One of the most difficult things to do is to act on your beliefs. It is so much easier to verbally state something you believe, but to truly act on it is what makes having beliefs worth it. In the world of teaching I personally believe that acting on your beliefs can be extra difficult because of all the rules that surround education. In order to get by as a teacher you are expected to uphold certain standards such as high achieving test scores, mandatory curriculum, specific teaching tools to use... the list continues! I find it a little upsetting that we trust these men and women to be in the classroom and educate the future of our country, yet often times they get such little say in the way something will be taught or what will be taught. This harsh reality is exactly why I believe future teachers should live up to the words of Eleanor Roosevelt and truly be an individual! As the teacher, you hopefully are always putting your students first, don't be afraid to constantly act on that no matter what scolding you might receive. After all, who else will know your students better than yourself? Surely not those textbook companies that tell you how to teach a specific unit.
Now, I would like to share a few of my own personal teaching beliefs I have as of today. As a future teacher, I believe...
1. A teacher should do their best to incorporate their students interests into curriculum. When students are learning about something that matters to them, they will be more likely to want to learn. This can be as simple as including football in your math problems because you know Johnny would rather count footballs than numbers. You could also do a science unit about birds and other flying species because your class seems to all be hooked onto this game 'Flappy Bird'.
2. All students CAN learn, teaching is about finding what works for each of your students. Teaching is not a 'one size fits all' kind of gig. Not every form of assessment, activity, or subject will be perfect for all of your students. Each student will have many moments where they are proving to be successful in that unit or lesson. As a teacher it will be important to find those moments, highlight them, and see what you can do to make that happen again.
3. Exploration is so important to the learning process. Here we have a prime example from the one and only 'Bloom's Taxonomy'. Benjamin Bloom created learning objectives, these objectives are three domains that promote higher learning. It is an expectation that teachers use all of these domains. The domains are cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. It seems much more simple to use the cognitive and affective domains because those come decently naturally in school (you need to think and you are probably feeling something about what you are thinking about). Psychomotor can not be left out! Let students explore, use their hands, do things! Learning should be hands on! Experiences we physically have are much more memorable then the lecture we listened to. Not only does this make learning exciting but it promotes students to have experiences and ask more questions and find more answers.
4. Teachers should help students find a passion for learning. Not every students will love being in school but the least a teacher can do for their students is to help them find something they truly do love. The world is full of endless amounts of teaching opportunities. How about we help students find something they can't get enough of? How exciting would that classroom be? It would be great to watch a student find a passion for science because of a unit you did about the life cycle of a flower. Or to have a student realize history is beyond the textbook, people can still go outside and find artifacts and fossils... let them go find those fossils! Let them explore what makes them happy, excited, and motivated to continue to learn within that subject. Give students a reason to want to come to school to learn.
5. Students are individuals and should be treated as such. Again, this is similar to belief number two. It is so important to realize you have a classroom of students not just a classroom. Each student deserves time to feel important and wanted in their classroom. I believe the classroom experience can be that much more meaningful if a teacher takes the time to get to know their students outside of what they do during the school day. What do they like to do while they are not in your classroom? This is who they really are, take the time to figure that out.
I'll admit after I wrote this list, I read through it a few times. "Wow!" I thought to myself. "Now I'm feeling really empowered to teach and give my future students the absolute best, which is what they deserve." After letting my excitement sink in I changed my thoughts to ideas such as, "Can I really do this?" "Will my district be okay with my quest to have my classroom be based around my students and not the curriculum that needs to be taught?" My list of beliefs is nothing too radical. In fact, I'd like to think that most teachers have similar beliefs to mine. But if that was the case then I ask, "Why do we have teachers who seem to have overstayed their welcome in the teaching profession? Why do teachers sit back and let the districts run them down? Why don't all teachers stand up for themselves? Why do teachers give up on their students? Why do some teachers just stop caring?"
The answer is right in front of me. It will always be in front of me. Like any profession, there are rules to abide by and those rules can run us down and lead to a quick burnout. Our students need to be taught certain content and need to achieve specific levels of understanding by standards decided by higher powers. It's funny how the people working directly with the students (the teachers) do not really get to be the ultimate decision maker of if their students have really achieved learning. Today, we let the test scores speak for the teachers and the students. Not the experiences being had in the classroom, the progress a student is making, the relationship the teacher has formed with the student... the test scores speak for everything.
Now, I am not saying teachers are 100% run down by the rest of the world. Teachers do get to create the classroom environment, teach lessons they want to teach for the sake of their students, and create exciting learning experiences for the students but in reality all of that fun is backed with the question of, "Will the ultimate judge of my students prove them and myself to be viewed as successful?"
So there we have it, acting on my beliefs will most likely be much more difficult than I expected. And you know what... I'm not afraid of that. Teaching is not supposed to be easy, life really is not supposed to be easy. For now, I have decided that all I can do is my best and support my students in any way that I can. I will stick to my beliefs and act on them as best as I can. I will be an individual because I can be; no one will be able to take away from me.
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