MY PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY...




It is my philosophy that as a teacher I have the responsibility to teach my children to the best of my ability and to develop strategies to help them reach their full potential as well as a responsibility to enable my students to become active and informed citizens in our society and prepare them for a life beyond school. My classroom is the basis for this and that is why I will do my best to cater to the needs, abilities and interests of all my students. In creating a safe, inclusive and engaging learning environment my students will feel accepted and appreciated. I will give my students the respect they deserve and embrace diversity and in turn will gain their trust. My classroom will be a place where my students will want to come to every day and leave at the end of the day with a smile on their face and a sense of achievement.


Introduction

The first few weeks of term can be frantic so I have created this BLOG as a starting point and a place where you will be able to find some useful resources to assist you through your teaching journey.
You will benefit from having your own personal philosophy about teaching and some tips on classroom management up your sleeve. I find that I benefit from personal reflection as well as thinking about the kind of teacher you really want to be. The start of the school year is the time for “establishing a balance with your students” (Mcgrann). Setting clear and consistent boundaries will enable students to understand what types of behaviour you will accept and will not accept. The process of gaining students trust will be progressive, as learnt from my teaching practicum, students love to test boundaries and see how far we will go.

Students expect teachers to be fair and consistent, if we always ignore certain behaviours just because you cannot be bothered dealing with them will in turn make your students believe that they can do whatever they can and get away with it. Obviously you need to be realistic when setting your boundaries and think about what things you just aren’t going to tolerate eg chewing gum, swearing, racist remarks etc.


You will also be faced with many challenges and factors that influence student behaviour, these include environmental factors (home), divorce, custody issues, illness, bullying, family values and culture, learning disabilities and factors such as Asperger’s, ADHD and Autism to name a few, the key is to be aware of these factors, plan for behaviour and able to distinguish students needs.

During the first few days all eyes will be on you and students will form opinions of you and pick up on your actions, reactions and the way that you present yourself (Slee). Whatever you do NEVER bring your problems into the classroom, you are the role model and students will look up to you for appropriate behaviour. You respect them then they will respect you and trust you!There are many theories about classroom management it’s up to you how you are going to approach it.

THE VIT, Victorian Institute of Teaching provide graduating students with a set of eight standards. The institute regard these standards as the essential elements of teaching, therefore in order to obtain your registration as a graduating teacher you must demonstrate competency, development and practice through your professional learning. All eight elements in each of the standards is important for classroom management and for the day to day running of your classroom! (please refer to the link for a more closer look at these standards, know them like the back of your hand).

There are a myriad of resources both online in terms of websites and journals as well as books that give teachers support and ideas to work with, these are obviously not set in stone or say that you HAVE to do things a certain way, you will find that when you begin teaching that we can adapt these strategies and ideas to cater to the needs of our students and experiment with what works and doesn’t work and remember it is all about balance.
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