Welcome!
Welcome to my E-portfolio! This website will help you to get to know more about me as a professional. As you navigate through this site, you will learn more about my philosophy of education, my experiences in teaching and working with children, and my passion in doing what I love-- teaching! This website also serves as an electronic portfolio of lesson plans and activities that I have created for teaching in the future, and features a collection of web resources and teaching strategies that I can use in my future classroom.
About Me
My name is Rebecca Wittebols, and I am a student of Grand Valley State University's College of Ed. My major focus of study is Elementary Education and Mathematics, one of my many passions. Besides Mathematics, perhaps my biggest passion is art. As a future elementary teacher, I am really interested in exploring how art can be implemented in the classroom and integrated with other subjects to inspire and encourage all of my students to be innovative and creative in the classroom. I believe that each student has a uniqueness that should be recognized and celebrated, and the best way to discover a child's uniqueness is through his or her art, writing, or problem-solving.
I have had quite a bit of experience working with children, especially very young children. For the past four years, I have worked as an assistant in a preschool classroom during the school year, and also as a caregiver for three summers in another day care facility back at home on the East side of the state. I absolutely love working with young students, as I find their curiosity about the world around them and eagerness to learn inspiring. I believe that every child has something important to say, and too often children are left ignored. For me, there is no greater joy than to sit with a child and listen to her ideas and observations about the world around her.
I have had quite a bit of experience working with children, especially very young children. For the past four years, I have worked as an assistant in a preschool classroom during the school year, and also as a caregiver for three summers in another day care facility back at home on the East side of the state. I absolutely love working with young students, as I find their curiosity about the world around them and eagerness to learn inspiring. I believe that every child has something important to say, and too often children are left ignored. For me, there is no greater joy than to sit with a child and listen to her ideas and observations about the world around her.
- Why is it Important for Us to Really Know our Students?
It is important for teacher to really get to know his or her students in regards to their culture, ethnicity, language, dialect, socio-economic status, family structure, learning preferences, social/emotional issues, abilities/disabilities, education background, interests and hobbies, likes/ dislikes, etc. Each child brings a different background and different perspective into the classroom and it is important that every child’s differences are not ignored, but rather celebrated. Each child is unique in his or her own way, offering his/her own personal, religious, cultural, ethnic, etc. beliefs, ideas, and perspectives (Parker 39). Teaching in any district, it is crucial that you tailor your lessons to the needs of students from all backgrounds, and create activities and lessons that are engaging and accessible to all students. Furthermore, it is important that I learn more about my students because having all of these differences within the classroom is a precious gift that can be used to teach students to become better citizens in their community. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to get to know my students and their diversities so that I may become a model for my students, teaching them to recognize differences between their classmates and respect those differences (Parker 29). This is a skill that is essential in our society because our country is a “melting pot” of people of all cultures and backgrounds. Our nation's motto is “equal opportunity for all,” and promoting equality starts in the classroom, where each child not only has the right to equal access of education, but also equal quality of education. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to know each of my students so that each child’s educational needs are being met and each child can thrive as a learner.
Source: Parker, Walter. Social Studies in Elementary Education. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print