Technology

One thing that I will use in my classroom is some of the sites we found for Elementary teachers, when we did our podcast. There was one site that I know I want to use. It is called "Gamequarium" and it has games for all grades. There are games on almost any holiday and subject. I think it is a great way to get the children involved and interested. This could be something they could do at home, or in the computer lab. The games teach so much, but in a fun way. There are many other sites that I will use for other things, but "Gamequarium" is a site especially for the children.

Authority

The last value that I chose is authority. My definition of authority is letting my students know, from the first day of school, that I am in control of the class. I let them know this by taking control when something happens. For instance, when a student disrupts the class and all the other students start to laugh, I take control right then, or they will learn to walk all over me. I have to do this by making the rules and consequences known and let the students know that there will be consequences for their actions.

Trust

My fifth value is trust. The definition for trust, to me, is when you know that a person will do anything for you and you can tell that person anything and you know they won't tell. Also, you know that the person would never do anything to hurt you in any way. This will be useful in my classroom because if the students trust me, then they will also gain respect for me. Students will be able to come to me for things that they need to talk about.

Fairness

My fourth value is fairness. Fairness, to me, is when all the students in my class are treated equally. No one is treated differently from anyone else in the classroom, for any reason. If a student breaks a rule, for any reason, they will have the same consequence as everyone else. This will help in my class because the students will know that everyone is treated the same and it will prevent arguments about another student getting a different punishment than someone else. They know that I am fair from the beginning; therefore, any kind of disagreements about me not being fair and letting certain students get by with things will be prevented.

Continued Personal Learning

The third value that is important to me is continued personal learning. This, to me, means that even after I have become a teacher, I will continue to learn new things every day. I will continue to have an open mind and learn from other teachers and even my students. This will help me because I will learn how to do things differently and I will not just learn something one way and stick to it for the rest of my career. I will be open to change.

Commitment

My second value would have to be commitment. I think that commitment is very important for the teacher, student, and the parent. My definition of commitment is when I am committed to my students, their parents, and the administration. I need to be able to give my very best and nothing less to all of these people. The administration needs to know that I am committed to them and that I am ready to do whatever they ask of me. Also, I need to be dedicated to my students and they need to know that. I need to be able to give them the best of my ability and they need to be able to notice that I am doing my best, without me having to say it. By doing this, I feel that my students will view me as a role model; therefore, I will earn their respect. I need to be committed to my students' parents and I need to make it aware to them that they can come to me for anything, concerning their children. All of these people need to know that I am committed to each and every one of them and I will do my job to the best of my ability. This will help me because everyone will know that I am dedicated and it may make things run smooth.

Compassion

My first value is compassion and my personal definition for it is when I treat my students as if they were my own children. What I mean by this is that when a student comes up to me and has a problem or an issue with something, I will not just ignore the child. It will be as if he or she were my own child in front of me asking for my help or coming to me with a concern. I think that this value will help when a child has something serious occur to them and they are afraid to tell anyone else. They will be able to come to me and talk about the situation because they know how compassionate I am and they know that I care and I will listen to what they have to say. I understand that I cannot have too much compassion, to the point where the children start to take advantage of the situation and just want to talk to me about their problems all the time, because it will start to interfere with their class work.