Teaching for me is a unique opportunity to invest in the future. I believe students are agents of change, and in order for them to succeed and lead our society in the global economy, teachers need to teach social responsibility, a sense of community, and to empower students to take charge of their learning, not only in school but in lifelong learning contexts as well.
I also believe that teaching students to be responsible to themselves and to our world is very important. This happens when students have responsibilities within a classroom and are taught how to make good choices. In order for students to understand various responsibilities, students will need to learn how to determine these responsibilities by analyzing internal and external factors to self and the world. One way teachers can help students become responsible citizens is to give them opportunities to think critically. Critical thinking means that students consider their opinions and ideas in comparison to others and understand how their beliefs and actions shape their environments.
Every classroom should be a safe, respectful, supportive and caring place for students to grow. When students feel a sense of belonging and ownership in the classroom, they are willing to contribute and participate. This environment happens only when teachers and students have supportive and respectful relationships with each other. In order to establish this, I believe open and honest communication is key.
My hope for my students is that they learn to take control of their learning and to use learning as a tool for future success throughout their lives. For students to become life-long learners, teachers need to emphasize that learning happens everywhere, every day and anytime. Students must be given the opportunity to construct their own understanding and build upon their prior knowledge.
I believe one way teachers can promote and support this idea is through peer monitoring or collaboration with others. Many students may associate learning with academic subjects such as literacy from books or math from worksheets; however, learning takes place in many forms, in many different places. For example, when students are working with partners to peer edit their writing, they are learning to be cooperative and value each other’s ideas and creativity, in addition to experiencing the writing process. Teachers need to be aware and support this learning by discussing how being cooperative and working as partners are also considered learning and how one would apply those skills outside the classroom.
Not only do teachers need to believe all students can be successful, but students themselves need to believe that they can be successful. I firmly believe that setting goals and reflecting on past learning is an efficient way to further motivate students. By setting goals, achieving them, or reflecting on the processes of struggling or overcoming hardships, students become active in taking control of how they learned and what they overcame, and they feel a sense of accomplishment.
No comments:
Post a Comment