Running head: STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

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Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay Kathy Campbell Instructor: Belma Sadikovic EDUC: 204 Families, Communities, Culture Online-Fall 2013

STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay Introduction

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The progressive educational theorist John Dewey once said, What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. As a teacher, that attitude of wanting the best educational opportunity for a child is vital element of a teachers philosophy and attitude toward their profession. Every child deserves an equal educational opportunity in life, whether they are a student who may have exceptionalities or they are a student who has originated from a different background other than their peers or myself. It is crucial for an educator have high expectations of each of their students and it is also important to create a safe and positive learning environment that is welcoming to both the students, as well as their families. All Students Can Learn The student/teacher relationship is a collaborative effort that involves the direction or the instruction of information from the teacher and the willingness of the student to engage and absorb the information. Unfortunately, not every student is eager to engage in daily classroom instruction, or they may not have the capability to comprehend the daily assignments due to a learning delay or language barrier. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to find creative ways to keep my students excited and engaged in the lessons so that they may continue to develop new skills that will help them throughout their life. For the child that has a barrier which is affecting they way they assimilate information that is being taught, I will need to find alternative ways to present the information to make the lesson more relevant for the child. Some children in the classroom may have a cognitive or language impairment, which may make lessons difficult. It is

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still the teachers responsibility to make sure that the student is receiving instruction that is going to help further the students knowledge in the classroom and in life. All teachers need to have high expectations from their students, whether the students have learning impairments or are gifted and talented students. As a teacher, I will set goals for my students that I will hope and expect them to make by the end of the school year. While not everyone may have the same goals expected of them throughout the year, each would have the expectation upon them that they make progress from the beginning of the year until the very last day of school before summer. Setting the end bar reasonably high with multiple goals throughout the year keeps the students constantly on a forward path in their education, encouraging them to make goals that they may have never thought they would be able to achieve at the beginning of the school year. Teaching a varied classroom of 30 unique individuals will require me to make sure I have stellar classroom management and always be prepared for my lessons. This will insure that I do not lose valuable instructional time trying to get the class to regroup or lose student engagement through choppy instruction. By making the best use out of the instructional time I have with my students, I will guarantee that each student in the class makes progress toward their educational goals. In dealing with a diverse classroom of individuals, I will need to be aware that each student has their own unique learning style and alternative methods of instruction may be beneficial to some students. It will be necessary for me to make sure that I vary my techniques of delivering instruction from time to time, to fully address the learning needs of all of my students in the classroom. Through explicit direct instruction and proper modeling, I hope to shape my students throughout the year into confident students that have strong self-efficacy traits and have accomplished the goals that I set forth for them at the beginning of the school year.

STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS Teacher Expectations As a teacher, it is necessary to have high expectations of myself as well as of my students. It is important to display the concept that one always has room in their life for

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improvement. Having high expectations of others and of ones self keeps progress moving in a forward momentum, rather than stalling out once a task has been mastered. In the classroom, a teachers positive attitude about learning and the current tasks at hand transfers over to the student and in turn encourages them to be excited about the learning process. Making my expectations known to the students, about what I expect of them personally and the class as a whole, guides the students throughout the school year. School isnt always an easy or fun task and a students disability may even make schooling that much harder, for both the student and the teacher. My job as a teacher is to still have high expectations of all of my students, even if they may have disabilities. Its important to inform and encourage my students that I know they are capable of bigger things than even they realize. Acknowledging that yes, things may be difficult, but you are capable of more than you know to the students encourages them to continue on and keep attending to the current task at hand. Having individual and classroom educational goals are also an important part of being a teacher. Having both short term and long-term goals keeps individuals hungry to keep inching forward in life. As a teacher, it will be important for me to share this concept with my students so that they may improve their own self-determination skills. Once students set their own personal goals, they take on some of the responsibility of their education and become more invested in the learning process. It is crucial that teachers set goals that are high but are also reasonable to attain at the same time. Starting out with setting short-term goals, which eventually lead up to larger long-term goals, this gradually builds up an individuals self

