What is a teacher? A teacher in today’s society encompasses a variety of roles such as: helper, facilitator, listener, student, and parent. Teachers must always remain students. They must continue learning, even as they are teaching students. Teaching not only involves sharing the information with others, but also helping the students to understand the information that is being presented to them. In order for a teacher to have an effective classroom, he/she must be a positive facilitator in the room and school. Along with effective facilitating comes being a listener and parent to your students. A teacher should always listen to the students and have them know that they are listening. Some students also look to their teacher as a parental figure. I believe that in order to be an effective teacher in a child’s life, you must open yourself up to all of these roles for each one of your students. Through all of these roles, you will be successful in your students’ lives.
 
    I believe that students learn best from engaging activities. It is good for students to experience a variety of learning techniques because we all learn in different ways. I am sure that I will use textbooks and worksheets when I am a teacher, but I will also make it a point to have engaging activities for the students to participate in, so they can have visual images to help remind them of what they have learned.  Students enjoy participating in activities, and they tend to remember more about what they learned when they learn in a hands- on manner. So, it is my goal as a teacher to encompass as many different learning styles throughout the day, so that I touch each student’s individual needs.
 
    Along with different learning styles, there are a variety of people within a classroom. I think that it is important to learn about each other’s backgrounds and come to respect the differences among the room. There is so much to learn about other cultures, and a lot of that information often lies within the classroom. I believe that it is important to teach multiculturalism, so that students grow to respect one another.
 
    I also think that it is important for me to develop a positive classroom management system. This incorporates both the arrangement of my classroom and the discipline that I will use with the students. I will try to arrange my classroom so that all students can benefit from the arrangement. I will also change this arrangement from time to time so that the students do not get bored with the atmosphere of the room. As far as discipline in my classroom, I will develop a discipline that I will use equally among all students. If I find that something is not working right, then I will change my plan until I find something that works. It is important to develop a classroom management system that works for you, your students, the administrators of the school, and the parents of the students. This system will probably change from year to year, and I think that the success of my classroom will depend on the way that I choose to manage it.
 
    From my education at Appalachian State University, I have developed a variety of resources to use in my classroom when I become a teacher. I have created many lesson plans and activities that I will be able to incorporate into my classroom. Along with these lessons, I have also learned a variety of ways to manage a classroom. I have also developed enormous amounts of resources that I can return to when I am a teacher to make my classroom a better learning environment. I plan on using all of these resources that I have acquired and created to make my classroom a better environment for learning.