Assessment

I believe that assessment is extremely important and should happen all of the time. I am constantly assessing my students. Most of my assessments are informal-formative assessments becuase they drive my instruction. As a Montessori teacher, it is essential that I individualize each of my students' learning therefore I am always conducting assessments to see where my students are so that I know which lessons I should present to them. An assessment can simply be a question; but it leads to effective lessons because my lessons are based on the needs of my students.  I enjoy reading about standardized exams especially because I've been reading so much negativity about the Common Core and standardized exam and NCLB. I would like to learn more about the educational policies of President Obama's administration and how they are shaping education today. I believe that help from the Federal government is needed to provide support to failing schools. I believe all children should have access to quality education across America. 

Motivation and Grouping

If children are not motivated, then they will not want to learn. I have experience working with unmotivated students. and it is not fun. Based on my experiences as a special education teacher in an alternative high school, I have learned that it is important to build relationships with students. Building relationships with your students helps you understand their needs. Knowing a student's needs allows teachers to know how to help him/her. When I taught at the alternative HS,  I had a student that was not as motivated to come to school because she needed to help provide for her family. I was able to find her a job close to the school and she was able to attend school a lot more regularly. That student ended up graduating and is now in college! Grouping can also impact a child in the classroom. Earlier this year, I had a student that was unmotivated in the classroom. The student told me he did not like school because he felt he had no friends. I set up a group project with friends his age and saw a big difference in his grades and his behavior in the classroom! 

Effective Lessons

Due to my experience in the Montessori environment and training, I am able to wholeheartedly understand the idea of creating an effective lesson. Montessori's individualized approach allows me to individually teach my students I am a true believer in the contructivist, cooperative, discovery learning and anything "student-centered". I believe that children learn best when they are able to see the relevance in what they are learning and when the environment that they are learning in is inviting and fun. The most effective lessons are the ones in which students are able to make connections with what they are learning. Montessori allows students to have choice so an educator can find many interesting ways to present a lesson. 

Information Processing

How do I process information? I process information through repetition and when I find connections and relevance to what I am trying to learn. Well, that is how children learn too. When the material becomes relevant to children and when they are exposed to it more than once then they process the information. One of the things I love about being a Montessori teacher is my classroom because the works on the shelves allow my students to review and repeat works as many times as they want so that they can learn it. My students can go back and review work from 4th grade as fifth graders because the language tower/grammar tower work is on the shelf readily available to them. I have observed my students go back to those works and teach other peers those lessons that they have mastered from the past. I believe it gives them a sense of success and makes them comfortable. 

Behavioral Theories of Learning

Whenever I think of my students, I think of my experiences as a child and what helped me. The behavioral theories that I read about from "Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice" By. Robert E. Slavin are extremely important because without a positive learning environment children will not learn to their fullest potential. My goal as a teacher is for my students to get the best experience in the classroom. One of the reasons why I decided to become a Montessori teacher is because I wanted my students to become motivated based on their individual growth/achievement in the classroom. I was sick of taking things away such as points, assigning extra credit, providing motivations such as pizza/ice cream parties. I wanted my students to focus on their work and to love learning and working. Montessori allows me to provide that environment because there are not as many grades as in a traditional school. My students get to focus on their work and work to the best of their ability. They understand natural consequences too because if the classroom environment isn't one for learning due to their excessive talking then the quality of their work will suffer. Natural consequences enable my students to understand the importance of their own individual behavior and how it can impact their performance. 

Student Diversity

All children are different. We live in America and it is important for all children to learn about each other. I am a true believer in multicultural education due to my experiences as an bilingual Afro-Latino young woman living in New York City. I try my best to tailor my classroom environment to not only the multicultural needs of my students but of the world. Montessori allows my students to do extensive research about different parts of the work therefore I make sure I have lots of reading materials and resources for my students. As my students read "I am Malala" by women's rights activist Malala Yousafazai, they were able to make so many connections with what was going on around the world and at the same time understand how the plight of girls was similar to those of African Americans in American during the Jim Crow/Civil rights era.  In the upcoming year, I am excited to introduce the book "Esperanza Rising" to my students. It is a book about a young Mexican girl. I will be taking that opportunity to introduce to my students some Latin American culture, history and current events. I like to tell my students that they are "Citizens of the World" because it is important to be able to aware and prepared for all of life's situations. A classroom that celebrates diversity is one that is kind and responsive. I want to teach my children that it is important to be aware of the needs of others and treat others with respect no matter where they are from and how they look. 

Foundations for Teaching

As educators, it is essential for us to understand how children develop. Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposes that a child's development progresses in stages. It is very important for teachers to know the stages that their students are in because it helps them plan lessons that are developmentally appropriate to their needs. As a Montessori teacher, a child's stage impacts the kind of work that they are ready to do in the classroom and that is why the instruction is individualized. Not all students are at the same level therefore it is important to understand where they are when it comes to their cognitive development. Vygotsky's theory of development is interesting because the idea is that children learn from others. That makes a lot of sense because children learn language from their surroundings and students learn best from interactions with others and their environment. I have noticed that during lessons, I will explain something but my students would explain it even better to a peer. One of the things I love most about the Montessori environment is the mixed age groups. My older students help the younger ones with their work and they are happy to do so. As the directress, I love to sit back and observe how the students work with one another. I have a beautiful experience that I would love to share with you all. My nephew was visiting from New York City and had the opportunity to spend some time in my classroom. I loved observing him interact with the other students because they helped guide him throughout the day. He had the opportunity to read Malala Yousafzai's autobiography "I am Malala" and the book impacted him so much that he decided to do his Civil Rights project on Malala when he got back to New York City. Children learn and are easily influenced by their surroundings and that is why it is important that they have the opportunity to interact and learn from their peers.