Children and adolescents perform to their full potential when they develop a strong positive sense-of-self. Research provides several ways that teachers that enhance a child's sense of self.
Research tells us that children choose activities they perceive to be valuable for themselves. They make decisions early about what they believe their talents are. In elementary grade levels children are more engaged in things they find enjoyable. Young children are often eager and excited to learn new things at school, but somewhere between third and ninth grade they become less intrinsically motivated to learn. This is believed to happen because children may feel less competent and shy away from activities when they begin comparing themselves to their peers.
Motivating students is crucial to keeping them engaged and learning. It is good to have extrinsic motivations in the classroom, such as praise and good grades. However, I want to also focus on intrinsic motivation by teaching children how to feel good about reaching their goals. Children typically have a wide variety of goals. Being happy and healthy, doing well in school, gaining popularity with peers, and many other possibilities. They are all important in developing their sense of self. I can help student's identify the goals they want to set for themselves, and teach thinking skills that will help them determine action steps in reaching their goals. I will teach students how to think about how to set and reach goals through various activities that can be done in their workbook and by examples. These techniques will be used when completing all class assignments and projects. They can evaluate their efforts and decide on what they could have done to do better. I will focus their attention on their feelings of enjoyment, satisfaction, and pride that their accomplishments bring.
Other ways I can encourage a positive sense of self in my teaching methods are by:
-Appealing to children's curiosity with new objects
-Incorporating adventure or fantasy
-Presenting puzzling phenomena
-Getting children physically involved in a topic
-Relating important skills and subject matter to their interests and goals
-Offering choices when several alternatives will be equally effective in acquiring skills
-And Identifying areas in which each child can be especially successful.
My name is Michelle Ward, I am Junior at the University of South Alabama. I am working on my Bachelors degree in Elementary Education. I love learning and I think that you should learn something new everyday. As much as I love being a student, I love being a teacher even more. Teaching gives me a daily opportunity to learn and laugh with children. I believe that the aim of education is to enable a continued capacity for growth. By awakening a natural curiosity found in young minds to help them discover new things, including finding out that learning is fun.
My Teaching Philosophy
