My Teaching Philosophy

I strongly believe teaching is a lifelong learning process of learning about new teaching ideas and strategies, learning from our peers, parents, community and most of all, from the children. I believe and encourage in each students' success as I know all students are unique and capable learners. I also strive to make each child feel safe and secure in a positive learning environment by setting fair and consistent rules.
I feel an important aspect of teaching is allowing active learning, creating hands-on activities, allowing time for discovery and guiding students in their active learning. I take every opportunity to make learning meaningful and relevant as I guide students' learning.
For myself, teaching provides me the opportunity for continual learning. I hope that I instill the love of learning in my students as I portray my own love for learning with them.

Developing a Personal Learning Network

I have recently been introduced to personal learning networks or PLN's. A PLN is a new and exciting learning environment for me, as I am continually developing and learning more from my PLN. I plan on using my PLN to help me refine my own skills as a teacher and to keep up to date on new technology in education. My network will allow me to collaborate with other educators on issues pertaining to education, technology and student learning. I look forward to the ongoing development and learning I will accomplish with my personal learning network.

Active Learning

I believe students learn best by hands on learning or actively learning. I try to involve my students in all aspects of learning, be it reading, writing, talking, sharing, exploring, listening, interacting, or reflecting. Active learning, when focused on the objectives, promotes and accelerates the learning outcomes. It is well known children (and adults) learn best when actively participating. One of my goals is for young students to eventually learn how to become self directed in their learning, prepare them to use critical thinking skills and work cooperatively with their peers.

Blogging in the Classroom

I've viewed and commented on many elementary classroom blogs and can see the value of blogging in the classroom. The motivation alone that it gives the students makes blogging worth the effort. I plan on using blogs to keep parents informed, show student work, and have students comment and write on their own. I would like to, eventually, be the student's facilitator through my own examples, stories, and enthusiasm on blogging. My goal is to inspire students to create by encouraging them to blog about their own interests, post photos, artwork and sound files.

Collaborating

I am the type of teacher who feels it's important to be a team player. Collaborating with other teachers on lesson plans, ideas, strategies, and student progress improves on my own classroom instruction. Mentoring new teachers helps them to become more comfortable with their working environment and teaching while new teachers bring in new ideas. Veteran teachers share what works and what doesn't. Brainstorming ideas with other teachers is a wonderful way to improve on or add to existing lessons. The use of the internet now makes collaborating and sharing ideas more accessible, from researching lessons to collaborating online with other teachers. I use Google Docs as one way to share and collaborate with other teachers. With this internet tool, I can choose to allow other teachers to edit my documents or just view them to share.
Collaborating with other teachers, especially those at your school and in your grade level, makes for a more satisfying work atmosphere while it improves your own skills as an educator.

Parent Teacher Communication

It is my experience that students do better in school when teachers and parents are in communication and parents become involved in their child's education. I use a variety of methods to keep parents informed and involved. Initially, I send home a packet of information stating my classroom expectations, rules and day to day activities. I follow up with a classroom open house to reiterate student (and parent) expectations. In the past, I have sent home weekly newsletters for homework and other information, along with a daily behavior calendar. Besides the typical forms of communicating with parents (telephone, notes, meetings), I will now add blogging and email as part of my parent communication. I make it a practice to try and call at least one parent a week to discuss their child's progress. It's important to me to keep in communication with parents in a positive manner and encourage them to become partners in their child's education.