Principles of Learning

Children's Principles of Learning

As teachers we become mothers, fathers, nurses, phycologists, friends and many other roles.  There are so many aspects of teaching that have an effect on our student's success. Because of that we need to honor certain principles that go above opening a book and teaching from it. It is important to build relationships and take care of student needs before any academics can take place. Students need to feel comfortable before they are going to take risks in any classroom. Establishing these relationships and feelings will enable more success for students. Teachers not only need to get to know students personally but academically as well. Students need to learn at their level and build off what they already know. This will ensure success and growth in every student which is the overall goal for teachers.

I have implemented many things in my classroom so I can accomplish the ideas from my list of principles. After I made the switch to a new district I really questioned some of my practices and had to decide what is important. I knew I had to keep things like morning meeting, modeling, cooperative learning etc. Morning meeting has been a change for my students because they are not use to that but they are responding really well. I know a lot about my students and their lives because of the things we do during morning meeting. The students have also been able to get to know each other and I feel like we have created a caring community already. I've made changes to my curriculum like including a variety of assessments to see what my students already know and to see what they have mastered. I've implemented things like reading conferences and guided math to make sure each student has the opportunity to learn at their level.