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confidence by encouraging them that little by little they are eventually making significant gains in their lives. Setting goals isnt always an instinctive trait that all people have. Its beneficial for students when teachers model how the goal process works in the classroom, as well as in life. Showing students that its important to always have high expectations of ones self and that even teachers still continue to set goals for themselves, even long after they have finished their own schooling. Modeling the goal setting process and encouraging the students to set their own goals reveals to students that they dont have to be passive participants in life but rather they can be active participants and learners; able to take personal responsibility for the paths they choose to take. Its important to show the benefits of what can be achieved when one sets a goal for themself, as well as show that sometimes a person may not actually achieve the goal that may have wanted, but that they still made improvement, and that its alright if that happens from time to time. The important part is that the person took ownership of a task ahead of them and they made forward movement toward that goal. Students Social Ecology Socialization of an individual is a dynamic process in which an individual gains knowledge, skills and character traits that make them capable of being productive members of society (Berns, 2010, p. 5). Socialization of an individual can occur through many different means. It can occur when a parent informs a child how to dress or eat properly, when a religion or culture relays their beliefs and customs upon a person, to when the government creates laws and punishments through the justice system. As a teacher, its important to be aware of the many socialization factors that can have an effect on a student, so that you can deliver instruction to the student in the most beneficial way possible.

STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS In 1979, the theorist Urie Bronfenbrenner came up with the concept of the

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bioecological model of human development (Burns, 2010, p. 17). The theory involves the thought that the ecology of socialization involves the different intertwining relationships between humans and their environments and that each of the relationships have an effect on the development of an individual. Bronfenbrenners theory is broken down in several different components: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem (Burns, p. 18). The microsystem is the setting in which a child is influenced by their family members, peers and school; this involves the childs closest relationships. The mesosystem involves linkages between two or more people who may be part of an individuals microsystem; an example would be an immediate family and a childs school. If a childs mesosystem links are strong between their school and home life, the child will likely enjoy great academic achievement. One way that can help mesh the two links is an open door policy in the classroom, one that encourages parents to volunteer in the classroom. Parent volunteers are a great help to the teacher and they also convey to the child that the parents and teachers are on the same team. The exosystems influence on the socialization of a child refers to activities that the child does not directly take part in, but decisions made at that level could affect the socialization of the child. State legislators involved in educational policy can be an example of an exosystem influence on a child. The macrosystem is the largest part of Bronfenbrenners theory and includes the society and culture one lives in and the beliefs and lifestyles that those may influence upon an individual. The last component of Bronfenbrenners theory is the chronosystem, which stresses that temporal changes in an individuals ecological systems can have an effect on the development of a child. An example of chronosystem influence that could impact a childs development would be the 1999 Columbine shooting, which caused greater

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awareness of school security and zero tolerance policies toward items that could be considered weapons. As a teacher, it is important to be aware of the many factors that can be influencing a student in the classroom. The family, in a childs microsystem, is by far the most influential socializing agent a child has when they are younger. They provide guidance, nurturance and various opportunities that shape children in their development. As a child becomes older, the school becomes an equally influential component of a childs socialization experience. Schools encourage the development of academic skills and a students teacher can be an important role model for a child, especially if a student does not have a healthy home life. Communities can encourage the socialization of a child by providing opportunities for them to have successful real world experiences throughout parts of the community. Communities that encourage after school programs such as the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA or public library opportunities, stress the importance that education is an opportunity that should be fostered in young people now, so that they may eventually grow up to be productive members of society in later years. Cultural Diversity Instruction As a teacher, I feel it is important that we model to our students the attitude of cultural acceptance. As a child, I had the opportunity to grow up in a diverse southern California location, one that embraced and celebrated the different ethnicities and cultures that were prevalent in the area that I grew up in. I feel that this opportunity helped shape me into a wellrounded person, free of any racial prejudices that could have been instilled in me had I perhaps come from a less diverse area. The United States has had differing views over the years as to whether the educational setting should be one that practices cultural pluralism or one that practices cultural

