Leanza Dawson

My Philosophy

Teaching Practicum

3/12/2021
 Education is one of life’s many necessities as it equips you with the knowledge, values,

attitudes and skills needed to fulfil your dreams and aspirations. Education helps nurture you into

functional adults as well as assist to follow your passion. It provides numerous skills, values and

attitudes that are utilized on a daily. Education should not be forced upon no one; learners need

to be taught to love learning and want to learn for them to be successful. As a teacher I strongly

believe no student should be forced to learn; the love of wanting to learn will be lacking, which

leads to a reduction in interest. Teachers should create a welcoming environment that not only

makes the students feel welcomed, but also one in which students desire to learn in. The

environment is just a factor that helps students to learn; it sets the tone for students’ behaviour

and the desire to acquire knowledge. The Behaviourism Theory states “what a child does, and

consequently what a child learns, depends on what happens as a result of the child’s behaviour”

(Abruscato, 2004, p. 23). Teachers should be able to control their students to some extent once

proper classroom management is in place.

Building a strong relationship with your students is a very essential aspect in a classroom;

it not only contributes to the overall environment in the classroom but also provides reassurance

of safety. Students can feel comfortable and open in such an environment, free to share thoughts,

questions or queries without fear. Having a relationship with students opens a window to allow

knowledge to blow in and opens students to new ideas and experiences. Yes, having a

relationship with students is important but there must be boundaries and limits as the classroom

is still a workplace where everyone must be respected and the children in the classroom are your

students and not your best friend. 

  I don’t fully agree with giving students tangible rewards for completing a task, because

that will be the sole motivation for students to do their work. When there is no reward will the
students still complete the assigned tasks? According to DeCharms, if a person receives an

external reward for an activity, they are intrinsically motivated to do, their reason for acting will

shift to the reward and away from the inherent enjoyment of the task: “The motivation to

perform a task undertaken originally as a result of the desire to demonstrate personal causation

will suffer if an extrinsic reward is offered” (Black & Allen, 2018). The greatest reward a student

should receive is knowledge. There is nothing wrong with giving the students a token here and

there but motivational rewards and acknowledgments for improvement in all areas, not only

academically, are the best rewards. Motivating students drives positive behaviour; it provides the

students assurance that their efforts and improvement aren’t overlooked but, that it’s recognized

which continues to drive them. 

Students are even more elated to see changes made because of their input. Even a thank

you, for their feedback can assure students of their value in the classroom.  The best method of

knowing you’re going on the right path is by feedback from students. Daily feedback or weekly

feedback can be more effective than some other methods. It notifies the teacher if the strategies

or methodology used are effective and clear to the students, the sooner the feedback the better

because there are students that are too afraid to speak up. This information can be gathering

through various methods such as placing short surveys at the end of quizzes and test, insert in

exit slips or simply have a box allotted for student’s feedback. That way students can be honest

and not be influenced by others' opinions. 

I teach the way I do because I strongly believe having a variety of methods and strategies

has a much better outreach than limiting myself to a minority of strategies and methods. Each

student learns differently so, by in cooperating different strategies and methods to deliver my

lesson, not only will my students be interested but grasp the information. When I was in primary
school, majority of the lessons I participated in whether it was asking a question, answering a

question, working independently or in a group, I can clearly remember. An increase of student

participation increases the chances of students storing the information in their long-term

memory. Besides from student participation the use of different strategies techniques and

methodology will be used to cater to students learning style. Every student acquires knowledge

differently; there are no two students that have the same intellectual capacity as suggested in

Gardner’s theory, “each child can be viewed as having a greater or lesser capacity to learn in

each specific area” (Abruscato, 2004, p. 36). All lessons shouldn’t be focused around a specific

area, but there is at least one area in Gardner’s multiple intelligence that suit students. 

My lessons would be mainly student based with plenty of hands on activities. As much as

possible students would be working together, doing experiments, presentation and projects.

During lesson, a fraction of the lessons will in cooperate technology ( videos, PowerPoint, songs

and games eg Kahoot) being that this generation is technologically advance. I believe  Math

lessons should have props and students should be included when explaining examples. For

example Place value, each student can represent a place value; and that way the explanation can

be clearer and your catering to both audio learners and visual learner. I believe students will be

able to understand language arts clearer  if what is being thought is relatable and relevant; that

way students are able to see the importance of learning the topic. When choosing story, select

stories about Belize or one written by a Belizean author, that way students may have a clearer

idea of what they read and in some cases relate to the stories. Science and social studies are more

hands one subjects, videos, presentation, projects, songs, experiments  and dramatizations can be

done  in numerous topics in these subjects. For topics like parts of a flower, students can go out,

pick a flower and carefully dismantle the flower to locate the parts of a plant. In social studies
when teaching about the history students can dramatize different major events (eg. The battle of

st. St. George’s Caye). It’s simple ideas like these that will keep students interested, engage and

grasp more information.

My goal as a teacher is to make learning fun, engaging and as hands on as possible. I

aspire to be a teacher that has creative ideas for every subject and every lesson. I would rather

my students be engaged in my lesson and want to do more. I would like for in my teaching

career, my students to be sad that a lesson ended but at the same time excited because they are

about to start another lesson. As suggested in Bruner’s, J. theory, ““It is effective when faced

with new material to follow a progression from enactive to iconic to symbolics representation;

this holds true even for adult learners.” Teachers need to provide children with experiences to

help them discover underlying ideas, concepts, patterns and promote higher level thinking”

(Abruscato, 2004, p. 23) By providing students with hands-on experience, using various learning

styles and making the lesson engaging, students are able to create their own understanding and

make connections. This will be very effective in the classroom because it provides students with

an opportunity to experiment with trial and error, learn from their mistakes and encourage higher

level thinking. Within my observation thus far, it is clear to see that students are more motivated

when included in the lesson or have hands-on experience rather than the traditional method of

teaching.

As a future teacher I hope to make an impact in my students lives the way my past

teacher did to me. I want to be a teacher that pushes my students and motivates them to go

beyond no matter what others may think of them. Also help them reach their goals that they

strive for and to me a listening ear and someone that they can speak to without being judged. I
 will ensure that I do my job to the best of my ability and to ensure that my students progress in

their education is something that I take seriously.

References

Abruscato, Joseph (2004). Teaching children science : a discovery approach (6 edition). Boston: Allyn
th

and Bacon.

Black & Allen (2018). Rewards, Motivation, and Performance. Retrieved from
  

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326484371_Part_7_Rewards_Motivation_and_Perform

ance