Running head: Teaching Platform

Teaching Platform
Luissette M. Lopez
University of South Florida

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Teaching Platform

I began my teaching journey with a clear vision of what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I wanted to surround myself with children eager to learn new things. I wanted to influence our
future generations through education. The curious thing about my journey is that I am technically
already "grown up. I am over 40 years old. I have served in the United States Army for 20 years
as an information technology specialist, and I have two children of my own that are currently
attending middle school. I feel like my experiences with parenting and leadership have given me
an edge into becoming a teacher. I look forward to the rest of my journey to validate that.
School Demographics/Information
I was assigned to a lovely elementary school in Riverview, Florida for my internship.
There is certainly a high level of pride in keeping the school clean and up to date. The school
was opened in 2003 and still looks like a new school. It is similar to the schools my own children
have attended on or near military bases. The students in attendance are very diverse, with the
following demographics:
DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION (by %)
Total Enrollment
1,058 students
Asian 1.94%
Black 18.21%
Hispanic
33.36%
Indian 0.37%
Multi 9.06%
White 37.06%
My 2nd grade classroom is bright, colorful and well organized. My collaborating teacher
(CT) set up her classroom environment in a manner that is conducive to collaborative learning.
Students are seated in table groups of 4 desks. Some students are facing each other, others have
shoulder partners. There is a table in the corner used for guided reading and group activities, a

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reading rug in the front, center of the room, and a cozy reading corner with bookshelves of books
organized by genre and reading level. Bean bags and a rug make the reading corner a fun, happy
place to read. There is not a single section of the wall that is not covered with bulletin boards,
student writing, procedures, tips, and conventions for learning. When I look around the room, I
see learning occurring in every inch of space provided.

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My Beliefs about Teaching

Belief 1
Upon beginning my journey, I recorded my initial beliefs about being a teacher. I posted
those in one of my first reflective blogs, What Are My Initial Beliefs About Teaching? My
beliefs have always been geared towards helping children learn and student growth. I want
children to succeed! I believe all children can and want to learn. It is my responsibility to teach
them. When I started my internship, I quickly realized that I had the best CT and students in the
entire school. They were going to teach me how to accomplish this enormous task.
I began to identify those students who stood out from the rest, the struggling learners. I
knew right away that I wanted to focus on my attention on a child that peaked my interest. There
were many in my class, some with attention difficulties, others who did not seem to understand
the lesson, and one who did not participate at all. He was quiet, socially reserved and showed
little interest in reading and writing. I chose this particular child as my focus student for my

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Literacy Portfolio. I decided my focus student will help me gain some insight into learners who
need extra help and attention. He would allow me to make informed decisions on how to
accommodate individual differences and help students learn.
Belief 2
During my internship, and as spent more time learning from my CT and my students, I
realized the importance of classroom management. Learning will not occur in a classroom
where the teacher cannot effectively teach. Attention-getters, non-verbals, smooth transitions,
procedures, norms, and classroom organization are as vital to the teacher as they are to the
students.

Several of my blogs focused on classroom management. I expanded my beliefs about

classroom management in the following blogs:
Classroom Procedures
Luissettes Philosophical Approach to Classroom Management

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I have learned so much already about how difficult it can be if a classroom is not running like a
well-oiled machine.
Just wanting to be a great teacher is obviously not enough, as I continue to realize
throughout my courses. Levin & Nolan (2014) address the negative impact classroom discipline
problems may have on teacher effectiveness and career longevity. Teachers self-esteem and
enthusiasm are likely to decrease when their well-intentioned efforts seem ineffective. It is
important to recognize that not everything will fall neatly in my lap and steps can be taken to
minimize feelings of inadequacy as I discussed in my blog What Initial Reflections Can I Make
Regarding My Beliefs About Teaching? Thankfully, I am surrounded by classmates, teachers,
professors, and students that will continue to teach me how to become an effective teacher and
remain motivated with my passion to teach.
Belief 3
Building a positive student-teacher relationship is equally as important as my other
beliefs. Students want to know that their teachers care. I have stated this as my belief from the
very beginning of my journey to becoming a teacher. I am truly passionate about connecting with
students because I experienced firsthand with my own children how they perform (or dont
perform) when they like or dislike their teachers. My sons have had involvements with teachers
that they loved and those they didnt care much for. Their schoolwork, grades, and level of effort
were greatly influenced by the relationship and connection they had with their teacher. Children
are very astute. They can tell when a teacher does not care about their success. Unfortunately,
this situation happens more frequently than it should. It is my goal to build a strong, genuine, and
positive relationship with my students so that I can motivate them to learn more. Which is why I
think it is important to greet every student and learn something about each one on a daily basis.

