User:Delsorbo11

ABOUT ME:
My name is Kelli Byrd DelSorbo. I am from Southwest Virginia and that is where I am taking this course, at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center. I am a graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in Communications. I discovered out of college that I really had a passion for children and teaching. My mother, grandmother and aunt are all teachers so maybe it runs in our blood. So now I am going back to get my certificate to teach Pre K-6. As I said I live in Southwest Virginia and would like to teach in the town of Abingdon, where I grew up or any town nearby. I am really looking forward to teaching and having my own classroom. I know it will be a challenge everyday but I believe it will be rewarding and worth any stress or headaches a long the way. I have always loved working with children and am fascinated by them. I think it will be amazing to watch young children grown and learn everyday.

FAVORITES:
SPORT-Football

TEAMS-Virginia Tech Hokies and the New York Giants

FOOD-Mexican

SUBJECT IN SCHOOL-English

SEASON-Fall

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I believe that teaching should not only be a job but a lifelong goal. Teachers should not settle for getting their students to the next grade but should strive to help mold them into good citizens while teaching them about content and life. A great teacher has a lifelong impact on a student and contributes to that students well being and its growing up process.

There are many factors that go into teaching and being successful at it. I believe that you must deal with diversity and turn it into a positive. Not all students have equal resources at home and many have different cultural and social backgrounds. This does not have to be a bad thing though. Teachers must recognize which students have which skills and which students need extra help. A teacher must not assume that all students are equal in abilities and backgrounds and that there must be different strategies of teaching for different students.

Another factor that goes into teaching is the curriculum that teachers use. A curriculum cannot be something that stays the exact same over the years. With each year comes new challenges, knowledge and resources in the school system. Each class is different from the class the previous year. The schools are constantly getting new resources. Technology is constantly changing and providing more and different tools for teachers everyday. Therefore, curriculum will not be effective in this ever changing world if it has not changed in five or even two years. The world and education changes constantly and teachers have the responsibility to keep up with those changes and keep their students ahead of the pack and always involved in their learning.

Strategies of teaching are very important. A teacher must have a clear cut lesson plan and a reason for that lesson plan. I believe that the more you get your students actively involved in the lessons, the more likely they are going to want to learn and get something out of that lesson. As far as I have read on education, it seems that group learning and project based learning are the best methods. Projects are not just a reading and answering of questions. They make students think about what they are doing. Projects stimulate their minds and help them to understand the what, when, where, why and how of a subject.

A classroom and its environment is a very important factor. The way students learn has a lot to do with the type of environment they learn in. They must be stimulated in every way possible. Put different facts up on the board or on the walls and change them constantly. This causes students to think and ask questions which is always a good thing. Put questions up on the bulletin board and give students extra incentive to answer those questions correctly. If a student has a stimulating and exciting environment, they will only be more in tuned with their school work.

Technology is an issue that every teacher today faces. There are two sides of the technology conversation, some good and some bad. However, it seems that the general consensus is that technology, when used right, is a good thing. Teachers have the responsibility to use technology in the right way and cannot just let the students use it freely with no purpose. Teachers must keep up to date on all the new technology in order to make it useful in their classrooms. Students like to know why they are learning what they are learning. Technology and using computers can give them a clear cut reason of why they are learning certain subjects while getting them actively involved in their work. Computer systems require students to pay attention and participate constantly. It also keeps students attention because most of these programs and softwares have graphics and use fun methods of learning.

 I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." ~Edith Ann 

"A teacher affects eternity he can never tell, where his influence stops ~Henry Brooks Adams