Natasha Spinell
Certified PreK-3

Tomorrow’s leaders may be impacted by my teaching. My students will be citizens in the global community who will one day be a part of the work force and will have the right to vote. This means that it is vital that students learn how to think for themselves. I believe that this begins in elementary school. Students begin to build their character and learn valuable life skills, on top of learning valuable content area knowledge in those early years of their formal education. 

 

Education is about helping students become happy, well-rounded individuals and that this can be done by educating the whole child. Children deserve a place where they can be safe, accepted, challenged, supported, and engaged. The foundation for the rest of a child’s life can be laid in elementary school and being a part of that is very special.

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Teachers should utilize research-based strategies and curricula to help students reach their fullest potential. Teachers should keep up to date with research and continue to be lifelong learners. All children can learn and if the appropriate practices are in place, they can thrive and grow tremendously. I believe that as an educator it is my job to ensure that I am using evidence-based practices in my classroom. Districts should provide teachers with meaningful professional development opportunities and other outside resources to grow as professionals. 

 

I believe that all children deserve to have a place where they can go and feel safe. For some children, that place is school. I will have the opportunity to make our classroom a safe and welcoming place for all children, from all walks of life. I believe that students need rules and boundaries to keep them safe. I will establish a set of rules and procedures in my classroom. I will ensure that my students understand them and I will enforce them fairly and consistently. I think that praise is a powerful tool in the classroom. Students should be praised for positive behavior so that it can be reinforced. I also believe that non-verbal cues are an important part of a successful behavior management plan. Students should also be challenged, no matter what their abilities are because each child is capable of learning and growing. I believe that in the classroom, children should feel fearless. Children should know that it is okay to struggle sometimes and that everyone needs something different in order to help them be successful. As a teacher, I would have the ability to teach my students that diversity should be celebrated and that everyone deserves to feel loved.

 

Collaboration is beneficial to everyone involved. In our classroom, the students will be seated in groups. This will enable them to build ideas together. By having students work in groups, an environment conducive to learning through communication can be created. In our classroom, the students will be able to share their ideas in a comfortable, supportive environment. Conversation in our classroom will be engaging but meaningful. I have seen how powerful turn-and-talks can be during literacy instruction. Sometimes students need to verbalize their thoughts in order to make better sense of them. Also, being able to share their ideas with their peers can help build their self-confidence and help them build ideas off of one another.

 

I will have high expectations for my students in the form of attainable, measurable goals. I will monitor student progress through the use of formative and summative assessments. I plan to use resources like whiteboards and exit tickets or simple interactions and observations. This will help me determine which material students struggle with so I can plan to teach in a different way. I think that students should also be able to monitor their own learning. If developmentally appropriate, I will ask students to mark their exit tickets with a color. Green meaning they feel confident in the material, orange meaning they are almost there, and red meaning they are not there just yet. This was a technique we used in my student teaching classroom and it supported my idea to form mathematics groups differentiated by readiness. Implementing this group time proved to be beneficial because I was able to give students extra support or challenge them if the material was not difficult for them. I was able to see where students struggled but also where they excelled, and I could build on their strengths and prior knowledge.

 

Students do not come into the classroom as blank slates. Each child comes with funds of knowledge unique to their life experiences. Students also come with prior knowledge about certain topics. Students learn by using this knowledge to interpret new ideas and make sense of the world around them. As a classroom teacher, I will relate the content to what my students already know. In order for me to do so, pre-assessment will be an important part of my planning. Pre-assessment will also enable me to see where I may need to fill in the gaps for some students. Relating content to my students’ lives will make it more meaningful to them.

 

Building a rapport with students is the first step to building a classroom community. I will build a rapport with my students by greeting them at the door each morning, eating lunch with them in the cafeteria or classroom when I can, and attending their after school activities. Another important step in terms of building a classroom community is to communicate with families. I will have a classroom website or a platform like Class Dojo where families can see what we are doing in the classroom. The website or platform will be mobile friendly for families to access it on the go. I will be sure to provide contact information both on and off the website. I will also send home a weekly newsletter in order to ensure that I can reach all families, regardless of resources they may or may not have at home. I will also encourage parents and guardians to volunteer in the classroom or come in as guest speakers and readers, if possible. Getting the families involved in the classroom will create a bigger classroom community.

 

I believe that teachers are role models for their students. My students push me to be better every day and continue to teach me new things. I believe that learning is a life-long process and that my students and I will learn and grow together.