Educational Goals and Philosophy

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Educational Goals and Philosophy

It was the last day of school. My daughter's 3rd grade class had just chosen to have me read to them instead of playing a game. As I explained that we wouldn't be able to finish the rest of the chapter book I had begun several weeks before, I suggested "You can check it out at the library and finish it over the summer". One little girl looked up at me in disappointment and said, "but it wouldn't be the same as hearing you read"! My heart melted and the final reason was added to my ongoing mental list of why I should begin to pursue a teaching degree at the age of 35.

Children are creative, enthusiastic, honest, inquisitive, loving, and full of energy! Yet at times they become easily bored, disappointed, frustrated, indignant, and stubborn. Even with all these seemingly contrasting characteristics in common, each child is a unique person with talent and potential for achievement, but also different learning styles. As a teacher, helping to develop each child's capacity for learning will be compounded by many factors. Such as, emotional or personal turmoil due to family issues at home, personality and temperament conflicts within the classroom, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and the simple fact that there are too many children to teach at the same time. With all these different needs in the classroom, good classroom management is a must in order to begin to determine what will work best for each child. Keeping disruption of time to a minimum will require consistency in discipline. Rules that are easy to understand and created with the students are my goal, with consequences followed through consistently in order to establish a sense of fairness and security to each s...

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...Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education here at Concord College. I would like to complete several years experience in the classroom, preferably the early grades, and at that time I hope to begin the requirements for my Master's Degree, if available, here at Concord also. I plan to stay in the Southern West Virginia area, as I have strong family ties here, having been raised in Raleigh County. Teaching is a dream I have had for several years now, motivated by the challenges and rewards of parenting, and by volunteering in my own children's classrooms. Becoming a teacher is a natural extension of being a parent, where the roles of both are training and guiding young lives in order to prepare them for the adult world. Choosing the path of the teacher will allow me to continue to experience one of the greatest joys in life - making a difference in the life of a child.

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