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Tom Williamson

Professor Stockton

EDI 310

December 2nd, 2018

Theory to Practice

Every day in classrooms around the world, teachers face split-second decisions while

they teach their lessons. No matter the content area, educators must always adapt to how their

students are learning and how their students are behaving in the moment. Because students spend

just about as much time in school as they do at home on weekdays during the school year, as

teachers we must maximize the effect we have on these moments. Our reactions can greatly

affect the learning that occurs or a relationship with a student. Before an educator can begin to

teach students, they need to have their beliefs grounded in theories based on how students learn

and the root behind student behavior. In education, there are multiple theories that educators can

ground themselves upon to teach their students effectively. While most have firm foundations on

research and experience in a classroom, a teacher ultimately needs to decide which best fit their

person and beliefs about education.

How Do Students Learn?

Regardless of content area, educators must consider the question “How Do Students

Learn?” before, during, and after instruction. There are three important reasons for this. Firstly,

good teaching requires some degree of forward planning for students to learn something

meaningful. This looks like setting up your classroom and developing routines. Most times, I
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will plan using a backwards design, starting with what my students should be accomplishing and

working backwards from there. Second, teachers must adapt to a variety of formative assessment

tools while in class to reach full class understandings. Third, there must be reflective tools that a

teacher uses to identify how to keep students thinking of your content outside of class in some

regard. For the next day, planning takes the form of a lesson plan or working through problems

to identify misconceptions. Effective teaching cannot be done by a robot nor a purely online task

where there is no interaction with an educator or learning facilitator. In a technology-fueled

world, good educators are more important than ever before.

 Before Class

For my classroom, I plan to spend a lot of time, well, planning. The first way I will plan is in

the setup of my classroom. Whether I end up teaching Math or Social Studies, my students will

be in groups and be part of a learning community. Students will feel free to make mistakes while

also being held accountable for each other’s learning. Also, each hour will have its own feel to it.

I plan on implementing some level of gamification in students learning in my second or third

year of teaching. This way, each class can have an extra element of control of a character in

some way while grappling with content skills. Additionally, there will be a creative station where

students can go to grab extra tools when working on posters, etc. I want my students to be

working together and talking each and every day in their groups because this is an integral part

of citizenship education. Lastly, I will give students as many small tasks as I can. This includes

leading “Good News”, checking homework, and coming up with our own saying and hand-

gesture to gather everyone’s attention when needed. I believe having a community mindset is

key.

 During Class
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For during and after class, the strategies of Humanism and Choice Theory dominate the

strategies that I plan on adhering to for my own classroom. After the learning community is

established in my classroom, essentially, students will be treated as young adults and held to

ambitious standards. The way that this affects learning is vital. As a class, we move through

understandings together. If a student is not understanding a concept, it is their responsibility to

ask questions and for help during class! If not during class, come in at lunch, before or after

school. Every so often, I will change the groups based on student performance and offer

incentives (most likely through our classroom game, grades, etc.) to motivate these students to

work together. If one group in particular is struggling with a concept, I can have the other groups

move on in the lesson while I work specifically to address misconceptions and answer questions.

I will also be asking a lot of questions as each lesson progresses. In humanistic terms, I know

that no matter how well I plan, some students will still struggle in class. I need to be

understanding and cognizant of their various learning needs!

 After Class

After students leave my classroom, they will be confronting a long list of other

responsibilities and navigating their tricky lives. This includes the hallway, other classes, extra-

curricular activities, and their home life. To help them learn, I need to be designing ways that

they can connect my content area to their own life. Additionally, lesson hooks or launches are

very important for getting students in the right frame of mind right when they walk into my class.

The reason I am not including lesson planning in my “Before Class” is simple: lesson planning

requires reflecting on previous lessons. Reflecting on how lessons went and the multiple classes I

taught is the only way I will improve as a teacher and help my students continue to learn. I will

do this by journaling my thoughts of how each class went that day and what did and did not work
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well. Additionally, during class I will have students give feedback on teaching strategies and

how their group dynamics are working. After class is when I will view those and implement

them in the coming lessons. I believe that if students (and myself included) are not thinking

about what they learn in some respect outside of their class period, what they are learning fails to

either be valuable or relevant. Learning should be challenging, but enjoyable!

Why is Student Behavior Important?

Student learning and behavior are the two most variable parts of a teacher’s day. For one,

these two aspects are why I believe it teaching is one of the most difficult professions in the

world today. No matter how much we plan, there are still elements of our day that are impossible

to predict. Student behavior in particular is extremely volatile. For example, students can have all

types of home lives. Maybe, after the lunch period, a student comes in your classroom very

distressed, threatening to throw the delicate balance of emotions off kilter in the upcoming class.

Being that this is a very unpredictable topic, as teachers, we need to understand and follow

certain theories about student behavior in order to respond to them correctly. By “correct”, I

mean in ways that continue to allow for the learning of all students in the classroom to continue.

My beliefs about student behavior reside in these two statements. The first: students do

not act in any way without some kind of goal in mind. The second: every student desires to

belong and feel valued. Regarding the first statement, I also believe that when a student exhibits

an undesirable behavior, there is a reason behind it. There is a root to everything. As my mind

works, I desire to understand what drives a student and how their metacognitive processes work.

As I realize it is very difficult to develop strong enough relationships with every student to reach

this point, I believe this is the best way to treat student misbehaviors. This is where Choice

Theory and Humanism reflect my beliefs. For one, I am a firm believer of holding students
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accountable. Although we all come into class carrying something, everyone in our classroom

exists in the same learning community and must follow expectations or face logical

consequences. However, this does not mean I am disinterested in issues in any facet of life that a

student has. This is where I want to listen (privately) to what that student has to say and come up

with a solution so that they can exist peacefully inside of my classroom. Some students won’t

admit to it, but they act to gain others’ attention in order to feel valued or “seen”. To mitigate the

variability of my students, I plan on keeping communication open with parents, developing some

kind of way to discuss with small groups of students how the class is going, and having one on

one conversations to find solutions for students. For some, I will need to find out what

consequences are a deterrent and what ones aren’t.

Understanding that each student wants to be valued and feel like they belong in any kind

of setting is crucial. Students will always have other things going on their life that are on the que

before learning. Therefore, I must make sure students feel comfortable, safe, value, and engaged

in my classroom. Ultimately, my goal is for students to learn. Learn my content, how to discuss

with their peers, how to be held accountable, how to function inside of a learning community,

and other aspects of citizenship education. Creating a community inside of my classroom with

logical consequences while realizing that my students need multiple chances to get things right

sometimes are codes that I will live by while teaching. Otherwise, my students will see right

through me and resist the opportunity to grow.