Running Head: STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Statement of Informed Beliefs

Student Riley Veal
Professor Carol Billing
EDUC 204-001W Families, Communities, and Culture
Fall 2015

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Statement of Informed Beliefs

Teaching is more of an art than a science. Its results cannot always be measured in
surveys or laboratories. There is not a one-size-fits-all teacher, but there are excellent teachers.
Excellent teachers are those who continually strive for improvementwho are not content to
coast through their careers in neutral. As such, the principles and practices that I discuss here are
by no means definitive but are merely some prominent ones that have stood out to me and which
I plan on implementing in my classroom.
All Students Can Learn
The first step in helping all of my students learn as much as they can is to understand
them. I will strive to learn their background in areas of temperament, socioeconomic status,
microsystems, mesosystems, macrosystems, and exosystems. With this knowledge I can see
their educational needs and meet them wisely. Also, the students will recognize that I care for
them as people and not just because teaching is my job.
For classroom management I will first make sure I understand the material well and that I
have adequately organized and prepared it. I will use both positive and negative reinforcement.
I will practice creative teaching techniques that both keep the students interested and help them
learn the material. On their assignments, I will always strive to provide feedback that both
encourages them in what they are doing well and exhorts them in areas they need to improve.
I will incorporate much of the authoritative parenting style into the way I teach. As a
teacher and an adult I will have the responsibility of leadership in the classroom. Sometimes
there will be room for discussion; sometimes there will not. Sometimes a firm hand will be

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required; sometimes it will not. Wisdom knows that each situation might call for different actions
in order to achieve the desired result: the childs best.
I will be vigilant for incidents of bullying, both verbal and physical, in and out of the
classroom. When I come across any I will punish the offenders appropriately. I will also teach
my classes to stand up for each other and to communicate with the school staff right away when
bullying situations arise.
I will endeavor to make it clear to my students the dynamic reciprocal nature of
socialization, and, therefore their education. They have a part to play in how much they learna
primary role. With this concept taught, I will try to instill in them a desire to learn. One of the
teachers I observed scheduled a lot of one-on-one conferences with the students to encourage
them and let them know how they were doing. This close relationship is vital in teaching them to
understand why they must want to learn in order to do it. I also want to lead by example.
Teachers Expectations
Educational goals are products of macrosystems like the cultural values and goals,
mesosystems like the federal and state governments and the school boards, microsystems like
the school itself, and the teachers own preferences. These goals make up the curriculum that is
taught from year to year. They provide structure and purpose to the teacher. Because of these
goals, the teacher (and students) know how they will be assessed, and may prepare (and learn)
lessons accordingly. This is how accountability works. There are national, state, and school
standards that are meant to be reached.
In the last paragraph I focused on merely academic goals. However, every teacher worth
his salt should strive to achieve more than merely academic standards. Teachers should practice
inclusion to the best of their ability, including children with disabilities as much as possible.

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Teachers ought to be aware of the differences among their students that will affect their
individual learning: learning styles, socioeconomic status, and family situations. With this
awareness they must teach in order to give the best possible education to all of their students.
Also, teachers must continually seek to improve their leadership and management abilities
because these are important aspects of being a teacher.
Being leaders in the classroom, teachers have a tremendous opportunity to lead by setting
high expectations. Generally speaking, students will meet a teachers expectations. Of course,
setting high expectations does not mean that a teacher just gives out challenging assignments or
huge workloads; it is more than that. The teacher must give out the challenge while at the same
time exhorting and instilling a love of learning in his students.
Students Social Ecology Theory
Family, a microsystem, is the most basic social group in a childs life. It is also the most
influential, having enormous potential to either help or hurt a childs educational development.
Traumatic family events such as divorce and death affect educational outcomes negatively. An
example of this kind of trauma harming a students ability to learn happened in the class I am
observing. A girl in the class is very often unfocused and doesnt give as much attention to a
subject as many of her classmates. One day she mentioned that her mother has cancer. This
might not be the only reason for her academic performance, but I would place good money on it
being a large part of it. Socioeconomic status determines whether or not the family sends their
child to public school or a private school. The school I am observing at is a charter school and
therefore it is as open as a public school except that its size is limited and therefore there is a
waiting list of applicants. The teacher I observe says that there are two kinds of students at the
school: ones who are there because they want the higher standards and ones whose parents send

