User:Jcole045

ALL ABOUT ME
Hello to everyone, my name is Jessica Coleman and I am currently enrolled in ECI 301. I am 21 years old and this is my second semester at Old Dominion University. I live in Carroll County, Virginia and I have lived there basically all of my life. I am currently enrolled in the Elementary Education program through ODU and I plan to teach preK-6 when I recieve my B.A. Degree. I plan to go on and recieve my Masters before I began to teach though. I love children in every way. I am due pretty soon and I have a little boy on the way. I enjoy being with my family, shopping, and scrapbooking. I have many different hobbies and interest. I love Virginia Tech football. I am looking forward to becoming a teacher. I also can not wait to take this class and learn more about Wikibooks. This is just a little bit about me, if you would like to know more feel free to talk to me.

MY EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
It is very early in my education academic career and I beleive my educational philosophy will change as the years go by. Starting now with what I know I will explain my educational philosophy and why I believe the way I do. I believe that in order for me to be a well-rounded teacher I have to think about each individual students needs. I need to have different strategies to bring out the best in each individual. I know that every teacher has a large impact on a students life, but I beleive you can touch many lives teaching elementary students. You are given the chance to start them off on the right path to success. I believe that being an elementary teacher is a very important job.

There are many things that make a teacher an excellent teacher. I plan to be an educator that students remeber all of their life. I want to make a large impact in their lives and help them reach their goals. I plan to give each individual an equal opportunity. When it comes to diversity, I believe that students with special needs should be given a little bit more attention and they should feel like they are a part of the class, never an outcast. I have taken a Special Education class and I feel that it is very important to include children with special needs and help them reach their full potential just like everyone else. I believe that students should not be grouped by ability, I understand that some children will be better at things that other children are not. I believe that you should group children together to help bring out the best in them, and to help them interact in a way to help them where they might be struggling. I plan to use lecture and group assignments, I do like a little variety. I believe that if you use both instuctional strategies the students feel more involved and alert, instead of listening or doing the same thing over and over every day. I believe this will help the children pay attention and recieve a better understanding of what is being taught.

I am not sure how I picture my classroom environment right now, it is a little early. I think that I would have a lot of student interaction as well as student-teacher interaction. I want the children to enjoy school and feel free to interact with others as well as learn. I hope that I will be able to collaborate with other teachers, two heads is always better than one. I believe when you interact with others there is always new ideas brought up. I believe that in my classroom setting motivation will be the key to success. I am a really motivating person. I believe that you can do anything you set your mind too. I believe that children need to be more motivated these days and I would love to be a great motivation to the children in my class and all through the school. I also would like to use a little bit of the latest technology. There are so many excellent ways to enhance your learning these days, and I believe that technology is a great way to do that. I also believe that assessment is very important, I plan to make my students do peer-reviews. Peer-reviews not only help you yourself but they help others enhance their knowledge. I have done peer-reveiws in many of my classes and I find it very helpful. I believe there are many other important aspects to teaching and I will probably learn more and more as I recieve a higher education, but these are some of my beliefs and thoughts on education. I can not wait to read others and share mine as well.

Jcole045 (talk) 19:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)