The Benefits of Joining A Professional Organization

No matter what your chosen field of study, as a graduate student you want to remain in the mainstream of your desired field. Of course there are many ways that this could be accomplished. However, one great way to accomplish this is by joining a professional association. The benefits of joining professional organizations are many. Professional organizations are available for almost any career field. You may join while enrolled in school or after graduation. However, fees are greatly reduced for students who are still in college. In addition to providing information about your chosen field, professional organizations enhance your professional development and provide endless networking opportunities. Associations may also provide monetary returns such as tuition assistance through private grants and fellowships. Also, professional associations provide journals, newsletters, and websites with invaluable information on up-to-date issues and developments in your specific field of interest. Prospective employers seek out individuals whose field knowledge is not solely dependent on college studies; therefore, association memberships are excellent supplements for your resume. Your membership could also open doors of opportunity as you are provided with greater exposure to the job market - organizations provide "members only" job listings on their websites, journals, newsletters, or other publications. I believe that us as teachers just like any other profession it is important to join personal organizations in order to keep on growing and learning and stay up to date with all the new knowledge they have to offer. Below are some organizations, although there are many more.

National Association for the Education of Young Children
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the nation's largest and most influential organization of early childhood educators and others dedicated to improving the quality of programs for children from birth through third grade. Founded in 1926, NAEYC celebrated its 75th anniversary with over 100,000 members and a national network of nearly 450 local, state, and regional Affiliates. NAEYC Affiliate Groups work to improve professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education and to build public support for high quality early childhood programs. Membership is open to all who share a desire to serve and act on behalf of the needs and rights of young children.
International Reading Association The International Reading Association is a professional membership organization dedicated to promoting high levels of literacy for all by improving the quality of reading instruction, disseminating research and information about reading, and encouraging the lifetime reading habit. Our members include classroom teachers, reading specialists, consultants, administrators, supervisors, university faculty, researchers, psychologists, librarians, media specialists, and parents. With members and affiliates in 99 countries, our network extends to more than 300,000 people worldwide. The International Reading Association serves its members with professional resources designed to further five goals: professional development, advocacy, partnerships, research, and global literacy development.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Founded in 1943, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) is an international, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that represents 160,000 educators from more than 135 countries and 66 affiliates. Our members span the entire profession of educators-superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members.
As our name reflects, ASCD was initially envisioned to represent curriculum and supervision issues. Over the years, our focus has changed. We now address all aspects of effective teaching and learning-such as professional development, educational leadership, and capacity building.
ASCD offers broad, multiple perspectives-across all education professions-in reporting key policies and practices. Because we represent all educators, we are able to focus solely on professional practice within the context of "Is it good for the children?" rather than what is reflective of a specific educator role. In short, ASCD reflects the conscience and content of education.
Coalition of Essential Schools The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) is a national network of schools, regional centers, and a national office, working to create schools where intellectual excitement animates every child's face, where teachers work together to get better at their craft, and where all children flourish, regardless of their gender, race, or class.
CES schools share a common set of beliefs about the purpose and practice of schooling, known as the CES Common Principles. Based on decades of research and practice, the principles call for the creation of:
Personalized instruction to address individual needs and interests
Small schools and classrooms, where teachers and students know each other well and work in an atmosphere of trust and high expectations
Multiple assessments based on performance of authentic tasks
Democratic and equitable school policies and practice
Close partnerships with the school's community
The Coalition sees school reform as an inescapably local phenomenon, the outcome of groups of people working together, building a shared vision and drawing on the community's strengths, history, and local flavor. The Common Principles are meant to guide the school in setting priorities and designing practice, as each school develops its own programs, suited to its particular students, faculty, and community. CES regional centers and CES National seek to support schools in this work.
National School Reform Faculty: NSRF believes professional development for educators best takes place in learning communities and extended networks, using proven structures and practices. These learning communities, led by skilled facilitative leaders:
Focus on improving students' learning and success.
Build trust by engaging in significant work while providing a safe environment for taking risks.
Make their work public (e.g. "deprivatize" their work) by collaboratively examining work done by their students and by themselves (e.g. teaching practices, curriculum, school culture issues).
Give each other usable feedback.
Encourage diversity of thought, experience and perspective.
Draw on the expertise of those within the learning community, as well as on the expertise of "outside" resources.
Engage in reflective discourse based on the ideas contained in "texts" of various types.
Engage in reciprocal learning, within learning communities and in NSRF as a whole.
Develop and share leadership within the group.
Are facilitated by coaches. These coaches are responsive facilitators who have received high quality training and on-going support, and who have been selected from the immediate educational community or from the ranks of trusted outsiders.
Continuously challenge one another to adapt practice towards fostering educational and social equity.
Are accountable for continuous improvement toward helping every student to succeed in school.
Use, create and support structures that lead to the above outcomes.

