Dominique Borrelli
Social Studies Teacher, and Elementary Generalist
Personal Beliefs
KSA P - The importance of guiding their actions with a personal, overall vision of the purpose of teaching. They are able to communicate their vision, including how it has changed as a result of new knowledge, understanding and experience
Core Values
Beliefs about
Students
All students are capable of learning and growing. No student should ever feel inferior.
All students should be given the same opportunities, and given the resources that they need to be successful.
Relationships are the most important I need to establish strong, and lasting relationships with each of my students.
It is important to not only have strong relationships with my students, but also with their parents, and their communities.
Teaching life skills is just as important as teaching students academic skills.
Beliefs about Teachers
As a teacher I need to demonstrate to my students what it means to be honest, respectful, responsible and empathetic.
Being flexible and adaptable is extremely important, but you must always be well-organixed, and ready to go!
Teachers need to have a genuine passion for what they are teaching. When teachers are passionate, students will take interest, as well.
Beliefs about Learning
Learning should be fun, interesting and relevant. The lessons that I create need to somehow connect with my students' lives, and connect with the world around them.
I need to stay up to date on current events, and continously be looking at how to bring them into my classroom.
Students learn best when they know why they are learning all this different information. I need to know why I want my students to learn the information, and I need to be able to show them why the information, or experiene is important.
Mistakes are essential to learning. Students need to know that failure is okay, as long as they keep trying, and learning from their mistakes.
KSA O - The importance of career-long learning. They know how to assess their own teaching and how to work with others responsible for supervising and evaluating teachers. They know how to use the findings of assessments, supervision and evaluations to select, develop and implement their own professional development activities;