Teaching is hard work, it is no easy feat. It is, however, the most rewarding profession in existence. To teach is not to instill facts or drill information into students malleable brains, rather it is to spark excitement, inspire beyond curriculum, and to provide more than just an education built upon mathematics, science, social studies and language arts.
Teaching, to me, is exhausting all of my efforts to change the lives of students. While teaching students the curriculum is necessary, so is teaching them to be good people, to be mindful people. Social and emotional awareness and well being is a crucial aspect of a child's development and I believe it is my job as the teacher to foster their growth not only academically, but socially and emotionally as well. It is critical to incorporate life lessons such as being a good person into lessons about algebra or grammar.
My ideal classroom is one where students are eager to learn because of the energy and effort that I put into teaching them. A classroom that is not rigid and overly structured. My ideal classroom is one that is flexible in seating arrangements and void of meaningless busy work or filler activities. Every warm-up, activity, lesson, and day will have a purpose. My classroom will focus on building relationships and problem-solving, important skills that seem to be lacking in the present day.
Every student in my classroom will understand that they can all be successful. No student will be made to feel less worthy in comparison to other students. Every student will be welcomed, appreciated, and loved in my classroom. Every student will have a place, regardless of abilities, strengths, or weaknesses. My teaching will be differentiated and include centers that foster the development of different skills and abilities. Reading and fostering a love of reading is important to me. Allowing for time to get lost in a book is a crucial aspect for improving reading abilities and it will be a feature in my classroom.
Overall, my classroom will be representative of all of my philosophies as an educator. My academic goals will tie into my goals for social and emotional awareness and overall, my students will leave my classroom better students as well as better people. My life goal as an educator is to teach children skills. Academic skills that will help them succeed in the future, people skills to help them collaborate with others, and emotional skills to help them deal with the world that I send them off into.
