1. Foundational Beliefs about Education A Presentation for New Teacher Orientation
Written and organized by:
Sarah Dahl, Brina Johnson, and Angela Groom
Seattle Pacific University
Spring Quarter 2010
Welcome to our orientation for new teachers. We hope that you are inspired and learn how to move from good to great and survive to thrive. We will be presenting ideas based on research and collaboration.

2. The Learner and The Learned
The Learned (teacher):
Loves learning
Strives for personal and professional growth
Reaches out to students
The Learner:
Must be known by the teacher
Has needs, strengths, and weaknesses
Good teachers love learning as much as teaching; they strive for personal and professional growth. They will look for new ways to better themselves and to reach students.  Good teachers always take responsibility for bettering the education of their students; this occurs by knowing the students' individual needs, strengths, and weaknesses and preparing lessons accordingly

3. Memorable Teachers Make students feel welcome
Respect and love students
Treat students with dignity
Celebrate abilities and strengths
Install a sense of pride
A memorable teacher makes his or her students feel welcomed, loved, and respected; that is, good teachers treat their students with dignity, they value and celebrate their students' individual abilities and strengths.  Memorable teachers do not emphasize success in terms of grades and standardized expectations; rather, they inspire students to succeed for their own benefit and sense of pride.

4. Every Child Can Accomplish Great Things
Teachers:
Inspire
Encourage
Have Passion
Identify Strengths
Good teachers possess a confident attitude in the belief that every child can accomplish great things. Teachers hope to encourage and inspire their students to succeed for themselves, rather than for a passing grade; they want their students to be passionate about learning. “From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery.” (Whitehead 1) Teachers want students to identify their strengths and use them to their fullest for future successes and personal fulfillment.

5. Student Centered High impact on student lives
Teaching is more than curriculum
Teaching is more than management
Students are the possibilities of our future
For educators, curriculum may change, philosophies of management or assessment may ebb and flow, but the impact on a students' life is constant. Children are the reason why many become teachers. Their innocence, desire, and possibilities bring to life the passing of information from the learned to learner.

6. Positive Negative Student-Centered
Teaching = Impact
Positive
Negative
Student-Centered
Good teachers do not underestimate the power of their influence on young people, they are mindful of their capability to positively or negatively impact a child, and as such, they must be confident in every aspect of their profession. The teacher’s role is to facilitate the child’s interest. “Meaningful learning results from individual exploration, investigation, and choosing what to learn.

7. Citizens of the World Citizens in the Classroom
The moral classroom is a productive classroom
Respect and responsibility must prevail
Student learning is the focus
Students are being educated in subject matters, they are taught respect and responsibility, and how to be a contributing citizen in the world around them. “From the very beginning, education for public and personal morality was a centerpiece of the American school curriculum.” (Durkheim 1)  The relationships among teachers and students and the learning that begins in the school years help pave the way for students to learn an academic curriculum, as well as learning how to be a good citizen.

8. School + Parents = Student Success
Teachers are interested in students
Parents take active roles in their child’s education
Collaboration
Respectful classroom atmosphere
Great teachers are genuinely interested in the student's home life and extracurricular activities. “For teachers and administrators the best approach, of course, is for school to work together with the home. This is the single most effective way to support a child’s learning.” (Ellis 128) Teachers should ensure that in-class activities and the classroom environment reflects a collaborative and respectful atmosphere. 

9. Desire to learn Desire to share Passion for knowledge
Student Voice
Desire to learn
Desire to share
Passion for knowledge
In the classroom environment, students should feel that their voices are valuable, heard, and respected by the teacher and by peers.  “Teaching functions best when a symbiotic relationship develops between the desire to learn new knowledge and skills and the corresponding desire to share what one has learned and continues to learn with others.” (Ellis 118) By giving our students a voice in the classroom, there will be both an increase of interest and academic improvement.

10. Pride in work Respect for self and others Intrinsic Extrinsic
Motivation
Pride in work
Respect for self and others
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
The atmosphere in a good classroom engages the students to take pride in their own work, show respect for all members, and allow for opportunities to learn. Students are self motivated to learn. “It is useful to distinguish between what is called intrinsic motivation or the pursuit of certain activities for their own reward, and extrinsic motivation, or the pursuit of activities in response to such factors as rewards and punishments. However, it is not easy to untangle the two.” (Ellis 152)

11. Relationships Establish at the beginning of the year Student growth
Satisfies students’ basic needs
Teachers begin a relationship process with his or her students at the start of the school year.  These relationships help to build the classroom atmosphere as well as the success for each child to grow. “Commonly known as Maslow’s hierarchy, this construct by the psychologist Abraham Maslow suggests that all humans needs can be subsumed into two major categories, each with levels, deficiency needs and being needs. Deficiency needs are, in ascending order: physiological, safety, belongingness and love, and esteem needs. Being needs include: the need to know and understand, aesthetic needs, and self actualization needs.” (Ellis 148) Their education taught them how to be a respectful, responsible citizen.

12. Teaching Organizing Reflecting Acting Reacting Assessing
Continuous Problem solving
Our hope is that all students will learn their math, language arts, science and social studies, but our real commission is to train students to function in our society. “Jean Piaget describes teaching as the establishing of environments where students’ cognitive structures could emerge and grow….Teaching includes planning, organizing, reflecting, acting, reacting, assessing, and above all continuous problem solving.” (Ellis 155)

13. Influenced by teacher disposition Students decide Earned
Trust
Influenced by teacher disposition
Students decide
Earned
All students are affected by the dispositions of their teachers; students can and will decide on his/ her own the worth of observable behaviors, values, and attitudes. “The teacher inevitably sets the tone. As your students experience your trust of them, and as you give them reason to trust you and each other, the atmosphere changes ina positive way, not necessarily miraculously, but it does begin to change.” (Ellis 43)

14. Reflective thinking Improved learning Differentiation
Greater understanding
Positive classroom environment
Achievement is also encouraged by practicing reflection techniques; reflection allows for improvement, differentiation for students, alterations to lessons, further understanding, and the building on of goals. “Often reflective thinking is encouraged in environments where students compare their problem solving process with each other, with those of an expert, or with an ideal model. The origins of reflective thinking as a teaching and learning strategy are found in the works of John Dewey.” (Ellis 154)

15. Respect Dignity Relevance
Meaningful learning
Respect
Dignity
Relevance
“A meaning-centered approach is an approach to learning, which seeks relevance and avoids isolated skills as means of achieving literacy. Meaning-centered instruction focuses on building knowledge and understanding within the natural framework of a child’s experience, and important concept with the whole-language educational philosophy.” (Ellis 151) Ultimately, what matters most is that the students feel that they were taught with respect and dignity and what they learned was relevant.

16. Bibliography
Canestrari, A., Marlowe, B. (2010). Educational foundations: an anthology of critical readings, 2nd. Sage Publications, Inc. Los Angeles, CA.
Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. School Journal (54) pp
Ellis, A. K. (2001). Teaching, learning, and assessment together: the reflective classroom. Eye on Education, Poughkeepsie, NY.
Ellis, A. K. (1998). Emile durkheim in the context of the american moral education paradigm. Routledge, Inc., and University of Oxford.
Whitehead, A. N. (1916). The aims of education. Presidential Address to the Mathematical Association.