Learning Theory Ashley Mulder We must become the change we want to see. Mahatma Gandhi.

. The above quote, in many ways, defines education today. If we want to see a change in our students and our classrooms, we, as teachers, need to demonstrate those changes first. In order to do this, I will ask deep thinking and thought provoking questions allowing my students to draw conclusions without creating a barrier. Furthermore, I hope to instill in my students a sense of responsibility and self-expression providing them with the tools to become life-long learners. It is my belief that students are provided with hands-on learning techniques, a self-governing classroom and a positive role model who allows for multiple viewpoints. With this in mind, I have developed four key concepts to focus on. They include a hands-on minds-on environment, accessibility to a multitude of resources, interdisciplinary teaching and a working classroom community. The key to success begins with developing a classroom environment that provides such an opportunity. To do this, I plan on establishing rules and a schedule with assistance from my students, that we will follow beginning on day one. Such a system will take into consideration and note behavior, classroom rules, student-student relationships, teacher-student relationships, and classroom management techniques. I want all of my students to feel that they can safely express their opinions and ideas in the classroom. Additionally, I want my students to feel that they can have an open relationship with one another and with me as well; students should view their

peers as equals. As the teacher, I would like to be viewed as a mentor and someone who they can have open communication with. Students will treat one another with respect eliminating any sort of hierarchy within the classroom. Aside from developing a safe environment for students to express their opinions, I will make sure that my students arent afraid to make mistakes, rather they will take them as a learning experience. Apart from behavior and rules, there will be management techniques in place that help the students work in an organized environment. Including these techniques will keep the students on task and ensure that they are getting the most out the lessons each day. All of the mentioned techniques and rules will help to create a warm, welcoming environment that is conducive to learning. After developing a classroom community, students should be provided with an array of resources to aid in their learning. This accessibility plays a key role in allowing the students to explore information individually and develop their own sense of understanding. Resources I would like to provide for my students are educational games, models, posters, books, computers, magazines and headphones to name a few. This allows students to have variety of options to choose from. Additionally, I would like to provide my students with other faculty resources, so I will work with my colleagues as much as possible to build relationships within my own building and district to aid in that. I view camaraderie as something that is very valuable, and would love to have that with my fellow teachers and administrators, as it is a great resource for my students and I.

While resources are essential to learning, I believe that a hands-on minds-on model has many benefits as well. From my experiences in school, reading a passage and answering questions did not help me to retain information. While it did leave a lasting impression on me, it was not a good one; rather it is a technique I dont want to use in my classroom. Rather, implementing an inquiry-based approach is much more beneficial. Students develop ownership with this; in a sense they are teaching themselves. There is still structure from the teacher; however, it is not solely the teacher answering every question. Students can ask questions and then work through them to develop an answer with guided support. This support can come from the teacher or their peers; the goal is for the students to come up with the answer predominantly by themselves based upon evidence and resources they are provided with. Something else I love about the hands-on minds-on approach is that students get to delve into projects and investigations themselves with tools and other materials. Students arent stuck reading passage after passage, rather they are actively engaged and facilitating their own learning through hands-on activities. Furthermore, I plan on instilling a goal-oriented design to allow students to see right from the beginning what they are working towards. This will help students tie different aspects together and allow them to set their own goals and work actively to achieve them. To go right along with the hands-on minds-on model, I will use an interdisciplinary approach throughout my teachings. It is important to

integrate various subject areas so students can see how they are interconnected. Throughout life we see many different disciplines come together to explain a concept, but most of the time we learn about them in separate events. In order for students to really understand how different areas are interconnected, they should be taught together. I will work to teach subjects concurrently, using a multitude of learning styles and facets to achieve this. We want students to take information from all disciplines and learn it in a way that is beneficial to each and every student. It is common knowledge that all students learn differently so to counteract this, I will teach to multiple learning styles to insure I can touch the largest audience possible with the teachings. The interdisciplinary model allows for this because so many different areas can be incorporated with a variety of activities. With these concepts in mind, I feel that my learning theory can be implemented in my classroom with outstanding results. Aside from developing a classroom that is safe and open to opinions, different learning styles and abilities, I feel that it provides an excellent learning environment. I truly believe that if I can instill all of these concepts in my classroom and teaching, my students will thrive and be life-long learners no matter what they are challenged with.