My Teaching Environment

My teaching enviornment will be laid back because I'm laid back. I plan to hold high standards for my students, but will also be understanding. I will not hold their past against them; I believe that people can change and grow. My classroom will not be negative, negativity hinders learning. I plan to be extremely optimistic, I plan to be serious, but light. I want to be influential, I want my students to remember me as a wonderful teacher.

I Plan to Flourish Strengths.

As a teacher, it is our job to mold children into efficient human beings, and also know their strengths and weaknesses. We are supposed to see where they excel and help them with that. With my knowledge of the tools that I learned in this class, I will be doing just that. By making my students use these tools, I can hopefully spark their interest in what they want to do in life. For example, by making them use Google Earth, I can give them an opportunity to work with maps and that could lead to their carrier in Geography.

Approaches I Plan to Take

As previously stated, I will have a structured curriculum with a progressive twist. I think it is important for students to have a structured curriculum, however, there are other things to make them enjoy it more. I think kids today are bored in the classroom, and give up at an early age. I've been observing sixth, seventh, and eighth graders and not one of them are intrigued by history at all. They can't really relate to the past. So hopefully, my techniques will get them more involved and they will see how important history is.

Tools in the Classroom

The tools I will take away from this class are Timetoast, Google Docs, iTunes U and Google Earth. Since I am a history major as well as an education major; the timetoast tool will help my students with time lines. Google Docs is the free version of Microsoft office. One can do a spreadsheet, and form a presentation. I will be using this during my teaching carrier because it's free and easy to use. iTunes U, can help further my education on certain areas in history so that I may give my students accurate information. Finally, Google Earth has a tool where you can look at a place in the past. I plan to show my students certain places and what they look like during the time frame we are studying, to get them more involved.

My Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is simple. I plan to use a structured curriculum (burp back education) but with touch progressivism. My major is secondary education/history. So, I have to teach a structured curriculum. Students have to know certain dates and we have to teach to certain standards set by the state---standardized testing. I'm not a fan of this by any means, I do not think that a test should determine whether or not a student has learned anything all year, but this is something I can not change.

I will also be progressive. To me, being progressive is important. This theory is student centered, and it gives the student a change to be more involved, instead of having a teacher just lecture.

Why I've Chosen to Teach

I want to teach because I love helping people. When someone has a problem, I want to help them in solving it. Or when someone has a question I love being their to answer it. I also love to learn, and with teaching you never stop learning. It's a carrier where I can grow and help people in the process.