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Shifts & Expansion of My Beliefs

My internship began with my initial beliefs on teaching. They have not shifted much up
to this point. I dont expect they will change considerably throughout my journey. As I stated
earlier in my introduction, I am an older student and I have certain experiences to revert to. I do
not pretend to know everything about teaching. I do not. I learn something new every day. I learn
from my professors, my CTs, my students, my classmates, and my own children. Sometime
during my internship, I am sure I will place more emphasis and time on one belief over another. I
feel that is a normal progression of learning what is most important to becoming an effective
teacher.
I would like to expand my beliefs on how to be more effective at positive reinforcement
in my classroom management techniques. My goal is to acquire a referent authority approach to
influence students, where they behave because we have a positive and caring student-teacher
relationship (Levin & Nolan, 2014). I have seen how the students in my class are eager to please
me, because they know that I care about them and their success, which solidifies my belief of
building a positive relationship with my students. As I continue to help individual students learn,
I would also like to focus more on issues of social justice and diversity in the classroom. My CT
incorporates multicultural material into almost every lesson she teaches. I would enjoy being an
active participant in lesson planning with her to learn how to enrich the curriculum in the class.
Felt Tensions/Ongoing Wonderings
My experiences so far have been completely positive. I am very fortunate to have been
assigned to such a great school and a great class. However, I am not unaware of the fact that all
schools are not equal. My own children have attended several Title 1 elementary schools while
we moved around because of my military duties. I have some concerns about shortage of funds

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and support in some schools. For example, how can I effectively teach my students in 98 degree
Florida weather, in a classroom without functioning air conditioning? It has always been my goal
to teach in a more urban environment and focus my efforts on underprivileged students in
disadvantaged schools. My friends tell me I am crazy if I think I am going to change the world.
I believe I should at least try.
As I move into my Level 2 field experience, I continue to wonder how I will learn to
overcome obstacles students may face that prevent them from learning, predominantly those who
are disadvantaged due to family, economic and social circumstances. I would like to continue to
acquire strategies that will enable me to provide every student an equitable learning experience,
while encouraging and supporting diversity and social change.
I often wonder if my philosophy of teaching is compatible with my beliefs on classroom
management. For example, I favor assertive discipline techniques, but I would like my classroom
setup to focus on group work, which is more of a collaborative approach on learning. For my
next field experience, I would like to hone in on establishing a greater connection between my
beliefs and my classroom management practice. I am curious and excited to see how this
progresses next semester.
Conclusion
As I progress through my studies and continue to grow as an educator, I intend to learn to
overcome the challenges presented to me and ensure every student, regardless of socialeconomic status, performs to the best of their ability. I plan on identifying students who may not
have the same learning experience in school through observation and questioning. I will continue
to work with my focus student during my level 2 field experience. I intend to identify his specific
learning needs more in-depth and use the process of inquiry to expand my understanding of

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student growth. I will use my internship to develop and intensify my belief of wanting to help a
child learn and grow.
As I become more involved in my classroom, I am also hopeful that my responsibilities
will increase. I would like to be able to make specific changes based on my beliefs on classroom
management. My transitions and attention-getters will certainly improve to allow for an
environment that is conducive to learning. I am confident that my CT will allow me to become
more involved in determining seating arrangements and classroom setup. I would like to
continue to explore the relationship between my teaching philosophy and my classroom
management strategies and receive feedback from my CT.
Next semester, in my field experience, I would like to incorporate a variety of
multicultural material into lesson planning, so students can begin identifying with books,
materials and activities. To do so, I will need to continue my pursuit of getting to know my
students on a personal level. I will continue to greet my students and learn something about them
each day I am in class, but plan on becoming more involved conducting guided reading groups
and one-on-one instruction with each student in my class.
I have confidence that my beliefs and my determination will be a catapult for what is yet
to come in my field experience. It is my opinion that teachers have the most difficult profession
in the world. They face challenging situations daily. Their resources become more limited as
budgets and funding decreases. They are consistently asked to do more with less; students are
told to do more with less. Teacher salary is inconsistent with the amount of work they are
expected to perform. I believe the best teachers are those who, despite the challenges, continue to
teach because they do want to change the world for the better, one student at a time. I will
become one of those teachers by continuing to advance my beliefs.

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References

Levin, J., & Nolan, J. F. (2014). Principles of classroom management: A professional decisionmaking model, (7th Ed.). Boston: Pearson.