Teaching Philosophy

Why do I want to be a teacher?

That is a very good question. I first realized I wanted to be a teacher in High School because of the difference my teachers have made in my life. I want the chance to do this for other people. I want to make a difference in the world. I want my class room to be a safe place for students who feel like they don't fit in, or don't have a good home life. I also want my classroom to be a hub of discover, a place where learning is fun. I want to help create good citizens and prepare students that can think critically. I also love seeing the excitement in students eyes when they worked really hard and finally figured out the answer to a problem.

This poem by Taylor Mali sums up me feelings about teaching.



What is my teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is that a teacher needs to be passionate about learning and teaching. If teachers lose the love of learning and stop being a life-long learning they also lose the ability to successfully teach students. I feel like if I am passionate my students will see that and feel the same way.

What are my plans for teaching?

My major is elementary education with a endorsement in mid-level math and a minor in school library. My plans were to be a school librarian but I also love being in a classroom. I am keeping my options open and trying to learn as much as I can to help me in these three areas.

Three Teaching Blogs

The first blog that I would recommend is http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/. This blog has a bunch of teaching ideas, rants, and technology hints.

The second is, http://www.sciencefix.com/. Science is not my best subject and this blog offers so many hands on activities for teaching science.

The last is, http://fifthgradeteacher-ld.blogspot.com/. This blog is tips, and ideas from a 5th grade teacher who has been in the business awhile.

In Conclusion

Since I started this blog I have explored many web technologies. It is important, both as a teacher and a librarian, for me to stay up to date on these technologies. I want to be one of those teachers that can utilize internet tools instead of one of those teachers that can't even turn on a computer.  I have really learned a lot from the tools that I have used. I also have come up with some good ideas about how to integrate these technologies. For example, I want have my students make tag clouds (you can make these at wordle) for their favorite books and hang them In my library. I also want to use skype to have my class talk to authors that are in other states. There are so many resources on the internet and it doesn't take that much time to become familiar enough with them to use them in a class room. I highly recommend that you too take the time to experiment with some of the resources that I have listed in this blog so you can too become Web 2.0 literate.

Podcast

I listened to a podcast by The Nerdy Librarians. The Nerdy Librarians is a husband and wife team that have created this series. I was listening to episode 5 and it was about social media. Despite being recorded in August 2012 the episode had a lot of good ideas on implementing social media in the library. They especially condoned the use of twitter. Despite my earlier ranting on my dislike of twitter I recently discovered a new use for it. One of my coworkers follows news agencies like New York Times and Salt Lake Tribune on twitter. When she wakes up in the morning the first thing she does is flip through twitter and she becomes informed on the currents events. I think that this is a pretty good idea.

Here is a word cloud for Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I love these books!

Online Digital Library

Brewster Kahle believes that, "We really need to put the best we have to offer within reach of our children.if we don't do that, we're going to get the generation we deserve." He believes that this can be achieved through the, "Universal access of all knowledge." To achieve this he is leading the movement to put all published works into on online library that is available to everybody. According to him putting all the works in the library of congress online would only cost about as much as a house. He also had this amazing idea of book mobiles where you can go choose one of the online books and print it. This cost about $3 per book or 1 cent a page. The main problem with this is copyright. This is where amazon comes in. If the library has all the out of print and out of copy right books then amazon has the books still in copyright at least all the books are still online.

Twitter

As many of you know twitter is a social networking site where you can instantly update your family and friends on your life in 140 characters or less. Personally despite the fact that I do have a twitter I have never been able to jump on the bandwagon for my twitter. I dont understand why you would want to be constantly updating the world on your every movement. Those who agree with me might find this comic funny.

However I can appreciate the potential twitter has for getting information to a lot of people instantly. For example If you are having an activity at your library and want to get the word out to your students a simple tweet in the twittersphere could have more of an impact then having signs in your library for a month. 

Library Blogs

Personal development is essential to becoming a successful librarian or teacher. There are many blogs and sources online to aid in the search for knowledge. A blog that I find very useful for school librarians is http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/. This blog is dedicated to book reviews. What I find very helpful is that they specify what level (ie. Pre-K, K-3,...) the book is for. Then they rate if the book as essential, advisable, optional, not recommended, or public only for the level. Another blog I find helpful is http://futura.edublogs.org/. It contains web 2.0 teaching strategies and lists of helpful technology for the library. These are just a few examples of the breadth of information out there for personal development.