The hardest part of any written work is, in my humble opinion, figuring out how to start it. As I was trying to determine the correct order to share the values and beliefs that shape me and will one day be reflected in my classroom, it occurred to me that perhaps the best way to start this written work would be a way that closely resembles how I plan on starting each of my classes for the day: with some high energy gesture, designed to capture the attention and interest of my students in the opening minutes. Hopefully. Today, this gesture will take the form of a bad pun. Careful, it’s a thinker. I read in the news today that a cartoonist was found dead, but as of yet, the details are sketchy. Hardy-har-har. Whether you enjoyed the pun or not, I can almost guarantee that I at least peaked your interest with the mention of one. I believe that the more a teacher can be high-energy and quirky, the more their students will devote their attention. With that in mind, I plan on basing my classroom presence on that train of thought. I will be animated. I will be loud. I will be alive, and I suspect that if there are teenagers in the room, many will be embarrassed for me. Regardless, I want their attention, and I believe that because of who I am, sometimes antics will be the best way to gain it. Not far down the block from this collective farm resides creativity, another component of a classroom that I feel is indispensable. Why should I be the only one having all the fun? I believe students should be given time, albeit designated, to express themselves in a fashion similar to what I described above. If they’ve got something they’d like to share, then they should have an opportunity to do so. As well, it is my opinion that basically any learning objective can be designed in the form of an assignment that promotes students being able to put their own unique spin on it, while still absorbing all the information that they’re supposed to. When students are able to have some control over the assignment and what the final copy looks like, they are able to make it relevant for themselves. They find an outlet to express themselves, to be heard and to show off their gifts. I want to encourage that as much as possible. Therefore, I’m going to do my absolute best to come up with ways to remove some of the monotony of Mathematics (not my view on the core subject, but one that is held by many students). For obvious reasons, such as the fact that Math is just as much about practice as it is about understanding, not every class could revolve around an assignment with a twist. However, I see no reason I can’t come up with a way for my students to demonstrate their understanding in an innovative way once every week or two.
Now, whenever students are asked to be creative and inventive, no matter on how small of a scale, it involves them sharing one of their own ideas. For a lot of students, that may be asking a lot more than how it sounds. This is especially true if I’m asking them to share ideas with the entire class, as opposed to just me. In order for my students to express themselves openly and to showcase their talents, it will be a necessary condition that the classroom atmosphere maintains a significant level of acceptance and open mindedness. But, it’s about more than simply making sure students keep snarky remarks to themselves when their classmates, maybe those who are more prone to being the butt of the joke, go out on a limb and present something they’ve completed and are willing to share. It’s about me creating an environment that stimulates interest in everything outside of what my students have been introduced to and understood as truth. Again, this may be a challenging task in a math class. Nonetheless, I believe that considering alternatives and searching for truth in all ideas, all cultures, and all ways of life is too important to simply let them maintain the thought that the things mom and dad believe are inherently true, that the way they do things individually is the unquestioned, superior method (if, in fact, that is where their thinking lies). This applies on every scale, from the members of our classroom setting to the comparison of Canada’s way of doing things versus that of Bangladesh. Please understand, I am not talking about pushing or pulling for any train of thought, mine or otherwise (although I think every teacher does so subconsciously anyways). I am merely saying that I want to demonstrate the importance of weighing options and considering others’ personal truths. How I most effectively do that, I don’t yet know. I do know that I will challenge each and every blanket statement with the question, “Why do you think that?” The reason for this is because that was one of the most important questions I was ever asked, and when I found I didn’t always have a sufficient answer, it made me want one. I believe each and every classroom should present students with opportunities to challenge their own perceptions and to sharpen their ability to think critically. Before a person can make sense of the world for themselves and understand that there’s a place in it for everybody, they must first be able to do so in a classroom setting. The underlying point to all of this is that I plan on going to great lengths to ensure that everybody in my class feels comfortable using their voice. I want my students to understand that while other members of the class are different, they all maintain a personality and a way of thinking that is valuable and that we can all take something away from. When this occurs, differences no longer inspire demeaning exchanges, but rather, they become intriguing opportunities to inquire and understand.
