Personal Narrative: My Personal Teaching Beliefs

The beliefs I have about teaching are as follows: students have the potential to succeed academically and teachers should display enthusiasm and passion when they teach, as well as should maintain high expectations for their students. All children can learn; it does not matter if they are general education students or students with special needs. Students have the potential and capacity to learn—this occurs inside and outside of the classroom. In addition, it is also important for teachers to differentiate, especially since their end goal is to meet the needs of their students. The purpose of this reflection is to describe my personal teaching beliefs, from instructional strategies to the establishment of a positive home-school connection.

I believe that linguistic and cultural diversity enhances a student’s quality of life, especially academically; therefore, language and culture should not limit a child’s educational opportunities: “Learning a second language should not mean losing a first language” (Vacca et al., 2015, p .60). It is important that educators respect and support a child’s native language in an educational. For example, when it comes to teaching young students how to read, an educator should consider literature-based texts that are diverse. Educating English Language Learners can be a challenge for teachers; however, if they plan an effective curriculum that promotes cultural understanding, they will be able to meet the end goal, which is to provide all students with an excellent

Setting high standards helps the students to excel to their highest potential, especially when the teacher knows that they are capable of completing scholarly work. It is important for teachers to give praise, especially for good work. Students must be feel comfortable and realize that their teacher cares about their learning (“The Power of High Expectations: Closing the Gap in Your Classroom”, n.d.). Teachers must show their students that they believe in them, see potential; this helps them reach different plateaus in their academic career. As a future educator, I will encourage my student to never give up and as long as they believe that they can do it, they have already won half the battle.

In addition, I believe that homework is a great assessment for the teacher to see what the students may need to revisit from their previous lesson. Homework serves as a foundation for further learning that the student will benefit from before taking a test. For example, in my future science classroom, students will have the opportunity to master the skills taught to them—through assigned reading and worksheets. An excessive amount of homework can be draining and stressful, it can be a way for the student to show their parents what they have learned throughout the