Personal Philosophy Reflection

Classroom Organization
I'm not sure how much say I will have in the physical placement of things in my class, but I really don't think it matters much beyond moving the desks into either groups or a circle, depending on the activity. I find rows of seats to be intimidating, and I have a gut feeling that, while it might help keep students from peering over at their friends' work without being seen, it doesn't keep them any more motivated or engaged. Other than that, I think I will position my personal work space somewhere in one of the corners of the classroom so that I can counsel students during class time without making them sit or stand up in everyone's plain view.

Motivation
This is a tough area for every teacher. For the most part, I feel as though every rationale I've made up on all of my lesson plans just isn't good enough. I feel as though I'm trying to arrive at an elusive "right" answer that I can use as a retort to every rationale prompt, but it is the same "right" answer that has plagued the pedagogies of countless teachers and educational philosophers throughout history. What keeps a student motivated? Personally, I think that all examples depend on the student's interest in the subject. This is not always easy to achieve, but if you can help a student not just relate to the subject, but to gain an active personal interest in it, you will hold their attention for as long as you can keep feeding them more information about it.

Discipline
The punishment should fit the crime, and there are always exceptions to rules. A teacher's judgment can be the most prominent thing that a student experiences, and if it is handled the wrong way, the teacher will be made an immediate enemy of that student, undoing however many weeks or months of respect has been gained. I think that the administration's disciplinary actions should be utilized as a last resort, when something that can't be resolved at the moment or in class needs further attention. Then again, what do I know? My ideas on this are guaranteed to change after I student teach with my at-risk students.

Assessment
Formative and Summative assessment are great tools in theory, but I have a feeling that they don't gauge the learning of the class all that well. Maybe with an 80% success rate, 90% if your assessment is good. By good, I don't necessarily mean thorough, but intuitive. How can you tell that your students have been absorbing all of that stuff you made up for the last four weeks? Will a multiple choice test tell you, or just make it so that you can keep some numbers in a book of your students' names? I think that any assessment that gauges your students on both how many skills they have retained and to what extent they can apply those skills is good assessment. It's not so easy to create assessment that does all of that, though.

Classroom Climate
I need my students to respect me, but it should be a mutual respect. I want to have a class where discussions are encouraged and frequent, where no student feels as though they will be corrected in a way that insults their ideas or their intelligence. No one should feel outcast or on a different level of ability, and I have to make sure that my demeanor and action plans reflect the kind of atmosphere where a classroom like that can flourish.

Learning Focus
Since I think that knowledge is the most important thing you can gain to enrich your life, I am going to try and make the goal of learning in my classes about practical application. I will have my work cut out for me making rationale statements, but I think that thing is useless which isn't going to enhance my students' understanding of the world that they are going to be thrust into.

Technology Integration
There should be a healthy balance of technology integration in the classroom. If it can't be easily done with typical methods of student creation and planning, then I am all for it. I am not on board with substituting every class activity with a technological equivalent, particularly if the technological avenue requires more work or setup and nets little payoff to the students' learning. For creative projects and blog participation, however, I will be relying heavily on technology.

Teacher and Leadership Style.
As I have said in my Classroom Climate section, I want my class to be a comfortable place for anyone to ask questions without feeling like they are going to be judged or ridiculed for their input. In order to get to this level of trust and respect in my class, I am going to have to work hard to model this attitude. In this case, "work hard" means "pay attention to what I'm doing and saying" since one bad classroom experience or decisive action can outweigh the benefits of five good experiences or actions. In order to best prepare for the mindset I'll have to be in, I will make the professional distance from my students apparent, while still being someone they can feel comfortable coming to for help, academically or otherwise. I want my students to feel valued as people first, then as students.