I’ve written enough about my desire to be an excellent encourager in other written works that an in depth explanation of my reasoning for it and how that would look in a classroom may be unnecessary here. If nothing else, all that needs to be said is that I think it is one of my most affluent gifts in life, and I get genuinely excited at the prospect of taking a student with a tough situation and helping them lift themselves to a better state. What I have not seemingly written to death is the value I maintain for effort and my admiration for those who exert it. In my family, I was brought up in the belief that anything worth doing is worth doing well. More specifically, my father’s favorite expression: “Effort will always beat talent, but nothing beats effort and talent”. Being brought up in that sort of environment, combined with the fact that I have a natural compulsion to try and exert myself, it should come as no surprise that I appreciate effort, and actually get a little irritated with underperformers (something I will admittedly have to work on). I want to make it clear, however, that like my dad, I put far more emphasis on effort than natural ability. I really don’t care if all my students get A’s. I mean, that would be ideal, but what I am truly after is improvement. I rate a student’s success more on how much I’ve seen them grow-both as a student and as a person- over the course of the time I’ve spent with them, and I will make that clear to both students and parents, the idea that a grade isn’t everything. What I want to see is the growth that comes hand-in-hand with effort. So then, the question becomes one of how exactly I get disenchanted and uninspired students to try. In the planning stages of this paper, I was planning on writing about my values and beliefs in terms of encouragement and effort separately. What actually happened, however, was that I realized the obvious relationship between the two. Perhaps effort is given off the get-go, perhaps not. Either way, it can surely be earned. I’m not talking about buttering my students up. Not at all. I’m merely describing my belief that you get the best results from people when you make your high expectations known, but put even more time into making your students feel capable. For example, letting them know you’re excited to see how they use their talents and what they can conjure up, or that you only have high expectations because you recognize their remarkable, unique gifts as a student and know for an absolute fact that they can blow your expectations out of the water. Something else teachers should be considering is how exactly a student can do better work for them if all they get on the last assignment was a letter grade in red ink. Take an interest! I will be letting my students know what I liked, what I think they did well and how I think they used their talents effectively. Criticism will likely be necessary, but even that can be done in a way that allows students to believe they can do better. I believe that giving them specific things to work on, rather than just listing off all you could have done better yourself, is a necessary condition for their work to improve. Put simply, I want to give students not only more of an incentive to try a little harder, I want to help them see what exactly they’re capable of when they do put in that effort. I will do my best to encourage theirs. I believe this could have long lasting effects as well, because it seems to me that the more a person understands what a little elbow grease gets them, the larger they’re able to strive for. I won’t write an entire section on it, but I suppose it’s also worth noting, while we’re on the subject, that I see immense value in dreams and ambition. I believe those need to be nurtured sooner, rather than later, because too often life has a way of making those seem implausible, even though they’re not. Since I feel this way, I would be incredibly happy if I found a way to stir up a little passion in my classroom.
The final classroom shaping belief and/or value I maintain that I would like to discuss involves time. Before I direct attention to what it will look like in a future class setting, it is important to understand my underlying philosophy regarding the subject, and that is that life presents us with our greatest experiences and memories when we’re in a position to receive them gracefully. If you don’t have the time for anything remarkable, then you can’t expect anything remarkable to happen. I try to lead an existence that allows me to be available for any event that life may see fit to throw in my direction on any given day. What this means is that I hate being in a rush, because it almost certainly prohibits any chance of smelling the roses. As well, I have a strong inclination to try and define myself by the man I am when I’m free from stress, as opposed to riddled with it. I prefer the person I am when I’m available to help, to visit, to create, to carefully observe, and to experience whatever else life winks into being. I’m not unambitious, I just understand more than other people the simple little pleasures in life that are missed when you fill your day to the brim with “important” things to do and places to be. Now, the second part of this belief system is the premise that time is easily the most valuable thing you can give to somebody. I don’t think there’s a better way to show affection or that you see value in another person than to simply make yourself available to them. Lend a helping hand, accompany them on a tedious road trip, or simply be a sounding board for a venting session. The list is unlimited. As you can imagine, this outlook and lifestyle permits some very unique encounters that spark some very significant relationships. I met my best friend because I was open to the idea of helping somebody in the library with a psychology experiment. So, when I eventually get a classroom and continue to respond to the time I’m given in this way, I’m curious to see what my students make of it. I plan on making myself fully available to be of assistance to them but, more than that, I plan on investing time into each of them (assuming they’re willing to reciprocate, that being a necessary condition) and learning about them as individuals. I’m in this career largely because I like people. If I didn’t think there would be opportunities to effectively communicate and share worthwhile experiences with students, I’d have picked something that would allow me to do that. Perhaps I should share some of the things I’m envisioning. Obviously, making myself available means spending time at my desk when I don’t need to. Beyond that, however, I recall experiences from my days as a student when teachers participated in things like intramural sports, staff/ teacher barbeques, and volunteering for student events like the fundraiser called Wake-A-Thon. I suppose what I’m really envisioning is students taking note of the person I am and how I handle my time, and perhaps thinking that I am somebody who would not only have the time required to talk, but might also have some valuable input for them if they’re struggling with a class, or with family, or with any number of things that a student could potentially have going on. Everybody’s favorite teacher had an impact on them in some way, and I suspect this will be my way of impacting a lot of students and showing them that yes, I do in fact care.