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them because they think the school will remedy their childrens poor performance in regular
public school. This difference in students has a profound effect on their motivation and therefore
their academic outcomes.
Communities come in all shapes and sizes and they have each their own special influence
on the child and his education. Certain physical factors like population density and composition
determine what a community is like. The school I am observing is located in Caldwell. Large
parts of the population of the school district are Latinos and Mormons. As a result, many of the
students at the school are either Latino or Mormon. This diversity of the community affects the
composition of the school which influences the individual students.
Cultures also have their impact on the individual child. Through the power of the media,
a culture brings to bear is considerable influence on all individuals within its influence. Different
things influence the culture that in turn influences the student: racial make-up, political ideology,
social theories and religious demographics. An example of one of these factorsnamely
religious demographicsis the practically universal assumption that lying and stealing are
wrong. Because of this belief, cheating is not allowed in schools. This belief is the result of a
historical religious majority in our culture.
As a teacher, I must bear all these things in mind when understanding how best to serve
my students. Families, communities, and cultures have a tremendous influence on individuals;
the adage, No man is an island, is true. No individual is raised or lives apart from various
communities. Recognizing the influence of these particular communities is a vital step in
tailoring my teaching to each of my students.
Cultural Diversity Instruction

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I will endeavor to promote cultural pluralism in my class as a history teacher by teaching

history from multiple perspectives. I will be sure to include multiple points of view in order to
help my students understand how people from different cultures viewed a particular period or
incident in history. A main task of mine will be to help the students see things as other people see
them. I will also ask students about their respective cultures out of interest; I want to work in a
multi-cultural setting because I am interested by different cultures. This interest comes from an
understanding that there is good and evil in every culturenot just one or the other. I want to
pass this understanding on to my students.
Cultural Assimilation teaches that we must, in our teaching, endeavor to bring members
of sub-cultures and minority cultures into the majority culture. Examples of this are the teaching
of the majority language or religion and, at the same time, forbidding instruction of minority
languages and religions. In the past, for instance, Christianity was heavily taught in public
schools. Now, secular humanism is, by and large, what is taught in the public school system.
Proponents of cultural assimilation either believe the majority culture is perfect and the minority
cultures are imperfect, or they dont care about bad and good and merely want their culture in
power. Either way, its not the right path to take.
Cultural Pluralism teaches that we must, in our teaching, endeavor to honor and support
the minority cultures and the majority culture. In public schools this means that a certain set of
general majority culture aspects are taughtlanguage, civic responsibility, and law, to name a
fewwhile secondary languages, religion, and other aspects of minority cultures are either
taught by the school, parents, or the minority community. Examples of this in our area include:
second language education and Mormon seminaries. This path is the right one, as long as those
who practice it do not take it too far by blanketing all cultures under a relativistic umbrella. I

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plan to incorporate this idea into my own teaching by sharing and or teaching material from
various perspectives. For instance, I would teach the Russian Revolution from the Bolshevik
viewpoint, Menshevik viewpoint, and outside viewpoints. This will gives students practice in
looking at issues from multiple perspectives.
Curriculum For All Learners
Because of educations dynamic-reciprocal nature, I want to do my utmost to instill
achievement motivation in each of my students. When I was excited about a particular subject
or activity, I would learn it much better. This is intrinsic motivation. I also, however, want to
appeal to my students with extrinsic rewards. My goal is to motivate so that they can come to
have an active role in their learning.
Assessment is a key to excellence. I will both assess my own work and ask my students
and others to assess it. Based on these critical observations, I will change lesson plans, material,
and delivery. I will consider the individual nature of my students; they all have their own life
experiences and learning styles. In response to this, I will add and take out parts of my lessons
that do not contribute to the best learning experience for the class. This does not mean that I will
never have writing assignments if one or more of my students are not visual learners, but that I
will strive to have a balanced curriculum, taking into account each of my students strengths and
weaknesses.
As a teacher seeking to motivate and improve the learning levels of my students, I will
consistently, or at least periodically, assess their achievements. I can then share these assessments
with the parents, other teachers, and the students themselves. In addition to this, I want to help
them set realistic but challenging goals for themselves, to help them constantly improve. Apathy
is the enemy of education.

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References
Berns, R. M. (2010) Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support (8th ed.)
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Print.