Involvement, Motivation, & Dedication

I believe that the most important principles essential to influential teaching are involvement, dedication, and motivation. So many students slip through teachers’ hands because there is a lack of concern, a lack of involvement, dedication. We are here to make a difference in our students’ lives-teach them relative and useful information and do everything in our power, everything within our means not to let them slip through our hands. As an educator, my main concerns will be to motivate my students, stay dedicated to each of them, and give them knowledge that they will retain and implement into their everyday and/or future lives-not merely teaching them facts to remember while they are in my class then forget it (no “burpback” education).

Making the Classroom Interesting & Relatable

Many students, like myself, are more of a visual learner and can learn much easier when the material is and interesting and easy to relate to. When I think of my most influential teacher or class, I always think back to my high school Biology teacher, Dr. Merida. Dr. Merida understood that everyone might not love Biology like he did, and he understood that it may not come as easy to us as it was to him to understand and retain the material. So he always implemented interesting interactive activities and PowerPoint lectures that were specific to the subject matter. He was so good at making the class exciting and pleasurable. No one student came out of the class with less than a “B” average, and I literally, to this very day, remember most of the information I learned in his class. It even helped me as I took Biology 101 with Professor Delany.

Dr. Merida is the perfect example of how a teacher can make material exciting, relatable, and interactive for the students-learning while having fun. As an educator, I will do my best to make my class interesting, as Dr. Merida did for me and many others, and apply useful and supplemental classroom activities and materials crucial to my students’ education.

Blogs

As a future teacher, I will implement blogs into my classroom as a teaching tool. Blogging in the classroom can have various benefits. They help us, as teachers, to understand our students a little better through their writing-when they’re at home in a more comfortable setting familiar to them, their personality will just shine through their writing; They allow the students to engage with one another; They help the student to enjoy writing as a conversation and arouse their interest in learning; They allow the student to become a better writer through student and teacher critiques or comments; They help to encourage computer literacy.

Blogs also help to keep the parents involved. Blogs can give them easy access to view their child’s workload and their work progress, as well as what the teacher is doing, what the teacher is teaching their child, and what the teacher expects of his/her students. Blogs also give the parent(s) an easy means to contact their child’s teacher and they can interact with other parents as well.

Blogs give teachers extra room to customize material needed to be learned in the classroom. There are many different ways that I, as a future educator, and other educators can beneficially use blogs and implement them in our classrooms. I will post notices and announcements for other faculty members, parents, and students-this is a good way to keep everyone updated on upcoming events and important dates. I will also post classroom topics, discussions, and assignments to my blog that supplement our in-class lecture and have the students respond according to my standards and/or requirements. Also included will be an area dedicated to student questions that both I and the students can respond to and an area for parents’ statements and questions that I can answer, as well as things the parents may need to know about student expectations and ways that they can help.

Podcasts

Before taking this class, I had no earthly idea what a podcast was. I am so thankful for this class and the many things it, and Ms. Averitt, has taught me. Ms. Averitt required us to listen to some podcasts, and the one thing that I noticed a lot while listening to the various podcasts is how conversational the tone was. Podcasts are not so much as a stern, "Hey you! Listen to me teach or lecture!" It was a very calm and normal tone as they gave their insights and useful information. There were funny points that made you laugh, as well as points when you pull your paper and pen out and write down the information being dished out. The host(s) spoke clearly and intelligently and the information was ready and accurate.

Many students, especially during the middle and high school years, listen to iPods, Mp3 players, or some form of a music player with headphones. We, as educators and/or parents, can support the use of these digital music players by giving the students something educational to listen to-podcasts. As a future English and Grammar teacher, I found the podcasts Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing and Get-It-Done Guy very informative, and equally interesting, podcasts. I will require my students to subscribe to the podcasts in the iTunes store, since it’s free, and have them post daily responses or I may just simply add the link to my blog and my students can listen to the podcast from there.

ACCESS

ACCESS, the acronym for Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide, is yet another wonderful program offered to Alabama teachers, faculty, students, and their parents. ACCESS reaches out to students by offering them the opportunity to take elective, Advanced Placement, and other on-line courses that may not be offered in their schools. Students may take a wide variety of classes ranging from chemistry to foreign languages. They are even offered supportive resources, such as an interactive on-line chemistry lab. Through ACCES, teachers and faculty are given the opportunity to infiltrate the use of technology and help many students across the state of Alabama by inviting their knowledge, expertise, and desire to help. Again, parents are not left out of the equation. They, too, have the ability to view the courses and course descriptions offered to their child/children, along with a helpful guide.

I was, once again, impressed with the websites and tools Alabama has to offer its students, faculty, and parents. ACCESS is great for students, and parents, that want to take their education a step farther, and I definitely plan to incorporate this website into my classroom in the future and into my home as a parent.