A little bit about me and why I want to teach and what I want to teach

I am a Junior at the University of South Alabama, and I plan to graduate in the Spring semester of 2011, if all goes according to plan. I'm working on a dual certification bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and Special Education. I hope in my teaching career I will get the chance to teach all K-6 grades at some point. I do not ever want to teach one grade level for too long. I like change and variety. I know sometimes as a teacher one does not always get a choice in that matter, but I can hope. I want to be a teacher because I love children, and the idea of working with them all day as a job choice brings so much joy to me. I also love learning, and I hope I can bring that happiness to children one day. After changing my major multiple times, teaching is the perfect fit for me, and I am so excited and can not wait to get started.

Some Approaches to Teaching

As a teacher I want my student's to always have their brains turned on, ready to be creative and challenged. When I'm a teacher, I'm going to try to bring this out of my student's to the best of my ability. I want to bring out excitement about learning in my students, and my goal is for my student's to be enthusiastic and wanting to come to my classroom everyday. I believe that communication with parents is extremely important. I think that if parent's are aware of what is going on in their child's classroom and trust the teacher it leaves for more opportunities for student learning. A parent is a child's first teacher, and they know their child better than anyone. It's good to have a trusting and open communication relationship with a parent, it benefits the student greatly. One approach to teaching I would like to take, as a teacher this idea might change but, I would rather have students do creative projects like build a map of the United States with all states and state capitals labeled instead of just busy work. I know busy work can sometimes be necessary for student's to practice a certain skill but, I would like to try and stray away from it. I also want to forever grow as a teacher so I can always meet the needs of my students. Basically in a nut shell my approach is, to be creative, fun, always meet my student's needs all the time making sure they're learning what they need to know not only to get the grade, but learning skills they will need to know the rest of their lives.