Professional Knowledge
I Believe...
- Teachers must have a critical understanding of the content, concepts, skills, structure and developments in the content areas they intend to teach.
- I believe that education is more than teaching the core curriculum. It incorporates the hidden curriculum, promoting decision-making, critical thinking and reasoning, problem solving techniques and skills, self esteem and an array of other social skills through the content.
- Teachers must build friendly relationships with their students to ensure that all students feel accepted and important in order to make the classroom a more pleasant and supportive place for learners. I believe in developing a positive rapport with all students will establish a relationship of trust and respect.
- I believe in knowing and understanding my students; what affects their learning and how to address this in the classroom so that I can teach them effectively.
- Everyone should be respected as individuals and be provided with every opportunity to succeed regardless of their individual needs, race, religion or social background. I am committed to catering for diversity; cultural, gender, special needs and gifted and talented students.
- An educator must always consider the diverse interests and learning styles of their students and therefore must incorporate a variety of effective pedagogical practices and approaches to meet each learning style. Differentiation allows the teacher to integrate innovative teaching strategies to meet individual student needs and scaffold information to support a learner's development.