RUNNING HEAD: I AM A TEACHER

I Am a Teacher
Senior Seminar
Denise Camacho
University of La Verne

RUNNING HEAD: I AM A TEACHER

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I Am a Teacher

I am a teacher that tries my best. I try to apply my knowledge to create

meaningful and engaging lessons for my all students. With my training with the Common Core
standards in mind, I have adapted my lessons to focus on my students conceptual understanding
and facilitating engaging lessons. I strive to be the teacher that accommodates all students. I use
a variety of teaching styles to meet my students needs.
I feel that its a teachers job to manage the classroom and accommodate and assimilate
their teaching style to their students rather than trying to assimilate the students. For example, I
am artistic and creative and I try to use my skills to create visuals representations of concepts to
appeal to my visual learners. The musical intelligence and bodily kinesthetic intelligence pair
nicely and can, together, be integrated into a variety of disciplines. Sometimes its just as simple
are getting up and rhythmically reciting and clapping a rule or definition together. Speaking of
bodily kinesthetic, in regards to P.E., I try to create multiple opportunities for students to get up,
exercise, and let their jitters out. I find that, in doing so, hyper active students are less likely to
disrupt the class.
I provide my students with multiple public speaking exercises, in doing so I appeal to
verbal, interpersonal, and intrapersonal learners. These public speaking exercises usually involve
students sharing their ideas about their work or analyzing a concept in depth. Sometimes these
presentations are done in a group. I keep it simple, in hopes that by sharing their ideas with the
class they may feel more connected to my peers and learn to effectively express themselves. I
want my students to feel comfortable with themselves and their peers as well as with me as their
teacher. I plan to influence them positively and instill in their minds that their opinions matter.

RUNNING HEAD: I AM A TEACHER

Integrating a multiple of disciplines within a lesson is also a strategy that I use to help my
students make meaningful connections to the material. In the real world we have to integrate
concepts and skills to accomplish simple everyday tasks. Therefore, it makes sense to be to teach
this way so that students have the practice and experience in the classroom before being assessed
to do so in the real world.
I do believe in making accommodations and adjustments for a variety of student needs.
Students who struggle with their speech or are too shy to verbally express themselves, have the
option to give a minimal presentation and express themselves thoroughly through writing.
Knowing that only the teacher will read it, can help them feel more comfortable in expressing
their inner thoughts and opinions. Below average reading issues correlate with below average
writing skills. Students that struggle with these types of issues are welcome ask for clarification
during formal assessments such as free-response quizzes. During class discussion I often check
for an understanding of the material through verbal responses for these students because chances
are they wont be able to express themselves thoroughly through written work.
English language learners are sometimes paired up with buddies. Often times we
collaborate during activities and lessons anyway. When we do group group work, groups are
scaffolded in reference to their skills, needs, and comprehension. During formal assessments
such as quizzes, these students will have the opportunity to raise their hand and ask for
clarification and further explanations if they get stuck on a problem due to a language barrier.
Also, if the student cannot express their words through writing, Id ask that they try their best,
but the student can respond to the questions verbally. I would just ask that the student write on
their paper, I can explain better by telling you, or something or that nature to indicate to me
whether or not I need to pull them aside later to finish the quiz verbally.

RUNNING HEAD: I AM A TEACHER

I strive to make my classroom feel like a fun, encouraging, and safe environment. My
classroom management style does not exclude misbehaving students. I do not isolate or ignore
misbehaving students. Rather, I try to assess their inner issues to help them better focus and
adopt effective study habits. I feel that I am a role model for my students, and therefore I try to
teach and encourage good character traits.
I try my best to be proactive and facilitate well planned out lessons. I feel it is my job to
prepare these students to be successful in the real world. I try to introduce and assess necessary
skills that students are initially unfamiliar with, so that they may become familiar and
comfortable with performing them when the real world requires them to. For example, my idea
of incorporating pubic speaking exercises will definitely help students become more familiar
with expressing their thoughts. These exercises also help students become familiar with hearing
and respecting the opinions of others.
I try to encourage them to adopt habits to become effective life-long learners. I myself,
am a life -long learner. I learn from my mistakes and always try to improve my lessons. Each
year I have to learn about my new students, assess their abilities and think of innovative ways to
encourage and facilitate their progression. As technology increases, I have to learn and adapt to
the changing environment. Its my responsibility to be prepared to teach students to become
active participants in their learning process and, later in their everyday lives.