Each of the preceding paragraphs shares a set of values or beliefs that I maintain as an individual and how I suspect they will be reflected in my classroom. The most prominent issue I had while writing this, however, was that for some of the ideas, I kept asking myself, “How will I incorporate this into a Math class?” At the time of writing, I’m not entirely sure for all of them. But you know what? These ideas are important to me, uncompromising in fact, and I have no doubt that I will find a way. It’s difficult to write about the classroom you will maintain if you’ve never had one, and so I believe experience will light the way for me.
Now, whenever students are asked to be creative and inventive, no matter on how small of a scale, it involves them sharing one of their own ideas. For a lot of students, that may be asking a lot more than how it sounds. This is especially true if I’m asking them to share ideas with the entire class, as opposed to just me. In order for my students to express themselves openly and to showcase their talents, it will be a necessary condition that the classroom atmosphere maintains a significant level of acceptance and open mindedness. But, it’s about more than simply making sure students keep snarky remarks to themselves when their classmates, maybe those who are more prone to being the butt of the joke, go out on a limb and present something they’ve completed and are willing to share. It’s about me creating an environment that stimulates interest in everything outside of what my students have been introduced to and understood as truth. Again, this may be a challenging task in a math class. Nonetheless, I believe that considering alternatives and searching for truth in all ideas, all cultures, and all ways of life is too important to simply let them maintain the thought that the things mom and dad believe are inherently true, that the way they do things individually is the unquestioned, superior method (if, in fact, that is where their thinking lies). This applies on every scale, from the members of our classroom setting to the comparison of Canada’s way of doing things versus that of Bangladesh. Please understand, I am not talking about pushing or pulling for any train of thought, mine or otherwise (although I think every teacher does so subconsciously anyways). I am merely saying that I want to demonstrate the importance of weighing options and considering others’ personal truths. How I most effectively do that, I don’t yet know. I do know that I will challenge each and every blanket statement with the question, “Why do you think that?” The reason for this is because that was one of the most important questions I was ever asked, and when I found I didn’t always have a sufficient answer, it made me want one. I believe each and every classroom should present students with opportunities to challenge their own perceptions and to sharpen their ability to think critically. Before a person can make sense of the world for themselves and understand that there’s a place in it for everybody, they must first be able to do so in a classroom setting. The underlying point to all of this is that I plan on going to great lengths to ensure that everybody in my class feels comfortable using their voice. I want my students to understand that while other members of the class are different, they all maintain a personality and a way of thinking that is valuable and that we can all take something away from. When this occurs, differences no longer inspire demeaning exchanges, but rather, they become intriguing opportunities to inquire and understand.
I’ve written enough about my desire to be an excellent encourager in other written works that an in depth explanation of my reasoning for it and how that would look in a classroom may be unnecessary here. If nothing else, all that needs to be said is that I think it is one of my most affluent gifts in life, and I get genuinely excited at the prospect of taking a student with a tough situation and helping them lift themselves to a better state. What I have not seemingly written to death is the value I maintain for effort and my admiration for those who exert it. In my family, I was brought up in the belief that anything worth doing is worth doing well. More specifically, my father’s favorite expression: “Effort will always beat talent, but nothing beats effort and talent”. Being brought up in that sort of environment, combined with the fact that I have a natural compulsion to try and exert myself, it should come as no surprise that I appreciate effort, and actually get a little irritated with underperformers (something I will admittedly have to work on). I want to make it clear, however, that like my dad, I put far more emphasis on effort than natural ability. I really don’t care if all my students get A’s. I mean, that would be ideal, but what I am truly after is improvement. I rate a student’s success more on how much I’ve seen them grow-both as a student and as a person- over the course of the time I’ve spent with them, and I will make that clear to both students and parents, the idea that a grade isn’t everything. What I want to see is the growth that comes hand-in-hand with effort. So then, the question becomes one of how exactly I get disenchanted and uninspired students to try. In the planning stages of this paper, I was planning on writing about my values and beliefs in terms of encouragement and effort separately. What actually happened, however, was that I realized the obvious relationship between the two. Perhaps effort is given off the get-go, perhaps not. Either way, it can surely be earned. I’m not talking about buttering my students up. Not at all. I’m merely describing my belief that you get the best results from people when you make your high expectations known, but put even more time into