a. How would you describe your teaching style (i.e. how would your classroom run)?
My teaching style is laid back and fun. I know that when you are a teacher you have to pick your battles. So often I see teachers yelling at the students for the smallest things and they get so frazzled by the end of the day. My students will respect me because I will respect them! I like the idea of the color changing technique, but I would change it where if the student redeems himself or herself the color can go back to green. I noticed in my classroom where I am interning the teacher doesn’t allow them to go back. So if they are talking and their color gets changed to yellow they are stuck on yellow for the rest of the day. But I like the idea of letting students have a second chance. I will lay out for my students what I expect of them and I will try to keep a similar routine every day so that they aren’t thrown off if something changes in our schedule. I hope to have a close relationship with the parents. I want them to feel like they can talk to me and that their child is cared for in my classroom.
b. Are you more authoritative and teacher centered or collaborative and student centered? Why? I would say between collaborative and student centered. I say collaborative because I think it is really important for the teachers to be a team and for the students and teacher to be a team together. I want my student to know that I want them to succeed and it is my job to help them. I also say student centered because i want to do the activities that allow them to have the most fun and enjoyment while still learning. I want the students to feel like my classroom is a safe place. I want them to feel like they can ask any questions and no one in the class including me AND my students will make fun of them. I want to enforce the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like to be treated”.
c. What types of routines will you establish in your classroom? d. How will they be useful in creating a positive and productive learning environment?
I would like to have a word of the day, a big word that they could use and impress their family members. I think it would be neat for them to have a large vocabulary. I would also like to teach them root words daily. These will help them understand any new words they come across and will also increase their vocabulary and give them a head start on the SAT. I would also like to make my classroom a place where my kids have fun, so I would like to include an educational game each day, in at least one of my lessons. I feel like kids learn better when they are having fun and games will help to keep them engaged. I also want to promote teamwork within my classroom because I want it to feel like a family where everyone gets along. I also think that reading for pleasure is a really important thing to instill into the kids at a young age. I want to dedicate some time every day for them to read a book just for enjoyment or for me to read a book aloud to them. I remember when I was in elementary school that was always one of my favorite parts of my day. My teacher would read a chapter book to us but she would read a chapter a day and we would be left hanging every day in anticipation of what would happen to the character next! Also because we were so wrapped up in the book, it could be strewn into each aspect of the lesson in every subject! We could use it in writing to write a letter to the author or to a character in the book, and it allows the students to practice their predicting skills, every time before I began to read again I would ask them what they think would happen next and we could see if they were right.
