STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS 1

Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay

Jesee Thompson

Professor Carol Billing

EDUC 204 Families, Communities, and Culture

Fall 2016
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Teachers play a very important role in their students lives. They are often times

more than just the person standing at the front of the room providing new information.

They can be a role model, a safe place, and/or a motivator. Teachers make a difference

in the lives of students every day, which is why I want to be a teacher. Being a

difference maker in the lives of students comes with many challenges. Below I will

discuss my beliefs on the ability for all children to learn, teachers expectations, social

aspects, cultural diversity, and curriculum.

All Children Can Learn

It is my belief that all children/students have the ability to learn, and it is the

teachers responsibility to create developmentally appropriate lesson plans to foster

their ability. As a teacher, you must be able to recognize physical, mental, emotional

and cultural differences between your students in order to help each of them

individually in the educational process. I am eager to build a classroom where all

students are sensitive to each others differences. I firmly believe that by modeling a

behavior that shows love and acceptance of everyone, my students will demonstrate the

same behaviors towards each other.

Ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to learn can be one of the

most difficult, but important, challenges a teacher faces. Todays classrooms are filled

with students who present with a vast difference in intellectual and physical abilities. It

is extremely important to be able to incorporate all students into the material being

taught, at a level in which they can understand. An inclusive classroom provides a level

of knowledge and understanding that cannot be taught from a book.

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As a teacher, it will be important for me to have a deep understanding of the

demographics of the school in which I will be teaching. This is important because, if I

am unable to recognize and understand the differences (cultural, religious, ethnic,

mental/physical ability, etc.) in the children I teach, I will be unable to make adaptations

that are appropriate for their learning style. Every child will have outside factors that

must be considered in order to provide an equal learning opportunity, and as the

teacher it will be my responsibility to discover and evaluate those factors while

incorporating them into my teaching style/methods. I will need to know what resources

are available to me as a teacher as well as to the child to accommodate each childs

specific needs. Utilizing these resources becomes increasingly important the more

diversity in the classroom. It will be important to accommodate each students needs,

without taking away from the other students.

Teachers Expectations

The expectations that a teacher sets and portrays to the is a driving factor of how

the students will in the classroom. Teachers who set their expectations too high will

likely receive push back from the students, and teachers who set the expectations too

low, will likely not achieve the best from their students. It is up to the teacher to set the

mood for the expectations in a classroom.

As a teacher I want to be able to portray to my students that I expect them to try

their best and work hard while at school. I also want them to have fun and develop a

love for learning. While I anticipate having those broad expectations as the norms for

all of my students, I also feel it is important to develop individualized expectations of

every student.
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In order to promote individualized expectations, it is important to be able to set

educational goals for each student. By evaluating a students current knowledge base

and setting an appropriate goal for them, you begin to show them what level of

achievement you expect from them. This is where it becomes important as a teacher

not to set those goals to high or too low. For a lower performing student, setting a goal

too high, may cause them to shut down and feel as though they are not good enough.

However, you also do not want to set the goal too low, as this may cause them to not

push forward and work their hardest. This is really true of students at any level.

Students Social Ecology Theory

A students social environment has the potential to greatly impact their learning.

As a teacher it is critical to understand the social environment in which a student comes

from in order to reach them at their level. The school setting is often times as much

about social development as it is academic advancement. A teacher needs to be able

to recognize when the students social environment is impacting their learning ability.

Teachers are often times a role model that can help guide a student down the right

social path. Any opportunity a teacher has to direct a student down a positive path

should be taken regardless of if it is a social or academic situation.

Family is another area that teachers need to be able to recognize the impact

being made on the students ability to learn. A loving and supportive family has the

potential to boost a low performing student to a higher level. At the same time, a family

that is unsupportive, unstable, or abusive can take a high preforming student down. A

teacher who can recognize the impact the family is having on the student has the

potential to intervene and assist the student.

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Just as the students family and peers can impact their learning, so can the

culture and community. Students need a positive, supportive environment in order to be

successful. When one of these aspects of a students life is less positive, it is important

for the other aspects to step in and raise them up. In addition, the school system and

the teachers must also be able to step in and create the support the student needs and

deserves.

Cultural Diversity Instruction

As a teacher in the Treasure Valley, I will have the opportunity to incorporate

many different ethnic backgrounds and experiences into my classroom. Our community

has a very large and diverse group of immigrants and refugees. Many of the children in

our school systems have life experiences that most people can only read about or see

on television.

While teaching children of different cultures, religions, and backgrounds has

many challenges associated with it, there are also a large number of advantages and

opportunities. As a teacher I am excited for the opportunity to encourage cultural

pluralism. With the diversity in our schools we all have the opportunity to learn a great

deal of information about other cultures, languages and religions. Children who were

born in another country and speak another language or whose families identify with

another culture will obviously be able to learn the English language and American

culture from their peers. However, children who are fluent in English and have been

raised in the American culture, have a great deal of learning to do from their peers. My

role as a teacher is to encourage and foster relationships between all of the children in

my class room. Every child has something unique they can share with their classmates.
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I would like to be able to create lesson plans where I can include the experiences of

students and their families. Having an open environment where parents/families are

welcome in the classroom and are given the opportunity to share their culture is a goal

of mine.

While it is my role as a teacher to ensure my students can read, write, speak and

understand English and the American culture, I feel it is also my duty to support

students and their knowledge of their familys languages, cultures, and values. As

students in the public school system, cultural assimilation can often inhibit a students

ability to maintain their families culture.

Curriculum for all learners

Todays schools and classrooms are filled with a very diverse set of students.

Students with physical and/or intellectual disabilities are blended into classrooms with

typical learning students. Often times there are even students in the classrooms who do

not speak, read, or understand English. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to design

and implement lesson plans (or adapt them as needed) that have the potential to reach

every student. Inclusion is an educational philosophy that all students are entitled to

participate in a general education classroom despite their disability, impairment or

handicap.

One of the first and most critical components of being able to adapt the design

and implementation of lesson plans for all students is to be able to understand what

differences and similarities there are between students in my classroom. As a general

education teacher in an elementary school it will be important that I work closely with

the special education teachers, counselor, school psychologist and administration to

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determine what accommodations I can make to help my students the most.

Assessments are used in many different ways to help establish a baseline of

where a student is beginning and then to assess how they are progressing. While I can

see the importance of Standardized testing to help show how students compare to their

peers in the classroom, school, community and across the country, I also feel that

Authentic Assessments are very valuable.

As a teacher I would like to rely more on Authentic Assessments to determine

how my students are receiving and processing the information I am presenting to them.

The information assessed on Standardized tests can help drive the information that

needs to be taught to the students, but the actual use of the information will give a much

more realistic demonstration of the students knowledge.

Conclusion

Creating a classroom environment where all students have the opportunity and

are expectation to learn and grow is the primary responsibility of a teacher. This can be

done by developing an understanding of all of your students, their academic level and

outside factors in their life and then incorporating that into your planning. Standards will

be developed and set at the federal, state, and district level, but as a teacher it will be

my job to understand my students and reach them at their level.

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References

Berns, Roberta M. (2016). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and Support

(10th ed.).Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.