My Teaching Philosophy

 

 

‘All kids’ need is a little help, a little hope, and somebody who believes in them,’ said Magic Johnson. All children are intelligent and have the ability to learn if they have the sources that know the appropriate ways of teaching to bring out this intelligence and creativity. For the students’ abilities to be discovered and found, I should provide support and motivation. I will understand the students and how they think. 

Referring to Gardener’s theory of intelligence, every child is intelligent. But they all differ in the field that they are successful or intelligent in. My work is to use the appropriate teaching designs that show the students’ tendency toward certain topics or subjects. Then I will depend my teaching on the topics that attract the students and make them more engaged in the material. Through the students’ interaction in class I will know the field that the students are intelligent in so I will design exercises that suit their preferences to make them develop a positive attitude toward the target language.

The overall goal is to create a classroom environment that is cooperative and motivating. I believe that motivation is the key that makes children with different abilities attentive to the classroom work. Affections have a big role in attracting the students toward learning. I am sure that my love to my major and to English especially will be reflected in my students’ work. This love will make my children in love with English and with me also.

My desire is to make my classroom fully engaged in the material. Meaningful learning aids in achieving this desire. My activities will activate the students’ prior knowledge so that they will relate it to the current material. In this way, the students will be physically and mentally involved. In addition to that, my lesson topics will depend on authentic ones related to newly invented materials, new cartoon characters, and new successful people and celebrities.

My role as a teacher is to be a good model. I will be aware of my verbal and non-verbal language so that they will give my students positive idea toward the material. I will try my best to involve modeling, guided practice and independent practice in the classroom. I will try to be not biased and fair with all the students because this will make both of us relaxed and committed to school work. 

 I will be always ready to listen same as to teach my students. Children are the buds of our life. They are easily affected by various life’s aspects and problems. I will be a counselor who builds trust with his students and who exerts effort to help them overcome the bad moments they are living physically and psychologically. 

I believe that students can add to teaching same as teaching gives to them. The students’ interaction to the method used in class is a sign that helps me make changes in the method applied. I will adjust the method in the way that best suits my class. Also, I will consider my students’ emotions and replies as an evaluation for my teaching and an encouragement to complete my work.



Attending the Webinar: ’12 Keys to High-Quality Early Childhood Inclusion’

 

 

‘Inclusive classes’ is a necessity all over the world since both disabled and abled students are taught in the same class having equal opportunities to participate so that disabled students are no longer treated as weak people. In Lebanon, the latest number of registered disabled people until the end of January, 2013 is 80,703.Thus, as a teacher I may have disabled students in my class. Thus, if I don’t have enough knowledge about how I should deal with such students and what strategies, methods and techniques I should include in my class I will face problems. As a result, successful learning will be prohibited. To have a good repertoire about childhood inclusion, I attended an online webinar on February 28 titled ’12 Keys to High-Quality Early Childhood Inclusion’ presented by Kathryn Wahl.

This webinar is very important and beneficial since it defines inclusion and makes its meaning clear by using pictures to show the differences between this concept and segregation, integration and exclusion. This comparison helps me truly understand that inclusion is about including students of different abilities in one class where effective learning takes place.

Moreover, this webinar helps me know that inclusion is not only about putting students of different abilities in the same class. It is also promoting belonging and membership. As teachers, we should encourage participation of all students in class work. Kathryn said that this happens when the teacher uses evidence-based practices and adapt the activities she designs to suit all students like using visual aids and activities that demand students’ movement from their seats.

In addition to that, Kathryn tells us how the environment in class should be. She emphasizes that the environment should be a friendly and not a holistic one. This happens by facilitating communication between students themselves and between the teacher and the students. Thus, as a teacher I will be a good listener and an observer for peer interaction so that I will interfere when needed.

Furthermore, inclusion is not only beneficial for disabled students. Kathryn informed us that inclusion has good impact on the society and on the abled students same as on the disabled ones. She mentioned that when the disabled students are taught in a natural way they establish good relationship with their peers, have higher self-esteem and overcome fears. Also, inclusion benefits the adults and teachers since they know more about the resources in the community and helps prepare all children for future experience in their society.

ICP (Inclusive Classroom Profile) by Soukakou is mentioned by Kathryn as an instrument measure used to assess the quality of inclusion practices. She suggested that the ICP helps us know if we are practicing high quality inclusion or not. She said that the ICP is designed to be used in classes that have at least one disabled student. In fact, Kathryn talked a lot about this instrument and mentioned that the 12 areas are identified when are graded by the ICP to define the quality of inclusion. As a teacher, I will look at the twelve areas that I will mention then in this reflection to know if I am using a high quality inclusion in my classroom or not.

Moreover, Kathryn mentioned the 12 Keys that make the class a really inclusive and successful one. In fact, these keys are fruitful and will be essentials in my class. Some of these keys are: The teacher should help students use the materials and should promote ease of use.- Children should have the freedom to choose their play.- The teacher should help in conflict resolution.- Membership should take place to promote social climate and to nurture individual differences.- The teacher should insist on having effective communication in her class by using different aids and she should look at the quality of the social interaction.-The teacher should encourage students’ participation in group activities by motivating them.

This webinar gives me the principals that will make my class a place where any student is welcomed and where my pupils’ needs are met. As a teacher, I will make sure that my students are sharing me the decisions regarding the lessons I will explain or the activities I will do. Also, I will choose topics that are related to their interests so that they participate in classroom discussion. In addition to that, I will monitor students’ interaction and build team spirit by making activities that promote students’ respect and effective communication. Also, I will manage a comfortable space in class so that all students are able to easily move and get access to the material.

