What are you willing to do to educate all children?
When it comes to teaching, it is crucial that ALL students can engage in the lesson. Regardless of their learning styles and regardless of their background, educators need to connect to their students. A few of my elementary teachers have greatly inspired me. In my future classroom, I will hold rewarding lunch dates for students to join me at lunch and receive help on anything they need or even just to have a conversation about their life. By doing this, I can learn about each of my students individually and learn their best ways of learning to accommodate my lessons for them.
I have come to realize that students show signs when they are not grasping onto an idea. Students that act or cause a scene could just need some extra help and in the future I want to recognize these behaviors and handle them the correct way. I have seen many teachers that let students leave the classroom and progressively act worse because they do not want to disturb the rest of the class. However, when the time is right, I would get down to a personal level with the child and ask them what they want me to do for them. I strive to listen to my students needs and encourage them to seek help with concepts they do not understand. Parent involvement is also a factor that motivates children to learn and is something I want to promote in my classroom. When children see that their parents engage with me as a teacher, they are encouraged to participate in lessons in the class.
In short, I think it is important for teachers to bond with all of their students which is an important factor that I want to incorporate in my classroom. I want all of my students to confide in me when they need it and I do not want to be discouraged from bad student behavior when they are lost in the lesson. No matter what, all students should get plenty of opportunities to learn. My classroom is going to be a huge puzzle, we will all work together and know we are in the right place.
Hey Reanna,
ReplyDeleteI love your response to the question, "What are you willing to do to educate all children?". Your idea to hold rewarding lunch dates to provide the students opportunities to ask and get help on anything, or just talk is a great way to learn how to accommodate your lessons for them! I also think it will teach students how hard work leads to good opportunities that will benefit them. The way you stated how you would handle the situation of a child acting out is the exact way I would also go about it. Negative reinforcement is not something I want to use in my classroom, I feel like it just leads to more negative behaviors. Physically showing and giving verbal examples of positive behavior while providing a positive reinforcement will result in more positive behaviors, in my own personal opinion. Showing the child you care about them by asking "what's wrong" or "what can I do to help you" will affect them in a positive way and make them feel comfortable and trusting to learn from you.
Yes! I learned a lot about those acting out behaviors when shadowing classes during high school. The student was not given extra help at all by the teachers and administration of the school. They just saw his behavior as disruptive and removed him from the classroom, mind you he was in kindergarten. But it is crucial to be aware of those behaviors and find ways to connect to students like that as well as all students in general. It was very intriguing to learn that students act out when they can't understand a concept. They just need to know that we as teachers are there for them and want to attend to them!
DeleteHey Reanna!
ReplyDeleteI agree that regardless of their learning styles and background, educators need to connect to their students. I think it is extremely important that us future educators are informed on things like this so we can make our students as successful as possible! I think it is great that you are so aware of how to make sure you are hearing each of your students needs and requirements. It is so important that we create a good bond with our students and make every single one comfortable in our classrooms. I really liked the fact that you compared your classroom to a puzzle, because we truly do all have to work to fit together to be successful. I think you are going to make a great teacher and I loved your post!
Thank you Jadyn! Creating bonds with our students is a key factor of having a successful school year. I know we will learn a lot of the different behaviors that children do within the classroom that show signs of needing help. They definitely will not always ask, sometimes we as teachers need to go out of our way to make sure every student is being helped and let them know that we are there for their needs whether it's educational or simply just a shoulder to lean on. We will all have our own puzzles to complete within each classroom we're in!
DeleteHey Reanna!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of of having your students come down during lunch to talk to you and opening a space for students to connect with you. I also had educators that had spaces open like this after school to help students not only improve their skills in the subject they were teaching but also to get closer to their pupils. Its really important to learn your students way of learning to best reach them were they are at versus giving every student some arbitrary shared starting line in their comprehension of the subject. Every student is different and we need to compensate for that to make sure they excel in content we teach them ! I would ask how you plan to make sure the spaces you create for you students in these "lunch dates" stays productive when some students need it to be to work on homework or assignments. And when you need the space to be more socially active how do you plan to separate this so that every student gets the attention they need?
Hey Micheal, there is a few different things we could do as teachers. I see that a lot of teachers sometimes partner up and plan out things. I think it would be interesting to have one classroom dedicated for educational help and one for social times. Although I realize in this way, some students might skip out on the educational room to go to the social room. In that case, I could also dedicate different days for educational purposes and others for the social days. If I really need to, I could partner with the students parents to learn about educational struggles their children are going through and dedicate days for those students. There are many different ways we could handle the free time we have with students, we would just need to learn what works for students even if it's through trial and error. Thanks for the question!
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