I believe the purpose of education is to facilitate the development of students’ intellectual, social, emotional, and physical abilities. As an educator my role is to help students achieve this development by providing high quality, engaging learning experiences for all students.
With the various needs of students in mind, I will provide a learning environment that is comfortable, supportive, safe, and accessible. To start, students must have their physiological needs met to further their development and learning in the classroom. To ensure that these physiological needs are fulfilled, I will make every effort to support my students with anything they may need. If I am unable to support the needs of a student, I will direct them to someone who is able to. In addition to this, I believe that students must feel safe and possess a sense of belonging to find success in the school setting. To provide a sense of safety and belonging for students, I will work alongside students to create a set of classroom rules, do my best to maintain a daily routine/schedule, and develop a positive relationship with every student in my class.
I believe that using a blend of different teaching styles would work best for myself, different student needs, and the various subjects taught. Whenever possible and appropriate, I will use demonstrations, group activities, multimedia presentations and more to facilitate learning. In addition to this, I will avoid lecture style teaching as I do not believe that it is most beneficial for students’ learning. Although I will use a blend of teaching styles in my classroom, there are multiple things that I would keep constant to ensure all students are supported, engaged, and included. For example, I will create a sensory-friendly classroom that supports the individual and diverse needs of all my students. In addition to this, I will give students the opportunity to personalize their learning whenever possible. An example of this may be to allow students to choose the format of a final project which demonstrates their learning at the end of a unit. I will also Indigenize class content and incorporate perspectives that differ from the those used historically in classrooms. These are just a few things that I will keep constant while teaching to ensure that all students are supported, engaged, and included.
As an educator I will ensure that I possess strong verbal and written communication skills, problem-solving skills, knowledge of the content I am teaching, and knowledge of Indigenous history and values. In addition to this, I will strive to be adaptable, compassionate, creative, patient, and willing to continue learning and growing as a leader. As I continue on in my career as an educator, I will work to be the best that I can for myself, my students, my school, and my community.
In conclusion, my focus as an educator is to provide high quality, engaging learning experiences for all students so that they can develop their intellectual, social, emotional, and physical abilities. I will provide a learning environment that is comfortable, supportive, safe, and accessible, I will use a blend of different teaching styles to best support, engage, and include my students, and finally, I will work towards gaining and developing the skills and abilities required for me to be the most effective educator I can be.