Education is one of the most valued belongings someone can have, and it can never be taken away from you. While there may be many ways to describe it, I believe that the purpose of education is to enhance your learning, to prepare you for a lifetime career, and introduce you to the outside world. Education is not only to prepare oneself for the future, but also to enrich your life and the lives of everyone around you. The purpose of being educated is also to get to know yourself, be happy, learn social skills, and everything that is involved in being able to get a job and contribute your part to society. I think about education as all of the fundamentals and keys to learning how to survive in the immense world ahead. Education is learning from other humans. At no given age does someone stop learning; Learning is a constant, life-long process. The development of education and learning is like giving your brain food. Given that everyone is unique and we all have different interests, personalities, and most importantly, learning preferences, there are going to be many times during a student’s educational career when they learned something better because of the environment in which it was learned. Children learn best when there is structure in the classroom, but not too much, therefore a classroom should have a daily routine. This will help the students to remember what is being expected of them, and to allow them to be responsible for part of their learning. Peer collaboration is important for all students because this is the time where they are able to learn from one another. The teacher should also provide interesting activities the students can relate to. The activities should make the students comfortably uncomfortable in their zone of proximal development. A student’s zone of proximal development is right on the edge of their comfort zone. The teacher should be able to identify where this zone is and then provide curriculum that pushes and challenges them. The student should have many questions about the topic of study, and be eager to explore more. The activities should enhance the student’s learning because they are pushing the student to critically think and apply what they know to real- world scenarios. The level of difficulty of these activities should be slightly above what the child is comfortable doing. Children will respond best if you attract them through their interests. I believe that when students are able to engage with the material, have group discussions, and participate in hands-on projects, it will help with their retention. I think it is important for students to be able to engage with the material by working in groups with their peers. Classrooms should be a place in which the students will practice everyday people skills. Social skills like learning to share, communicating, working together and being a respectful friend will be important to practice. Every student will need to understand and use social skills, as these skills will stay with them through life because they will interact with people everyday. Learning how to interact with people will be an ongoing learning process for as long as they live, as adults are still learning how to tackle this. The students will need to practice emotional skills, such as being able to express their feelings the way they want to; suitably and politely. I feel that it is only right for children to be able to freely express themselves with all due respect and appropriateness. Every unique individual who has a part in our society adds to our diversity. With so many diverse perspectives, each student should have the right to intellectually develop by allowing themselves and their classmates to learn and make mistakes with no put downs, only positive words. School should be a place where students understand it is ok to make mistakes, because that is how we learn. The teacher should facilitate and lead the students to create a safe, fun, and positive learning environment accepting each student for who they are, supporting one another with each mistake, and celebrating each milestone they achieve. It is very important for the teacher to work with all the students build a community in the classroom. A community where all of the students feel included, safe and challenged. This community is important because a classroom will include students who need to work together for an entire year, respecting one another, and being able to support and foster each other’s learning. Without this community, there would be no safe zone for learning. Children should also learn in school that being physically active is important for their long-term health. Physical education should be part of the curriculum because this is when they learn the proper skills to keep their body healthy. It is also important for children to be active because it keeps their imagination and creativity flowing. The more children learn about the environment and how to live a healthy lifestyle, the greater the chance they will keep healthy habits as they grow older. As they grow older, children learn how to control their body movements. However, in order to learn how to control their body, they need to be given the chance to move around and explore these actions. A good environment for learning includes an abundance of learning materials, resources, positivity, and attention to cleanliness. Learning happens best with materials and resources that are readily available and easy to access. Teachers should have shelves full of learning materials and each learning material should have a purpose. The purpose should be related to a developmentally appropriate skill or academia for the student. Students benefit from the use of hands-on materials as they construct an understanding. By discovering on their own, students’ interest in the curriculum tends to increase. A fun and exciting environment tends to keep the students on their toes and eager to learn more. Once students learn a concept, and are able to go and use what they just learned in an applied setting, they will gain a fuller understanding of the material. Teachers should make sure students are aware of the learning targets of each lesson and the reason why they are doing it. This will help the student to understand what the concept is they are learning. Along with a variety of materials and resources, a clean environment is a necessity. Just like at home, students need to understand how to keep their learning environment clean, neat, and user friendly. This includes putting things back where they belong, being respectful with their materials so they last a long time, cleaning up after themselves, and simply doing the right thing. All children have basic needs to be met in order to be successful. I believe some of these are: support, courage, nurture, and motivation. Young students do not usually understand why they are going to school, and how it will benefit them in the present and in the future. However, while they are learning, children need support from the adults in their lives. Their families, teachers and peers need to be supportive and invested in them. This gives the child strength and courage to go to school everyday with a positive attitude and willingness to learn. Children find learning intriguing when they finally comprehend the material. I will always work to meet the needs of my students because I am nurturing, like a mother bird. In order to be a teacher, one must have traits that are going to help all of the students learn and thrive in the classroom. Teachers should be passionate, patient, supportive, positive, and most knowledgeable about their subject/specialty area. Teachers should be professional and treat every student with respect. The teacher should be the role model in the classroom as they facilitate students’ learning. Teachers need to be able to present developmentally appropriate curriculum and learning materials to their respective grades. They should be passionate about their job and the role they play in children’s lives, as well as maintaining a passion about children in general. Teachers have the future leaders of the world in their hands. Knowing your students well inside the classroom is one thing, but getting to know them outside of the classroom is important as well, because it shows that you care about them and helps you know them better to allow you as their teacher to better meet their needs and interests. Showing your interest in them and their outside sports, activities, and interests outside of school will help them to understand that you care and are there for them. A teacher should know their students to be able to provide them with everything they need in order to create a better learning environment. A teacher plays a parent role in a child’s life, because everyday they spend about half the day with each child. When they are not with their parents, the next primary adult in a child’s life tends to be their teacher. A teacher should a model of what proper behavior and attitude looks like outside of their home, as well as providing them with the academic skills they need to survive. Teaching by modeling can be a crucial asset to a teacher’s professional development.