Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

Characteristic 3: "We believe that the novice teacher should recognize that teaching is a professional, moral, and ethical enterprise, should understand moral issues and ethical practices in an educational environments, and should have developed ethical frameworks which facilitate effective teaching." This year I have one particular class where there are several students who have behavior problems and a behaivor management plan is needed and often implemented. The first step in my mentor teacher's behavior management plan I believe is very important and a step that I will include in my own behavior management plan. In the the first step that student is given an option to either continue with his or her current behavior and face the consequences or take part in a solution to solve whatever the problem may be. This allows the student to take responsibility for his or her actions. As young adults it is important to know that what we do affects those around us. Implementing a plan where students take responsibility for their own actions allows them to understand this concept and develop positive strategies for dealing with problems. Characteristic 4: "We believe the novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students." One thing I love about teaching is meeting my students. Each student is different with their own personality and their own story to tell. Because each student is different I know that each student has their own way of learning. As I teacher I enjoy the challenge of differentiating my instruction to try and reach all my students. Differentiating instruction allows a teacher to be creative and explore new ways of teaching. During a lesson on the Renaissance I provided students different varieties of information and presented the information in several ways. TO begin the lesson students watched videos on the Renaissance. Then students were provided with a power point and copies of notes (this was more of outline that allowed students to add extra information) as we discussed important ideas, events, and people of the Renaissance. I was also able to find a song that discussed the Renaissance. I played the song for the students and we studied the lyrics to learn about the Renaissance. Students were also given the chance to work in groups on puzzles about the Renaissance. This lesson addressed the mutliple learning styles of students such as visual, auditory, musical, etc. This lesson also addressed some modifications I must make in my classroom. In class I have two girls that speak no English. Working in groups and providing pictures to the students are different strategies used to help the students learn the information.