ended questions to ensure all students can participate. I used this technique when teaching about the solar eclipse and began the lesson by showing a visual of a solar eclipse and asking students, “What do you notice?” I use this question often in my classroom as a way for all students to make observations and be engaged.

Support students’ individual needs.

By showing up authentically as the teacher, I encourage my students to be themselves and discover their individuality. I promote honesty by being transparent when I make mistakes and encourage discussions about what makes people different. Diversity is celebrated in my classroom, where we talk about varied experiences of students. I encourage students to ask questions and practice active listening. I like to teach a lesson on how everyone has different needs and how students can appreciate that early in the year. I do this by facilitating a group activity where I ask the students if anyone has had a cut. I choose a student who raises their hand and gives them a bandaid for where they have had a cut, for instance their knee. I then ask if anyone’s had a headache. I choose a different student and give them a bandaid for their knee. I continue this asking about different injuries, but every time I give the child a bandaid for their knee. I then ask if this is fair if everyone gets a bandaid for their knee, even if it doesn’t help the student's injury. I have found this activity to be helpful for students to understand disabilities and the various needs of students in the classroom.

Appreciate engaged classrooms.

Although many teachers value their students working quietly, I take a different approach to teaching. When reading a science book to my class, I prefer my students to honestly react to what they are learning and engage with the information. I view a classroom buzzing with excitement about content as more effective than an obediently silent one. This approach is also more inclusive for different learning styles, since it holds space for students to self-stimulate, self-soothe, and move if and when they need to. Students understand that they need to be quiet when I’m talking so they can hear me, but know that they will have time to express their joy of learning at other appropriate times. This brings a sense of joy, safety, and reciprocal respect that I value in my classroom. When my students in second grade were learning about plants in science, we reviewed what plants need by acting out the different stages of a plant's life. As a class, everyone ducked down like they were seeds turning into seedlings. The students needed to tell me what they needed to grow, so when they called out “water,” or “sunlight,” it showed their understanding. Multimodal approaches allow me to be creative with the different modes that I teach with, providing a multisensory experience to encourage my students to connect with the content. I delighted in the laughter I heard as I watched my students “grow” in this lesson.

Build strong relationships and classroom community.

It is vital for the curriculum to reflect the students to create community in the classroom. Through facilitated conversations, my students build strong relationships with their peers and with me as a teacher. These relationships are the foundation for respect in the classroom to foster an effective learning environment. Community guides my classroom management, as students build empathy and understand the why behind our classroom rules. When conflicts emerge, we have conversations and employ social emotional learning to build problem solving skills. When a student I had was fighting with students during recess, I was able to talk to them about why and what they could do to resolve the issue. In the end, he drew individual cards for each of the students, which resulted in the students in the conflict skipping out of my classroom together holding hands at the end of the day.