I whole-heartedly believe that education is not just academic.

I work from a progressive standpoint in my belief that as educators, it is our job to educate the whole child. We have to think beyond academics and focus on children as citizens of our world. We should be educating our students to be the kind of people we want to live with, work with, and that may influence the world we live in. Of course academic success is important, and some might say is the priority of school. The very basis of education is knowledge. The knowledge we can impart on our students is immeasurable, and it is important to take that to heart. I like to focus on making the children love learning. I do this by making the lessons easily relatable to my students. While certain topics may not always be the most exciting, or the most easy to relate to, I try and find ways to make them relevant to their lives. One unit of study we have done is on the Olympics. The Olympics provide an excellent starting point for discussion about different cultures, and countries around the world. It is also relevant to the students because they are going home to watch the Olympics on television. Bruner (1965) agrees with the need to be relevant to students when he says, that these matters can be presented to children in a fashion that is gripping, close to life, and intellectually honest (p.8 ). I also make a great effort to make the learning process fun. By keeping the children engaged and present in their learning it does not make it a chore, but something that they enjoy. One way I do this is by creating games that focus on content such as phonics, and math facts. Aside from academics, there are a slew of things I believe it is important to educate our children about. Teaching social skills, etiquette, values, and citizenship are just a few things I try and focus on in my classroom. According to Greenfield, Quiroz, Rothstein-Fisch, and Trumball (2001), the norms of schools are nearly always those of the larger society (p. 1), which is why

it is important to me to ensure my students are getting that valuable information in my classroom and hopefully at home too. Learning these kinds of skills can serve a person just as well as intellect can. It does not benefit a child to be one or the other, the ideal is to strive for a strong combination of both. These are the skills that they will use to interact with others and use to build relationships as they grow. I teach these things by insisting that manners are used within the classroom. My students know they will not get much accomplished without using their manners. They must say please and thank you when asking for anything, the boys know to hold doors open for the girls, and they know to ask their tablemates to please pass anything they might need on the other end of their table. I also use teachable moments to make the children aware of how to handle certain situations. When one child upsets another student, I use that moment to model how the children could handle that same situation next time. By making an example of typical social scenarios, it gives the children a repertoire of examples they can refer back to when facing a similar situation. While academics are incredibly important, there is so much more that makes a person a good person and world citizen. I am trying to do my part to shape these children into smart, responsible, polite, and socially conscious individuals that will go out into the world and act with kindness and understanding, and that will think critically about how they will make an impact on our world. While these are lofty concepts, they can be simplified to make them relatable to a small child early on. As John Dewey (1897) states, school must represent present life -- life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground (p. 80).

References

Bruner, J. S., 1965. Man: A course of study. Occasional Paper No. 3., Available at: http://search.proquest.com/eric/docview/63675772/13F2353415150619E9/30?accountid= 27115 [Accessed July 8, 2013]. Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. School Journal, 54, 77-80. Greenfield, P., Quiroz, B., Rothstein-Fisch, C. & Trumball, E. (2001). Bridging cultures between home and school: A guide for teachers. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.