Teach to Serve

As a recent teacher college graduate, I am eager to learn more about the different ways to engage students. I look forward to apply what I have learned previously from teacher college, may it be students’ needs, interests, or their readiness to learn, I should remember that all these apply to all grades. These will always be factors that affect how I approach various learners. Throughout the course, I have the following questions I would like to keep in mind:

• How do Junior learners learn best?
  • Since I specialized in the intermediate/senior stream, I am certainly eager to learn more about junior learners and how they learn best. With some non-traditional teaching experience with this age group, I often find myself asking, “am I being too strict?” I think being this course would be very helpful for me to understand the nature of this age group and help me to lay down some important routines for the junior learners.
• How to integrate emotion regulation in Junior learners during PE classes?
  • As a PE educator, I understand that PE can be “emotional” at times and it gives opportunity for students to experience various of emotions. Students may feel excited and happy when they scored a point, disappointed or frustrated when they lost a game, and more… I would love to learn the ways to help students to be aware of their emotions and help them to self regulate, as I believe this is a life skill. I wonder how a PE teacher can integrate that in their classes and how I can cultivate a strong culture for emotion regulation. I would love to hear from what other colleagues have to say and learn from their experience.

• What are some practical ways I can cultivate a positive and safe culture in my classroom/gym?
  • As a new elementary PE/classroom teacher in the fall, I would love to learn more about some practical ways that I can build a positive and safe culture in my classroom. I personally believe that it is important to set up a healthy norm for my students. From my experience, I learned that students engage most and learn best when they are in an inclusive learning community and when they have a strong rapport with me. However, I am only familiar with doing so with the older grades, not the younger students. Hence, I would love to see what ideas others have to offer.

Finally, I can’t wait to learn more about what it is like to be an elementary teacher: