Did you hear about the time I wore my dress inside out?

All day...

I didn't even notice until I came home for the evening.

To top it off...

It wasn't the first time.

How embarrassing.

No one noticed though...

I wonder if students would notice if I wore mismatching socks.

I think I might try that one day, just to see what kinds of reactions I'll get.

I like to collect comments. Maybe I should try to collect reactions.

Reactions are riskier. I'd have to step it up.

Who are we foolin'?

I'm a goody-two-shoes, chicken-ish type, person.

bok. bok. bok.

Below is my teaching philosophy. I wrote it as an assignment for my final project.

Teaching Philosophy

I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.



Dr. Haim Ginott



Dr. Ginott’s words are embedded in my mind. I came across this quote early on in the course of my teacher’s education program. While the reasons for me to be an educator had always been clear, it was only at this point that it dawned on me the impact that a teacher can have on a student; he or she influences not only the class atmosphere but each “child’s life” can be made “miserable or joyous” by a teacher. I can be an “instrument of inspiration” in the lives of my students. It is without question that students and their well-being are my first priority. But encapsulated in Dr. Ginott’s remark is the recognition that as the teacher, I am an integral part of my students’ growth, education, and development. Using this opportunity to foster my students’ whole person is my goal. As a life-long learner, this goal will be ever changing with my own developing understanding of curricula, pedagogy, and individual students’ lives. While my initiation as an educator into the world of education is ending, my journey into education has only begun.



It was while I was well immersed in my post-secondary education that I heard a particular story. Its impact directed the course of my studies. I sat listening to the speaker, riveted, to a tale about a child whose connection to his world was through his school bus driver. He had a hard life; his home situation was not supportive of good development and he wasn’t a star in his school. In fact, he was marginalized to the point that his absence wasn’t noticed by anyone–except his bus driver. His body was found in a garbage bag in an alleyway.



That latter sentence framed a mental picture in my head. With tears in my eyes I knew that I had to be a teacher. What’s the connection between this unknown, dead child and my purpose as a teacher? I thought about this child’s tragic end and the different sparks of light he experienced in his short time. The light in his life, and even in his death, was cast by someone who cared and loved enough to take interest in him. I could be that someone.



Children are the future. This is clichéd, but for me this idea affected my personal life in a big way. My parents are teachers. They both had experience teaching in classrooms in their early adulthood and both in their different ways continue to teach today. As they were my parents, I really was their future. Their investment into my whole well-being served them well. My dad took time to be my advocate, to be my help and supporter in my life and education. My mom helped me realize my potential in working with children, always leading by example and providing opportunities to do so. Together they trained me for discipline, dedication, and excellence in whatever purpose I had before me. They were always there for me and in doing so I can now be there for them and their future.



I am that someone: the bus driver who paid individual and undivided attention to those entrusted in her care, my father as a proponent of education, my mother who helped me recognize my passion. These people are teachers. I am continuing their work by becoming an educator of children.



As an educator, my priorities are children and their well-being. By becoming a teacher, I am equipped with the tools to impact and influence for the better. Each student brings his or her own perspective, a unique window into the world, and my initiation into education has helped me to learn different methods to reach a diverse classroom of personalities, abilities, interests, and futures.



Students are always learning something new each day they are in school. At the end of the day, beyond subject or curricula, it is my goal to prepare students to be problem-solvers. Students are regularly faced with problems and issues that require them to make decisions at school and in other aspects of their lives. Problem solving does not only occur when confronted with a problem; a problem-solver is able to make effective and efficient decisions when faced with every day choices, however large or small, so that he or she is ready for the real world.



Students will need effective communication skills in order to compromise and cooperate with others when experiencing friction or making decisions. By using activities like cooperative group roles and student dramatization, my students will become aware of and practice good communication for working with others. Modeling respectful communication when speaking with students also promotes effective communication. Thanking someone for waiting to speak to the teacher, acknowledging when it is a student’s turn to speak, and promoting appropriate listening behaviours are all examples of how students can directly learn about good communication skills.



Students will also need to learn critical thinking skills to evaluate and question information to further their knowledge. Every subject is an opportunity to engage my students’ minds with “thinking” questions - ones that are deeper and require children to consider what they already know and what they have yet to discover. The impact of these “thinking” questions was seen in the math program during my practicum. Students were often asked to explain how they answered a question using words or pictures, or why they thought their measurement was accurate. At the end of the unit, students were able to explain concepts of measurement that they learned, oftentimes relating to something they had previously thought and written. I seek to engage my students in learning and practicing problem solving skills in my classroom by constantly modeling by thinking aloud as well as scaffolding their skills using thought-provoking questions. Sociocultural theorist Lev Vygotsky presented the idea that children gain knowledge and understanding through their social world. By supporting students in gaining these skills, they can learn more complicated materials and understand more complex issues in the world around them.



