Knowledge Base

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a teacher. Growing up, my sisters and
I would play school and I would dream of someday having my own classroom. As the years went
by and I progressed through school, I learned a lot that shaped my perspective on school and how
a classroom should be organized and managed. Several of my elementary teachers, my high
school math teacher, and my experience in a careers in education course I took during high
school helped me to develop the foundation of how I think about teaching and classroom
management.
The energy and excitement that my third-grade teacher displayed for teaching has stuck
with me for all these years. Her attitude in the classroom made me view teaching as a fun career.
Even though she was close to retirement when I had her, she had not lost the love for teaching or
the students like some teachers I have known. Through my experience with this teacher I learned
that learning needs to be fun for the students. When I have my own classroom, I hope to be as
passionate as she was and that that passion shines through to my students.
During my last two years of high school I was in an education program at the education
technology center for my county. Through this experience, I learned a great deal about child
development, lesson planning, classroom structure, and even had hands on experience in a
preschool setting. Being able to work with young kids taught me a lot about child development,
behavior management, and learning in general. I believe the experience I had in high school
plays a key role in how I view learning and differentiating.
Overall, my teacher assisting placement has influenced me the most on how I view
classroom management and student behavior. The many education and psychology classes I have
taken up to this point cannot compare to being in a classroom and having the hands-on

experience. My cooperating teacher uses the Love and Logic method when it comes to
discipline. While I still question some of the components to Love and Logic, there are a lot of
aspects that I can see myself using in the future.
My knowledge base for teaching started at a young age with my elementary school
teachers and has continue to develop throughout my college experience. I have taken bits and
pieces along the way and have developed my own unique perspective on education and how I
will run my own classroom. Even though I know it will be completely different when I have my
own classroom, I will have my past experiences and knowledge to fall back on.