Reflection on Teaching Philosophy

I've never really thought about my "teaching philosophy" until today's activity in class where we had to stand in a circle and explain our philosophy in 60 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 15 seconds, then 5 seconds.  Once we got down to the 5 second mark, we had to come up with our key points to our philosophy.
As mentioned before, I've never thought about it but I've always had values that I've believed in and what I would like my classroom to look like.  The 5 key terms I concluded with were:
-Trust
-Equality
-Friendship
-Life Long Learning
I want my students to trust me.  I could only hope that no matter what my students are enduring in their lives that they can come and talk to me and can trust me with the information they are giving me.  I am a firm believer in expressing your feelings and I would hate to see my students having to go throughout their day to day lives holding so much emotion inside.
I would like equality in my classroom as well and hope that diversity would not single out any of my students.  I would like them to be classified as Miss. Smith's class, not a group of different students having to be in one classroom every day.  No matter what our differences our, we are still one class and we will all work together and become successful.
Friendship is important as well because that means that all of my students will be civil and peaceful with one another.  It may be impossible to have a class full of friends, but all I could hope for is that they could all get along in harmony.  I am a huge believer in group work and if friendship can be seen in the classroom, then group work will be successful and all my students can be happy.
Life long learning is a HUGE philosophy I believe in.  My goal as a teacher is to meet each of my students' individual needs and whatever way possible.  I want my students to know that they will not only be learning in the classroom, but also outside on the playground and off school grounds.  I want my students to love learning and to keep learning for the rest of their lives.

This is Our House by Michael Rosen

http://vimeo.com/58214461

Check out this virtual children's book that I chose to use as a resource in my diversity class!  No one should be left out :)

Should Religion be taught in Schools?

On Tuesday, August 27th, my group and I did a reflection on religion being taught public schools.  Here's what I wrote for my reflection:


As I reflect on our presentation, I feel as though it went very well.  Our group worked great together and we all brought different ideas that were shared in our presentation.  Due to this topic being so controversial, our group cooperated well with each other and we respected each of our responses to the issue.  I felt as though we did pick an interesting topic and that the class was engaged in what we were discussing.  We used the room well and we all were not standing in a presentation mode; we acted like we were teachers.  Next time, I would like to change how long we used Prezi for our presentation.  It’s difficult for the whole class to be listening to us talk for a long period of time.  I would have preferred more moving around for the rest of the class because it was such a deep topic that never concluded with an answer, so it would have been more beneficial if they were more engaged.  We prepared this presentation quickly, so our Prezi did not look that great.  We should have put more time into learning about how to use Prezi since none of us had ever used it. 

            I feel like I contributed greatly to this presentation.  Because I lived the childhood I did growing up in a Muslim country and attending an American school, I brought a different outlook to the group.  I brought up different scenarios and options that my group had never thought of before and that allowed us to learn from each other.  After this experience, I now know how to be more careful when preparing my lessons as a future teacher.  Religion is an issue that affects everyone so I need to take that into consideration.  I grew up knowing about other religions and never being judgmental about them, but now I have seen how sensitive people can get if religion is being discussed and I had never noticed that before.  I need to really know my students and their parents in order to know if this is a safe topic to teach in my class.  I also learned that I will never teach religion and force it upon a student, and that there is a difference between teaching religion and teaching about religion; that is a boundary I would never want to mix up.  As I was teaching this topic, I noticed that I am now becoming more comfortable with walking around the room instead of standing in one spot.  This was also the first time I could stay up in front of the classroom and feel no nerves; I felt confident in what I was doing.  I felt like the class participated immensely and that our presentation went longer because it was a topic that everyone could discuss and have a say in.  I enjoyed seeing the class be so engaged in what we were talking about.  I learned that group work is important and working together with my colleagues will benefit me in the future.

            I have always believed that religion is a topic that affects every person in society whether they are religious or not; everyone always has a say when discussing this topic.  Growing up in Dubai allowed me to have a connection with this topic because I know so many people who hold different religions, and I also saw a religion practiced and discussed on a daily basis that one would not see much of here in our community.  I learned about religions at a very young age and that allowed me to grow up without being judgmental and prejudice towards other people.  I found this topic difficult because it never concluded with an answer and that there will never be an answer to it.  I find that frustrating because I wish there was a right answer for someone to tell me that it is or is not allowed to be in schools.  Due to this issue being so controversial, it scares me to cross any boundaries as a teacher.  I continue to believe that knowing about religions at a young age is beneficial because then our students can grow up in a world that is not prejudice and accepts each and every one of us.  Unfortunately, this is not the case and I sincerely wish it could be.  I feel like if one is not allowed to embrace ones religion is like not being allowed to embrace one’s sexuality.  I wish I could change this controversial topic and find an answer, but unfortunately I cannot do that alone.  All I can do is try to make sure that each of my students feels like they belong in my classroom and that we can all accept and appreciate what we have to bring to school.   

Overall, the purpose of us becoming teachers is to educate our students.  I definitely believe that holidays should be taught because it is important for our children to know about other holidays that are celebrated all around the world.  Holidays are celebrated due to religious beliefs, so instead of touching into religion, I think that teaching about holidays will be more beneficial and safer.  What do you think?

Welcome to my blog where you will see me grow from a student to a teacher!

As I sit in the computer lab at the University of the Fraser Valley on this rainy August morning (go figure!) I created this blog in my technology and education class.  This is the first blog I have ever created so bear with me here!  On this blog, I will be posting my progress in the Teacher Education Program here at UFV and will record my reflections and experiences as I begin this journey.  So far, we have only been in school for four and a half weeks now and I have learned so much.  I love my cohort and we have been feeling these ups and downs together; of course there have been many more ups than downs!  This is going to be a wild ride so enjoy it with me!