Each child is unique and brings a different outlook into the classroom. Especially important in my toolbox is Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. By creating a good classroom community and using methods such as observations, student conference, and “getting to know you” activities to develop positive relationships with students, I will be aware of each individual’s distinctive strengths and weaknesses. Gardner’s theory helps me to tailor my teaching to incorporate a variety of activities, such as reading, writing, song, drama, games, art, and experiments so that every student will have opportunities to succeed. Educational psychologist John Dewey points out that children are active learners and that they learn best by participation. The variety of activities in my classroom help children to learn as they are always actively engaged and their learning experiences are based on their students’ interests.



In today’s ever growing diversity in population, I am increasingly aware of the need for respect and acceptance. Without this comfort and security in my classroom, students are not supported in their efforts to gain the skills they need for their futures. To help students through this psychosocial developmental stage that Erikson terms industry vs. inferiority, my classroom will reflect the values of respect, kindness, care for others, and responsbiility for personal actions. These values were implemented in my practicum class through establishing a “Respect in the Classroom” poster - brainstormed by students, - and “ Division 8 Kindness” program in which students earned points towards a class prize when “caught” doing something kind for another.



Students’ interests are not always the same and they’re not always different. Why should I expect otherwise? Students are unique and different from one another just as adults are unique and different from one another. This being the case, education is not one size fits all - it is possibly one size fits most. As a teacher, I will diligently be evidence of the above mentioned values but at the same time demonstrate the understanding that fair treatment of a student does not neccessarily equate to treating every student the same. This is an important fact because every relationship established in my class reflects a very different individual. While one consequence may persuade one misbehaving student, it could be utterly ineffective for another. It is the beauty of teaching individuals, my students, rather than teaching subjects to a collective.



These are my responses to children given to me for guidance: affirmations of individuality, supporting skills for life, and promoting positive values for community . It is my hope that my students will be joyous, inspired, humoured, healed, and above all humanized because I was once their teacher.

I've been sick.  First it was a flu/cold type thing.  Got the meds.  Finished the meds.  Didn't work on some... throat still sore, cough still Very Bad.  It keeps me up at night.  I'm always running about 70% because of it... ugh...  I saw the doctor again though.  She gave me an inhaler.  Hopefully it will be gone after a week of using it.

Teaching is a very busy vocation.  It is never over, even though school is not in session.  As a teacher, I often find myself thinking of my students: their welfare, their behaviour, their personalities, etc.  How can I work better with them considering all these things?  Considering a group of 22 very very different individuals, how can I work better with them as a whole?  22 very very different individuals will always create a very unique group personality/dynamic.  Such things have to be considered, and continually assessed and re-examined, in order to teach the best way.  Lets not forget all the planning and preparation, then the mental acrobatics of reflections and assessments (both self and students') that surround teaching.  Not only do teachers deserve 2 months, they need it to recooperate, re-energize, relax, and recharge.  Oh, let's not forget the planning and preparation that happens within these 8 weeks also...

It makes me tired.  But less and less so.  And as I get less and less tired while my body gets used to this, hopefully my "teacher immunity" is also built up so I never get sick like this again!!!!  It's a drag.

I've found that a single good behaviour in any child or student redeems their poor behaviour and bad choices.  And of course, the good behavior occurs more frequently than the bad.  It's a very redeeming career.

SS.

Welcome to my world of procrastination, where the updates are consistent and fairly mundane, uninteresting to read, and pretty much pointless - most of the time.

I would really like it if my birth date didn't appear to the public on this blog.  I've tried time and again to change that setting but it refuses to hide!  I don't know what to do.  I've emailed the peeps behind xanga and they've not provided me any resolution as to why "hide" doesn't hide my birth date!!

Also, as I prepare my lessons for this week, I've realized that this is going to be a fun, good, interesting, exciting, but hard practicum.  I work very well under pressure and I'm afraid I've come to rely on it to get me into first gear.  Will I ever be ahead in my practicum work....?  I highly doubt it.  But, good work nonetheless, it will be complete.

Pray for me as I start my long practicum tomorrow.  It's 13 weeks long.  I would make a ticker for it... but I don't want to add anything else to this web page.  Hmm... specifics.... pray for: gracious authority with students and collegues alike, patience, ingenuity, creativity, flexibility, energy, enthusiasm, and God's love above, below, beside, surrounding all of these. 

Thanks to you, gracious reader.

You're probably wondering what the heck is Sharon doing, blogging on her xanga.  It has been awhile I suppose, but along with my mad planning (a result of my procrastination, of course) comes a desire to blog.  So between reviving this ol' thang, or creating a new blog, I decided that revival and change (in this case) is pretty much the same.  So here we are.

I wish I could figure out how to change that title.  I guess "weblog" accurately describes what this is but still, the English Lit artsy-fartsy side of my wants to call it something more original. 

A man reason for keeping this blog is to recount my teaching adventures.  Since the blogger blog is really about our life as a family, it doesn't seem appropriate to be posting frequently about my teaching days.  Here is the place where I can be left to my own musings, not ones that I have to hand in to my faculty adviser (bless her heart).

Let the experiment begin.

SS.

P.S.  I think anyone can leave comments now, not just xanga users.