I believe early childhood education is important.

What a child learns and experiences early on will shape their educational career and who they are. As a teacher I can bring about positive educational experiences for my students. I believe to be an effective teacher I must be consistent, organized, observant, and see the value in hands on experiences. I plan to be conferencing with my students, scaffolding them, and offering guidance and praise as they work. I believe in a language rich environment. By talking with my students, in whole group or individually, and observing their conversations with their peers it allows me to ensure comprehension and assess. Talking with my students also shows I care and value them. I believe in the importance of family involvement. A childs family shapes the childs beliefs and values. Therefore, I support the open door policy in my classroom and believe that a family has value in the classroom. I support Blooms Taxonomy and Howard Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences as both shape my teaching strategies and methods. I believe activities in the classroom should activate all levels and types of learning so that students can grow and develop. I believe providing students with variety and the ability to succeed in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains is crucial. I believe encouraging multidisciplinary learning is imperative; content areas should be integrated and not taught in isolation. The fact that every mind is different and constructs knowledge in different ways necessitates that I present the curriculum in creative ways. I believe assignments and centers must reflect the differences in students interests and abilities. I believe in giving students options and letting them have a say in their learning. I feel that when a child is given a choice and his or her way of processing and learning information is tapped, the child is more likely to understand. I believe technology is a great way to have a creative classroom and I plan to use all technology that is made available to me. By teaching my students I too will experience growth. I believe an effective educator must be reflective; I believe a successful teacher must reflect on what works and what doesnt and adjust the curriculum accordingly. I believe an educators learning should be ongoing. Through teaching I hope to continue you my maturity by observing my class, assessing their success, and evaluating my own performance to see what best practices produce the most development. Some ways I plan to assess comprehension include: student created portfolios, anecdotal records, observations, conferencing, graphic organizers, and open ended questions. I also will use written and performance-based assessment to see what my students have learned. I feel that tests should reflect the curriculum being taught. I would like to close with a quote from Albert Einstein: Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. I want to challenge myself to not teach in a uniform way. I believe in teaching in a way that helps every student find the way they learn. I want students to then tap into their intelligence so they can succeed in not only the classroom, but in life.