User:Bwood028

About the Author:

My name is Katlyn Wood. I was born and raised in Newport News, Virginia, but all of my family is from Louisiana. My education career consists of five schools; Gloria Dei Lutheran School, Trinity Lutheran School, Gildersleeve Middle School, Menchville High School, and currently I am a junior at Old Dominion University, majoring in PK-3.

I have worked with children since I started babysitting at the age of 13. My jobs have varied around teaching swim lessons to vacation bible school. Currently I am an Avid Tutor for the Virginia Beach City Public School System, working with kids ages 12 to 18. Even though my job focuses on a different age group than what I want to teach, I have realized that teaching any age of students is almost the same. Just the benefit of a child learning from your own internal knowledge is amazing. When I see a senior in high school, benefit from my experiences and perception of the subject they are trying to learn, it makes me feel important, and I think that is a feeling all teachers need to have.

No matter the age of the student, all teachers are important and impact many if not all of their students' lives.

Motivation

The only reason why I have decided to become a teacher was because of just one teacher's impact on my life. When I was in second grade, three quarters through the year, my teacher passed away from cancer. All of her students that year were shocked and heartbroken. I believe she was the best teacher I have ever had, and her inspiration for teaching was so strong, it made me realize that teaching has so many benefits and satisfactions to living a complete and happy life.

Educational Philosophy

—Diversity—

The main concern I would have in my classroom would be the differences in race. Young children especially in Pre-Kindergarten might be sheltered by their parents, and ask why they are different from the other children. There might even be teasing or bullying if another students features or skin color was different than that student. In the first week of school I would make a video or slideshow to demonstrate the different children around the whole world, and let them realize that being different is special.

—Instructional Strategies—

In my classroom all students will be required to fulfill the same requirements, unless they have special needs. It is important to not let one student have an exception while the rest of the class does not.

Lecture techniques will not be used in my classroom. The attention span of young children is under five minutes. I doubt they would be intrigued by a long boring lecture. Hands on activities, group work, and interacting lesson plans will be used in my class. It is important for the students to have fun while they are learning, and I plan on doing that.

—Technology—

Technology is one part of education that should be increasing, but that is not always the case. Teachers who have been teaching for 20 years are too lazy or scared to use the updated technology that is provided, so the students could be learning new things with the digital age, but the teachers are holding them back.

Technology is not always available for all of the schools. Some school districts have lack of funding so they lack the technology. In this situation, it is not the teachers fault for the lack of technology, but when they do get any new technology they should strive to teach and inform their students.

In my classroom, I would immediately want to use; digital movies I create, self useable power points, demonstrations, computers, and smart boards. These would help boost the children's knowledge dramatically. The younger the children are introduced to technology the easier they will adapt to it in the future.

—Curriculum—

The purpose of schools is to improve the knowledge of children as well as passing on values and cultures from all over the world. I think it is important for every student across the United States to learn the same things and have the same opportunities.

Not everyone that attends high school will follow their education with college. Students should be able to make their decision whether they want college prep or vocational schools. I feel that Vocational schools are not open and available enough for students in the first place. The education world needs to realize this and help students while they can.

Even if the student chooses the vocational school to participate in art, music, or mechanical work; they can still attend college if they want to, but will just have extra experience going into college.