About Me

My name is Jill Cronbaugh. I am a senior in Elementary Education at Iowa State University. I am also working to get my minor in Educational Computing. I will be student teaching in the spring in two locations that are yet to be determined.

My philosophy as an educator is to provide a positive atmosphere and high expectations for all students in my classroom. All students have varying ways of learning and each of their needs should be met to the best of the teacher's ability. By differentiating lessons the teacher can adjust for the needs of each student. Students should be given opportunities to construct their own knowledge and build on the knowledge they already have. I want to encourage my students to do well in school and inspire them to enjoy learning.

My expectations for my students will be to work hard to obtain the goals that have been set by them and me. They should have a desire to learn and a willingness to collaborate with their classmates, as well as work individually. I expect students to put forth an effort for every task given to them.

The role of technology in my classroom is to provide additional resources and opportunities for students to learn. Technology can be used for many purposes and will be integrated into the classroom for both student and teacher use. I see technology being used for many lessons and will be integrated following the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework. I believe technology can be integrated into any content area and for any age level.

One of the biggest challenges I see facing K-12 education in the next five years is meeting the needs of English Language Learners. They are responsible for learning the content in the classroom while also learning the English language. With the difficulty of this task they often receive low grades and are then judged to have a lower ability level. Their needs must be met by providing additional support while still keeping them in their usual classroom as much as possible. We must focus on literacy skills to help students do well in all subjects and build on their strengths to encourage them to continue to work hard in the classroom.

The biggest challenge I see affecting my effectiveness as an educator is classroom management. Classroom management is a skill that is hard to teach and takes experience to learn. There is no class offered at ISU that is specific to learning classroom management skills. I want my classroom to be one that flows well and where the students know their responsibilities as a member of the class. There are many little tips I have learned throughout the years, but I feel as though it will be difficult to implement them in a way that the students know what is expected of them.