Teaching Beyond the Classroom Setting

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. 

 ~Stacia Tauscher

Teaching can become a difficult job because there is more to teaching than just the standards. Teachers have to teach beyond the normal classroom setting. Children not only develop cognitively, but socially, physically, and emotionally. In school, children receive an education from books, but the life lessons continue to grow with them throughout their years of development, therefore as a teacher I will teach each child as a whole; not just their mind.

Social development can sometimes be a hard task to overcome when growing up. Children have to learn how to interact with classmates and faculty in school as well as others outside of the school environment. The different friends and social groups children experience, help shape each of their personalities and futures. Children that have good peer relationships commonly develop good self-esteem. In contrast, children with poor peer relationships generally develop doubts about themselves, which leads to low self-esteem. To encourage positive social development I will help my students create a community among themselves. By working together and learning about one another in groups, they will promote unity, bonding, and acceptance. Within this community, my students will be taught to develop socially positive attitudes by the strong friendships they form. The community will help students become more confident in their ways of growing and learning. My role in the community as their teacher will be to promote positive learning and encourage confidence through awards and praising.

Health is an essential part of each child’s life. Physical development plays a large role in healthy living. As a teacher, I will plan lessons that meet the standards and involve my students in physical activities. To begin a lesson or to reinforce a topic, I will play songs or games that involve the students’ whole body movement. Children need to develop hand-eye coordination in their early childhood and they can do so through songs and games in the classroom. Recess is a very important time of the day. It provides the teacher insight of each student in an unstructured environment as well as showing the teacher the different personalities of each student. As a teacher, I will watch for the five different types of play: solitary, onlooker, parallel, associative, and cooperative. This information will help me teach my students to the best of my ability because I will be able to group the students equally by their ways of physical play.

How each student feels about their lives affects the way they walk, talk, and learn. Emotional development is another essential element in a classroom environment. As a teacher, I will create comfortable, safe surroundings in my classroom by making myself approachable and letting my students know I care about each one of them. I am prepared to meet the needs of each of my students in every situation. I will promote respect, caring, responsibility, and trust in my classroom and I will be sure to demonstrate what I teach. I believe respect cannot be learned, purchased or acquired - it can only be earned (Bits & Pieces), therefore, I will teach and demonstrate respect to my students so they may learn by example and earn my respect. In teaching respect, my students will say please, thank you, and you are welcome, to me and their fellow classmates when asking for items they want. If they do not there will be varying levels of consequences that will happen. I will have basic rules and boundaries so the students have structure but do not become overwhelmed.

Teaching my students to be well rounded as well as teaching cognitively is very important to me. I believe a teacher's purpose is not to create students in her own image, but to develop students who can create their own image (Author Unknown); therefore, I will help my students grow socially, physically, and emotionally.

All pictures are from Microsoft Clipart Online