I thoroughly enjoyed 'I'm seventeen' by Kate Simonds. Ms. Simonds shared how important students voice is. Students have a voice to share and as educators we need to be aware of this. I gained a level of respect and appreciation for students from this video. As an educator, I want to be willing to give my students an opportunity to be in charge of their learning and take ownership for their success. Students, though they are younger than teachers, have great ideas and thoughts that teachers should accommodate to the best of their ability. If we expect students to be successful, than I feel we should be held to the same expectation and create a collaboration of learning between teacher and student expectations for success. Together we will all make a difference!
Additionally, Angela Maier's video 'You Matter' really touched my heart. You, (the one reading this post), yes you, you matter!! You are important! You are valued!
Those two words, "You matter" are so important to me. Personally, I want to be someone who shows value and appreciation for others. I want to demonstrate my love and my acknowledgement to others in every way possible.
As an educator, I feel it is so critical that I demonstrate and show my appreciation and value for each one of my students that I am so blessed to teach each day. However, I feel this idea of 'you matter' goes far beyond the students that walk in and out of my classroom each day! This notion of importance should be felt by each and every soul in this world. We all matter. We all play a critical role in making this world go around!
In my profession, it is my job to educate my students. It is my job to lead them. It is my job to give them opportunities for success. It is my job to give them the knowledge and resources they need to be productive citizens in this world. However, I don't believe my job ends when I pass my student to the next grade level. I believe my job in education needs to reach beyond the classroom walls, beyond the bell schedule.
I believe my job in education, includes exemplifying student value. Each day I want my students, to walk into my classroom and know that they are so much more to me than "period 2 Animal Science class". They are each unique individuals, with different talents, gifts and goals. And it is my job as an educator, to allow each student to shine in their own beautiful light.
In my future classroom, I want to create a way to exemplify the idea of everyone matters. I want my students to learn how to show value and appreciation to others. I know this may not be meeting a content standard, but I feel it is meeting the standard of creating positive leaders of tomorrow.
I want to demonstrate to my students the power of value and appreciation. I will show significance to each one of my students each day. I will also show value to each professional I am able to encounter each day. As I continue to show this value and appreciation I feel my students will gain an appreciation for demonstrating value.
In my future classroom I will create an opportunity for my students to show value and appreciation for others. I want my future students to reach each others in our class, to acknowledge our administration and other faculty, to reach out into the community and showcase individuals who are making a difference. I want to teach my students how to show significance and value to others.
Some ideas of how I might implement this idea of showing value and appreciation for others, may include creating a bulletin board that spotlights a different individual each week. Additionally, when reaching out and showing value to our community, I would encourage my students to write a letter of appreciation or thanks to a member of our community whom we value greatly. We could also, reach our community and demonstrate value through conducting a food drive or benefit auction and providing all our proceeds to a local organization.
Moreover, my goal in education is to create future positive impact leaders. I will complete this by encouraging and molding my students to show value and appreciation to others and exemplifying this idea of everyone matters through impact events and projects in our school and community.
~Ms. Timmons
"Promise me you will always remember: you are braver than you believe, you are stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think" -Christopher Robin
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, but lets dig deeper. What specific thing could you do to lend student voice and ownership in the learning?
The bulletin board would be nice, but potentially very teacher dependent for energy and limited to those who are physically near your classroom.
Keep digging :)