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assimilation. Cultural assimilation refers to the idea that members of the minority culture completely take on the characteristics of the dominant majority group. Where as, cultural pluralism refers to the idea that there should be mutual appreciation in society in regards to the differing cultural backgrounds that individuals come from. Cultural pluralist societies believe individuals should embrace both their native cultural background as well as accept and cherish some of the common elements of the dominant culture. Thankfully this concept appears to becoming more commonly accepted in the American education system, which is ultimately leading to more diverse and accepting classroom environments. One of my goals as an educator is to be a positive role model for my students in regards to the views I hold about individuals that may come from different cultural backgrounds or are perhaps a different ethnicity than that of the norm in my classroom. I hope to impress upon my students that we should all embrace our cultural backgrounds and celebrate our differences and similarities. It can be helpful in the classroom to include family heritage projects into the curriculum, projects where students have to research their heritage and report their findings back to the other students in the classroom. Assignments such as these can foster an interest in learning about different places and various cultural practices that might not be familiar to some of the students in the classroom. Inviting and welcoming my students family members to be a part of our classroom can also be beneficial to both my students and their family members. Encouraging them to participate by perhaps volunteering or inviting them to share various cultural activities that may be important to them, can model how we are able collaborate and work together despite our different backgrounds. As a teacher, it is crucial that I impress the idea that while we are all different and come from unique backgrounds, we can all get along collectively as an accepting multicultural society. Modeling this idea is important if I want my

STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS students to develop into individuals that accept and embrace others from all cultural backgrounds. Curriculum For All Learners

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When working inside a classroom that has 25-30 unique individuals, its important to realize that not every child learns in the same manner. Howard Gardner theorized that humans have differing learning styles and intelligences. Gardner labeled the various multiple intelligences as the following: logical-mathematical, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, music, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist (Berns, 2010, p. 249). Due to the various learning styles, it will be necessary for me to adapt the delivery of my instruction from time to time. By alternating the delivery method of my lessons, it will allow me to perhaps reach students who may receive and retain the lessons successfully in differing ways compared to their other classmates. Teacher assessment is another tool that can aid educators in identifying if the students are successfully understanding and retaining the lessons that are being introduced to them. If a teacher works on a concept for several days and then issues an assessment to the students to check for understanding, the results of that assessment can be beneficial to the teacher to determine if the delivery of the lesson was effective. Assessments can be viewed as another form of feedback that a teacher receives, one that is critiquing the overall delivery of the lesson given by the teacher. If the majority of the class performed poorly on an assessment that was given, it would be crucial to go back and rethink how the lesson was originally presented. From there, if time allowed, it would be beneficial to reteach the concept by presenting the information in a different manner. On the other hand, if the majority of the class performed satisfactorily on

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the assessment it would convey that the students understood and retained the assessed concept and that it was now acceptable to move on to another lesson. Assessments are also a valuable tool to identify students that may be falling behind in school. If only a few students perform poorly on an assessment but the rest of the class performed well, it can generally be assumed that the delivery of the lesson was appropriate; but that those few students may need additional help to better understand the objectives of the lesson. By being aware of my students learning styles or specific intelligence styles, this awareness will provide me guidance as to if another approach to the delivery of the lesson would be more appropriate for them. Some children may learn better by visually seeing information written down, while others may learn better by taking a hands on approach. By being flexible with lesson delivery and introducing curriculum in a variety of ways, this can insure that all students individual learning needs are being met and that they will continue to progress in their education throughout the school year (Ryan & Cooper, 2010, p. 72). Conclusion As a future educator, it will be important to convey my belief that all children deserve equal opportunities to receive the best education possible, to both my students and their families. I will have high expectations of all of my students, and my goal is to create a classroom atmosphere that is a positive learning environment and one that is accepting of all who walk through the doors. Children are our future leaders in our community, because of that; it is imperative that they be educated as such so that they may continue in life to become successful and productive members of society.

STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS References

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Berns, R. (2010). Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Ryan, K., & Cooper, J. M. (2010). Those Who Can, Teach. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Taylor, R. L., Smiley, L. R., & Richards, S. (2009). Exceptional Students: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.