Welcome note!

Hello and welcome to my Education Portfolio. This portfolio aims to illustrate my journey into teaching experience through the description of my teaching methods and the activities with

my students. Moreover, my personal philosophy illustrates my vision of a proper relationship between teachers and students, the purpose of education and the creation of a positive classroom. I invite you to explore it and get a sense of who I am as an educator. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Maria-Mersini PananakiWith regards,

PersonalPhilosophy

Activitieswith Students

Profession’sRewards

Lesson Plan

Table of contents

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My philosophy of teaching and my personal goal is to watch my students fulfilling their potential and growing as learners. An es-sential part of my teaching mentality is that my classrooms are inclusive and functioning as a whole. In other words, students should have equal opportunities of participating and expressing themselves. Every individual should be integrated and feel secure and one of the key-factors is group work. In this way, students learn to share, collaborate and socialize. The interac-tion with each other allows them to exchange ideas and accept different opinions.

Teachers should have many roles in order to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom. They should be controllers, ad-ministrators, advisors and pedagogues. I would like to guide my students, motivate them and teach them the value of education. Moreover, the teacher should be fair and not judgmental. Every student is able to learn but everyone with their own pace and therefore, the teacher has to respect their needs. Another es-sential part of my personal philosophy is that children, parents and other teachers see me as someone who can trust and build an honest relationship.

Students

Teacher’s role

Personal Philosophy

What I learned from my experience is that children appreciated my efforts and rewarded me in different ways every time, such as with drawings, flowers and letters. The most important of all though, was that they reciprocated the love I showed to them.

Personal Philosophy

Personal Experience

Each lesson is divided in four steps :

Lesson Plan

Defining Objectives Materials

Lesson Plan

Procedure

Assessment

Teachers should have many roles in order to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom. They should be controllers, ad-ministrators, advisors and pedagogues. I would like to guide my students, motivate them and teach them the value of education. Moreover, the teacher should be fair and not judgmental. Every student is able to learn but everyone with their own pace and therefore, the teacher has to respect their needs. Another es-sential part of my personal philosophy is that children, parents and other teachers see me as someone who can trust and build an honest relationship.

Collages and crafts for Christmas, Easter and HalloweenStudents had the opportunity to collaborate with each other and with the help of the teacher they created colorful crafts as decorative for the classroom or as pre-sents for friends and family. In the collages, they included relevant vocabulary for each occasion which was taught in previous lessons. Children used their imagina-tion and the result was fascinating.

Songs and theatrical play for ChristmasThe students started preparing for the Christmas celebration in the school few weeks before the Christmas break. We started from learning few lines of the carols, then small verses and in the end students were able to sing the whole song. I chose also a short theatrical play for kids. Each student picked a character and we rehearsed in the classroom. The day of celebration, every child was dressed according to his/her role, such as elves, Santa etc. Parents and teachers were also present and in the end, everyone exchanged gifts.

Party for national day-Carnival All teachers cooperated and we organized a party which is similar to Halloween but it included a big BBQ instead of sweets. So, all of us wore costumes and stu-dents divided into two big classrooms. In my classroom where I was the leader, I organized games, dancing contest and singing. Children were excited since everyone won in the end and had great fun.

Activities with Students

Activities for holidays and national days from previous experience

Taboo cardsI created small cards including vocabulary relevant to students’ level. Each card had a word on top and three other words on the bottom. The students were divid-ed into two teams. Each team had to describe the top word without saying the rest of them and the other team tried to guess. Children found this game entertaining and at the same time it was useful since they practiced speaking and listening.

Short-animation filmsStudents were watching short films and then they were supposed to answer to questions regarding the plot and the characters or write a small summary of the film

if they were in older classes.

Digital learningThe school provided a variety animated DVD’s that included a wide range of games, quizzes and songs for learning the colors, the alphabet and many more themes for early childhood learning. Students had the opportunity to learn useful vocabulary by interacting with each other and having fun.

Story-tellingI used a variety of books for children which combine story-telling and small quizzes. Children were fascinated because every time they were looking forward to listening to a new story.

Activities with Students

Extra Activities in the Classroom

These are some of the drawings that my students offered me during the school year.

Profession’s Rewards

Profession’s Rewards

Children's imagination and creativity have wonderful results.

The best reward for a teacher is the students' smiles when they enter the classroom