Visual Belief Statement

While doing this Visual Belief Statement, it was really hard for me to come up with a topic. A lot of other students had personal stories about why they wanted to become teachers and I never really had an experience that made me think that education was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Teaching and explaining things to other people, especially children, has always been an easy feat for me to do and it just seemed to me like an obvious choice to pursue teaching children.

I did, however, come up with a belief statement that helped me realize that I want to be a teacher who doesn't turn a blind eye to bullying and I want my students to be able to feel they can tell me anything. It honestly was a fun project to do and helped me think more in depth as why I want to become a teacher. In my future classroom, I could show a similar video about bullying so they can understand that it is not okay to make someone feel less than they are. 

Here is my video:

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are basically resources and assets that can be found online that are available to the public for either teaching, learning, or researching. Also, OER's virtually cost nothing. Another great thing about OER's, they include textbooks, course readings, simulations, assessment tools, learning applications, etc. Not only can we be saving money, but we can save paper, as well. For teaching it also has its benefits because by allowing educators to so much vital information, it allows them to become more knowledgeable in different subject areas. Therefore, the students can learn more too.

It is very surprising how much information you can find from OER's that can be helpful. A simple article on classroom management can make a huge difference in a classroom. The articles were actually helpful, as well, not where you search it into Google and it takes you to WikiHow.

I understand the downfalls of OER's, but as a college student and knowing how the economy is, I don't understand how we haven't implemented OER's sooner. Here is a link of OER's that I found useful, it is a website that allows you to pick the different topics, issues, what specifically you are looking for. Another useful link you can find here and it is basically a more in depth description of what an OER consists of. Lastly, here is another informational link where it basically explains an OER and also gives out helpful articles.

Students should feel safe

With all of the chaos that students face on a daily basis, bullying should not be one of them. Students have a plethora of hardships that they are encountering daily, such as academics, relationships, working, etc., that if they are having to deal with someone harassing them on some level ,as well, that could lead to a breaking point.

My belief statement is, I believe students will learn best and to their full potential, if they feel safe in their school environment. Teachers and school officials need to realize that there is no official way a bully or a victim will look, sound, or act. There seems to be a stereotype that the students who get bullied are the "nerdy" ones who get good grades and wear black thick rimmed glasses and the bully is the "dumb jock" who wears a letterman jacket and can bench press 300 pounds. That is not necessarily the case. Growing up, I never experienced bullying to the extreme, but when i did witness it, the students who would get bullied were those who were below average students. The bullies were the ones who would be on the honor roll, so it was basically a stereotype reversed.


Ultimately, my point is you never really can describe what the characteristics of either the bully or the victim. An explanation of why the victims were doing poorly in their academics is because if a student does not feel safe in their classroom then how are they going to focus their energy of their schoolwork, when they are more likely worrying on how they can avoid their bullies at all costs possible. As a future educator, I believe it would be my job to make sure my students can feel safe at their school. The only worries they should have are doing a good job in school and are able to learn to their fullest capabilities. I believe they will achieve this through a safe school environment.