Essay about Reflection: Education and Students

Submitted By aconwell
Words: 1043
Pages: 5

Personal Philosophy Paper
For as long as anyone in my family can remember, I have wanted to become a teacher. When I was five I used to go across the street to play with my neighbor, and we would fight about who would be the teacher when we played school. If I didn’t get to be the teacher it usually meant I packed all my belongings up and went home. I, like many other Americans, want to make a difference. I want to know years from now that I did everything in my power to make a difference, and to ensure that I made the world a better place when I leave it. I believe being an educator is like constantly partaking on a roller coaster ride. I am excited to be the best educator I can be.
My plan is to educate at the 6th grade school level. I would thoroughly enjoy working with an inclusion class that has students with learning disabilities. At this age it is a trying time for every student disabled or not. They are overloaded with a new school, new classes and new expectations. The change from elementary school to middle school can be a struggle, but I am looking forward to assisting students with accepting the new challenges successfully. The course content is often more intense than it was in previous grades, and I too struggled with the transition. I have firsthand experience, and I believe this will benefit my future students. Middle school students are expected to be more independent than they have been previously, and for some, this will be a trying time. A suggestion for success would be a buddy system. I would pair my entire inclusion class with buddies, hopefully someone they have not met before. Therefore they would be making a new friend, and having someone going through the same struggles and issues they are. I believe I have the chance to make the change of schools as smooth as possible.
The first instructional strategy I would use in my class would be guided note taking. This instructional strategy is important because often children with learning disabilities often lack the necessary skills to take effective notes. (Heward., 2009) For students without learning disabilities guided notes are an excellent handout to prepare for studying. It is important that the lecture and guided notes coincide perfectly. Often students with learning disabilities have issues deciphering what information is important verses irrelevant information during a lecture presentation (Heward., 2009) Because of this guided notes help these students because they have cues included to indicate to students what is the most important information needed for studying. Students obtain the most important information by identifying imperative course content with the use of guided notes. In 2006, seventy-nine percent of middle school teachers used lectures as a method of educating their students; therefore, note taking skills are essential.(Boyle., 2010)When preparing a history lecture, I would prepare the guided notes to match perfect with the lecture. For example, when preparing a lecture regarding important battles during World War II, I would include the important battle, and I would then put an important person during that battle and leave more than enough space for every student to write down the important facts needed. This would not only include general knowledge, but test material as well. To keep the students engaged during the lecture I will take breaks and ask questions, this will challenge the students. Guided notes would be effective for everyone in the 6th grade class because they have important cues to indicate which information is imperative for test preparation.
The second instructional strategy I plan to use is peer tutoring. Much like the buddy system peer tutoring will pair a set of students together. Preparation would include pairing students with different academic achievements together. While studying the periodic table in Science I would pair two students together with a set of cards. The cards would have the symbol of