making your students feel capable. For example, letting them know you’re excited to see how they use their talents and what they can conjure up, or that you only have high expectations because you recognize their remarkable, unique gifts as a student and know for an absolute fact that they can blow your expectations out of the water. Something else teachers should be considering is how exactly a student can do better work for them if all they get on the last assignment was a letter grade in red ink. Take an interest! I will be letting my students know what I liked, what I think they did well and how I think they used their talents effectively. Criticism will likely be necessary, but even that can be done in a way that allows students to believe they can do better. I believe that giving them specific things to work on, rather than just listing off all you could have done better yourself, is a necessary condition for their work to improve. Put simply, I want to give students not only more of an incentive to try a little harder, I want to help them see what exactly they’re capable of when they do put in that effort. I will do my best to encourage theirs. I believe this could have long lasting effects as well, because it seems to me that the more a person understands what a little elbow grease gets them, the larger they’re able to strive for. I won’t write an entire section on it, but I suppose it’s also worth noting, while we’re on the subject, that I see immense value in dreams and ambition. I believe those need to be nurtured sooner, rather than later, because too often life has a way of making those seem implausible, even though they’re not. Since I feel this way, I would be incredibly happy if I found a way to stir up a little passion in my classroom.
The final classroom shaping belief and/or value I maintain that I would like to discuss involves time. Before I direct attention to what it will look like in a future class setting, it is important to understand my underlying philosophy regarding the subject, and that is that life presents us with our greatest experiences and memories when we’re in a position to receive them gracefully. If you don’t have the time for anything remarkable, then you can’t expect anything remarkable to happen. I try to lead an existence that allows me to be available for any event that life may see fit to throw in my direction on any given day. What this means is that I hate being in a rush, because it almost certainly prohibits any chance of smelling the roses. As well, I have a strong inclination to try and define myself by the man I am when I’m free from stress, as opposed to riddled with it. I prefer the person I am when I’m available to help, to visit, to create, to carefully observe, and to experience whatever else life winks into being. I’m not unambitious, I just understand more than other people the simple little pleasures in life that are missed when you fill your day to the brim with “important” things to do and places to be. Now, the second part of this belief system is the premise that time is easily the most valuable thing you can give to somebody. I don’t think there’s a better way to show affection or that you see value in another person than to simply make yourself available to them. Lend a helping hand, accompany them on a tedious road trip, or simply be a sounding board for a venting session. The list is unlimited. As you can imagine, this outlook and lifestyle permits some very unique encounters that spark some very significant relationships. I met my best friend because I was open to the idea of helping somebody in the library with a psychology experiment. So, when I eventually get a classroom and continue to respond to the time I’m given in this way, I’m curious to see what my students make of it. I plan on making myself fully available to be of assistance to them but, more than that, I plan on investing time into each of them (assuming they’re willing to reciprocate, that being a necessary condition) and learning about them as individuals. I’m in this career largely because I like people. If I didn’t think there would be opportunities to effectively communicate and share worthwhile experiences with students, I’d have picked something that would allow me to do that. Perhaps I should share some of the things I’m envisioning. Obviously, making myself available means spending time at my desk when I don’t need to. Beyond that, however, I recall experiences from my days as a student when teachers participated in things like intramural sports, staff/ teacher barbeques, and volunteering for student events like the fundraiser called Wake-A-Thon. I suppose what I’m really envisioning is students taking note of the person I am and how I handle my time, and perhaps thinking that I am somebody who would not only have the time required to talk, but might also have some valuable input for them if they’re struggling with a class, or with family, or with any number of things that a student could potentially have going on. Everybody’s favorite teacher had an impact on them in some way, and I suspect this will be my way of impacting a lot of students and showing them that yes, I do in fact care.
Each of the preceding paragraphs shares a set of values or beliefs that I maintain as an individual and how I suspect they will be reflected in my classroom. The most prominent issue I had while writing this, however, was that for some of the ideas, I kept asking myself, “How will I incorporate this into a Math class?” At the time of writing, I’m not entirely sure for all of them. But you know what? These ideas are important to me, uncompromising in fact, and I have no doubt that I will find a way. It’s difficult to write about the classroom you will maintain if you’ve never had one, and so I believe experience will light the way for me.