Personal Philosophy

My personal philosophy of education has been changing since the first moment I started teaching. However, I don't see this as something that is negative. In fact, I think that a teacher's personal philosophy of education should forever be evolving. Teachers should continually make efforts to inform themselves of new technology or innovations that help to facilitate learning in the classroom. I have only teached for about three years, and they have helped me in molding my teaching style. Each group that I have had, every student as individual even every school has made me grow as a person and human being.
Each teacher has its own personal philosophy of education. Many Methods exist, however we have to choose what we want to use from each one of them depending on our student’s needs and our way of teaching. We have to take in consideration many factors such as teaching and learning styles, multiple intelligences and our environment in order to choose our own personal style. This is going to change every year with each of our groups therefore our teaching philosophy would change year after year. Instructional methods range from free exploration to direct instruction. Models of learning range from transactional to transmission. Synthesizing even a small fraction of the various educational philosophies into a personal philosophy would take years. However, is good to use different foundation theories that have stood the test of time. Therefore, a valid approach to a philosophy of education would be to start with the works of John Dewey. Dewey was an education philosopher whose child-centered philosophy continues to influence modern education; such a philosophy using practical methods of guided discovery represents the best approach to the education of young people.
I believe that each student has the capacity to accomplish any goal that is set for them as long as they feel connected to what they are learning; without a link between the students and material, the interest is lost and the learning is harder and may take more time. According to Jean Piaget's theory of development and learning, a developing child builds cognitive structures, or schemes, that connect previous knowledge and/or experiences to new knowledge. To have students get interested first you have to be their friend and let them know you care about them. They feel more interested in my class when they see me as a person that cares about them. From here we can make the connection that will be pertinent for them and will let them learn and acquire the information.
A teacher must also have positive expectations. This means believing in each student and believing that the student can learn and be successful. Students only learn as much as the teacher expects; teachers who set high expectations for their students will receive higher achievement from their students. It is amazing to see what students can accomplish when they know and sense that someone believes in them. It is my aspiration as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential by establishing an environment where my students feel safe, are comfortable taking risks with new learning, and presents them with opportunities to share their thoughts and ideas.

Methods used for teaching a Second Language

The Audiolingual Method

This method is based on the principles of behavior psychology. It adapted many of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method, in part as a reaction to the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach. New material is presented in the form of a dialogue. Based on the principle that language learning is habit formation, the method fosters dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning. Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills. Little or no grammatical explanations are provided; grammar is taught inductively. Skills are sequenced: Listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed in order. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context. Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysis between L1 and L2. There is abundant use of language laboratories, tapes and visual aids. There is an extended pre-reading period at the beginning of the course. Great importance is given to precise native-like pronunciation. Use of the mother tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged among and by the students. Successful responses are reinforced; great care is taken to prevent learner errors. There is a tendency to focus on manipulation of the target language and to disregard content and meaning.
Hints for Using Audio-lingual Drills in L2 Teaching

1. 1. The teacher must be careful to insure that all of the utterances which students will make are actually within the practiced pattern. For example, the use of the AUX verb have should not suddenly switch to have as a main verb.
   2. Drills should be conducted as rapidly as possibly so as to insure automaticity and to establish a system.
   3. Ignore all but gross errors of pronunciation when drilling for grammar practice.
   4. Use of shortcuts to keep the pace o drills at a maximum. Use hand motions, signal cards, notes, etc. to cue response. You are a choir director.
   5. Use normal English stress, intonation, and juncture patterns conscientiously.
   6. Drill material should always be meaningful. If the content words are not known, teach their meanings.
   7. Intersperse short periods of drill (about 10 minutes) with very brief alternative activities to avoid fatigue and boredom.
   8. Introduce the drill in this way:
   a. Focus (by writing on the board, for example)
   b. Exemplify (by speaking model sentences)
   c. Explain (if a simple grammatical explanation is needed)
   d. Drill
   9. Don’t stand in one place; move about the room standing next to as many different students as possible to spot check their production. Thus you will know who to give more practice to during individual drilling.
   10. Use the "backward buildup" technique for long and/or difficult patterns.
   --tomorrow
   --in the cafeteria tomorrow
   --will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow
   --Those boys will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow.
   11. Arrange to present drills in the order of increasing complexity of student response. The question is: How much internal organization or decision making must the student do in order to make a response in this drill. Thus: imitation first, single-slot substitution next, then free response last.

Example of Lesson Plan using the Audiolingual Method

Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Title: Dialogue

Grade: 5th

Concept / Topic to Teach:
Dialogue memorization

Standards Addressed:
Oral Communication

General Goal(s):
The students develop their oral skills by repeating a series of short dialogues

Specific Objectives:
Using short dialogues, the students will be able to:
1. Repeat the dialogues with a partner.
2. Transform questions into statements.
3. Complete a dialog using nouns, verbs or adjectives.

Required Materials:
1. Short readings
2. Dialogues, questions or paragraphs

Anticipatory Set (Lead-In):

1. Greeting
2. Date
3. Roll call (attendance)
4. Introduce the activity by explaining and discussing the dialogue and its parts

Step-By-Step Procedures:
The teacher will give out the dialogues. She will read the dialogue to the students. She will explain if necessary words of the dialogue they don’t understand. The students will read the dialogue to themselves and to the teacher. They will then pair up with another student to practice the dialogue. The will come to the front to practice the dialogue in front of the class. If some of them want they can say it without reading from the paper. The students can create their own dialogue by changing the names or things of the old one. The teacher will ask them a few questions in order to change questions to statements.

Plan for Independent Practice:
The students will fill out the dialogue using noun verbs or adjectives.

Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):
The students will share their dialogues to the rest of the class.