“Let’s Get Personal, Personal”… What? That’s how Olivia Newton-John’s song goes right?! Ha! (Okay.. if you need to get your fix.. this link will take you there Physical)
Today on my blog, I want to drive into some of my own personal goals that I have for my classroom. You should be able to approach any teacher and ask, “What are your goals for your classroom?” or “What is your personal mission statement as a teacher?” This simply means, what is important to you and what are you promising your students during the school year? I feel like this is a perfect opportunity to share with you some of mine. Let this be a post to inspire, motivate, or spark a little bit of interest!
“Every child has a different learning style and pace. Each child is unique, not only capable of learning but also capable of succeeding.” – Robert John Meehan.
My personal goal for my future classroom is to hold a positive learning environment that not only challenges my students to grow to their full potential, but yet enhances their engagement to further their learning experience. The way that I will create this space will be to address each and every one of my student’s different learning styles and paces to help them better succeed.
Having my student’s know that there is always someone there to hold their hand every step of the way through their educational journey no matter how fast or slow it takes them to reach their end goal. Each student’s end goal will look a little different, whether it is learning to write a sentence or a five paragraph essay, I will express the same amount of happiness and joy for the hard work that they have accomplished.
There is a never-ending list of all of the techniques and strategies that I would like to use in my future classroom. For my personal statement I will share about three techniques and strategies that I will use from my educational toolbox when working with students with disabilities.
Creating a positive, safe learning environment
This is my biggest goal for my classroom. Having a classroom with a positive outlook on learning will help all students understand precisely that everyone will be treated equally and be given what they need to best succeed. Whether that is done by providing fidgets or differentiated materials such as extra time, each student will know that their success is in my best interest. For those students who may not need these accommodations, they will be understanding of why others may need them and they always be willing to lend a helping hand to students that may need extra help when the time is appropriate.
Finding my student’s strengths
This is another technique that I will value very much when I am working with those who have disabilities. There are a handful of reasons as to why finding your student’s strengths as well as weaknesses is an important key to success. The sooner I know the strengths of my student the sooner that I will be able to best create a learning progression for him/her to best succeed. In able to gather this necessary information about my student’s strengths, I will need to spend quality one on one time with this student to really get to know them, as well as consult with other therapists whom he or she would be also working with during the school year.
Providing an effective education
Through my understanding of the autism spectrum disorders, as well as other disabilities. This means to me, having a concrete and updated knowledge about the autism spectrum disorder as well as other disabilities is something that I feel is mandatory for any educator who is actively working with students. With research that is always changing over the years I think that keeping oneself up to date with these changes is absolutely essential and tremendously important. If we aren’t up to date with the latest findings and best interventions and approaches how are we positively effecting our students? The answer is simple, we aren’t. By being educated on sensory processing, learning characteristics, as well as social development and peer interaction will make an overall positive learning environment for students who may be autistic or students who have other disabilities.
My hope for you is to take some time reflecting on the few techniques I highlighted. Do you agree with these? Are there other’s you think resonate better with you and your classroom? The wonderful thing about this, is that there is not a “right” or “wrong” mission statement, so long the best interest of the students are met.
Until next time, happy blogging!
~Abby