            Kathryn’s webinar about classroom inclusion is interesting and beneficial. But Kathryn herself admits that she is fast by saying ‘I’m too fast’. In my opinion, what is important is to have fruitful information and be presented in a suitable speed where the listeners aren’t annoyed by the amount of information they are thinking about instead of having a lot of information and the listener don’t have to deeply think about them.

            Attending this webinar was a nice experience since it is the first online webinar I watch. I found that attending webinars has many advantages like saving money and time, having the opportunity to contact with the presenter after the webinar is finished and gaining fruitful knowledge and information while staying home or in the office.

Should Attendance be Mandatory or Optional?

 

            A missed school day is a lost opportunity for students to learn. It has been noticed in all classes that students who attend classes do better. A conducted research in LIU showed that 85% of the students who attend classes had a good understanding of things and thus achieved higher grades (Yassine, 2016).  Shimoof and Catrina (2001) found that students who assigned in at each class meeting attended more classes and scored higher grades of quizzes.

            As a second year education student, I have taken a statistical research course that mentions different topics that affect students’ performance at schools including the effects of students’ attendance on their performance. Also, I read several articles about this topic in addition to a paper done by Yassine (2016) about whether classroom attendance improve undergraduates’ academic achievements or not. This paper suggests that students attending classes are directly taught by their teachers. As a result, this provides them explicit instructions that help these students comprehend the material better. From all these reasons, I come to realize the need to make the attendance in schools and universities mandatory and not optional.

            Moreover, although some people believe that in a modern world attending classes should be optional in the presence of the internet that aids in teaching students without their need to attend classes, there are many reasons to encourage mandatory attendance such as the academic achievements, the difficulty in making friends and the loss of confidence of students who don’t attend classes.

            When learners are absent from school, there will be gaps in their knowledge that cause them problems and thus affect their academic performance (Davidson, Krik, Malcolm & Wilson). Also, Romer (1993) provides quantitative data that suggests a positive correlation between attendance and learning achievements. Attending a lesson one time and missing it one time will create some kind of disconnection in the material the students learn. Therefore, many times students who absent a lot would lose interest in the course and in the material simply because they failed to find any relationship between the materials they learn in every lesson.

            Furthermore, Schoenbrum (2007) argues that some students suggest that they can learn more from not going to class. They believe that instead of wasting time being bored and distracted in classes, they can sit down on their own, focus and learn the material. Surprisingly, a contradiction to this thought is highlighted in the surveys by the majority of a sample indicates that 97% between agree and strongly agree. The agreement is that attending classes brings good understanding of the subject learn at university.

Also, absentees have a hard time in making and keeping friends. That’s because their peers usually regard them with disrespect and disdain (Davidson et al.). They don’t meet them on regular bases so it would be difficult for them to form long lasting relationships with their classmates. The poor attenders also have bad relationships with their teachers because direct teaching results in warm affections between the students and the teachers through caring, advising and interacting with each other. Some teachers also consider missing classes a disrespectful act produced from the student.

In addition to that, poor attenders become frustrated, bad tempered, undisciplined and insecure (Davidson et al.). They lose their confidence and sense of belonging because of their insecurity situations. The non-belonging feeling affects the students’ psychological status and thus results in the loss in their self-esteem. This feeling results in the students’ underachievement and hate to school more and more. As a result, the students reject any advice given by their teachers or parents.

Some researchers argue that adult students can decide what is better for them and that if students are forced to do what they don’t want, their rights to make decisions will be violated (The Research Paper Factory). However, students are still students young they are or old. Education is essential and adults’ age is not an age of full consciousness and realization. An adult student still likes to stay up all night and sleep all morning same as a young one. Students also take their own decisions in many things such as food, clothes and the majors or courses they would like to take. Compulsory attendance doesn’t limit the students’ decision making because they choose to be educated so they should bear the rules of education till they graduate.

Moreover, many teachers claim that if schools let students choose to attend classes, the classroom environment would be better (The Research Paper Factory). The classroom atmosphere depends on the teacher’s personality and the usage of different and suitable ways to manage her class. In every class there are cooperative and lazy students. If they are not obliged to attend classes on regular bases by the school, their parents might oblige them to do that rather than to quit school.

In conclusion, although opinions differ about classroom attendance, many researches support a strong relation between classroom attendance and students’ performance. Also, many students know the good effects of attending classes. Moore found that more than 90% of students in introductory science classes know on the first day of classes that they have a better chance of receiving higher grades if they regularly attend class. Thus, both the students’ beliefs and the researches’ results prove that attendance has a big impact on the students’ achievements and personality. For these reasons, attendance in schools and universities should be mandatory not optional.

References:

Catrina & Shimooff (2001)      Attendance and Grades - UTSA Department Communication

                                                          communication.utsa.edu/leblanc/articles/art31

                               

Davidson J., Krik S., Malcolm H., Wilson V.  Absence from School: A study of Its Causes and       

                                                                              Effects in Seven LEAS   

                                                                     dera.ioe.ac.uk/8655/1/RR424.pdf  

              

Robert, L., L., Jr (2007)         Class Attendance: Is it Important?

 

The Research Paper Factory   Should Attendance be Mandatory or Optional for College Courses?

 

Yassine N. (2016)       Does Classroom Attendance Improve Undergraduates’ Academic     

                                     Achievements?