Chelsey Hood
April 24, 2013
My Teaching Philosophy
As I being to develop my teaching philosophy I find
myself reflecting on the education that I received and continue to seek. One of
the biggest conclusions I have made during this reflection is the personal
growth and development that I have undergone. I believe that my development is
not solely because of my teachers and education but the role that school played
in my development has been crucial. The experiences I have had inside and
outside of the classroom throughout my life so far have helped me become the
person I am today and will shape the teacher I will be.
As
a future educator I hope that I can play a positive role in my students’ lives
as they grow and develop during the short year they will spend in my classroom.
Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote in Emilie that education comes to us from three
places, “Nature, Men and Other Things, (Rousseau, 1762)” and that we should
give children space to learn on their own. Something I took away from Rousseau
is that we need to let children be children. They need time and space to
explore and learn outside of direct instruction from adults. What I am taking
from this is that I hope as an educator I can guide my students to become life
long learners, not just pupils in a classroom. I hope that I can show my
students why learning is not something that ends after high school, college or
graduate school but that it continues throughout our lives and that if we learn
to love learning we will be able to utilize education to help us grow into the
people we are meant to become.
Learning
is a complex concept that can have multiple meanings and can change from
teacher to teacher. In my opinion learning and growing are intertwined. If I am
growing I am learning and if I am learning I am growing. In my opinion a
student is successful in a learning situation if they have been able to think
critically about a concept and applied it to their own life and experiences.
When we think critically about concepts and apply them to our own life
experiences they become part of who we are which is how we grow.
In
order for students to learn and grow I believe that the right environment is
crucial. Students need an environment that cultivates their creativity. There
should be bright colors and posters that inspire ideas and motivation. Students
need to feel safe in their school. Students need to feel comfortable enough and
safe enough to take risks in their school and classroom.
In
Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey there is an entire chapter about
helping students deal with tragedy in their own lives and in the world (Cowhey,
2006). This chapter really hit me hard in the light of recent events at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. This was a terrible tragedy that hit
really close to home but this chapter also spoke about tragedies that happen
around the world and how our students will try to comprehend them. I believe it
is important for students to feel safe in their classroom and school community
in order to learn and grow successfully. Helping students make sense of the
world around them is part of creating that safe environment. Mary Cowhey
suggests ideas that her students did such as drawing pictures, making cards and
holding bake sales to raise money after tragedy struck around the world. She
provides the time and place for students to deal with issues around the world
that affect them. She gives them the time and opportunities they need to talk
about and put into action the ideas they have for being active citizens in
their community and their world. This is what I want for my students as well. I
hope to make my classroom look and feel like a place where my students will
have the opportunity to take risks, ask questions and grow.
I
want to provide students with a place to grow and learn. I want to teach my
students that they have the whole world ahead of them and that they can achieve
anything they dream about. I want to instill in my students a love of learning.
I want to teach because I believe that I can make a difference in the lives of
a small portion of the children in my community. I believe that if I can be the
kind of teacher I hope to be that I will be able to engage my students and
motivate them to be life long learners and help them develop dreams for their
future. I believe that my role as a teacher will be help my students prepare
for their future and guide them through their educational journey that I hope
will last a lifetime.
The
goal I have for my future students is to learn that always striving for
excellence is the ultimate meaning of success. I believe that if my students
leave my classroom knowing that wrong answers and mistakes are not the meaning
of failure and know that always striving to be better is the true meaning of
success then I know they will have reached my ultimate goal for them. It is my
goal for my future students that they leave my class at the end of the year
excited to come back to school in the fall. I want them to have positive
memories of exciting hands-on-learning experiences in my classroom that
motivate them to be excited about returning to school for the next term.
In
order to achieve my goals I plan to include hands on learning experiences for
my students. I don’t want to stand in front of my students and fill their heads
with information but rather provide them with authentic experiences to learn
concepts on their own. I have recently learned and planned a lesson using the
concept development method of instruction. The concept development method is a
method that asks students to develop an understanding of a concept or idea
through their own efforts of investigations. The teacher provides a framework
and guidance for the students to engage in developing an understanding of a new
idea using their critical thinking skills. I believe that this method of
instruction is a great way to motivate my students to become engaged in their
education. According to the ideas presented about the banking concept Paulo
Freire says that “education is suffering from narrative sickness” (Freire,
1973, 103). I agree with Freire that by just trying to fill my students with
information I will not be helping them learn however by using a problem posing
method my students will be able to take various pathways and use strategies
that fit their learning needs to arrive at the same learning objectives. I also
plan to use simulations and interactive lessons as my primary method of
instruction because I want all of my students to be actively engaged in the
learning. I hope to use direct instruction as little as possible and when I do
need to use this method I will work it in as a piece of an interactive unit.
Reflecting
on my education I do believe that it was filled with authentic learning
experiences that engaged my in the learning process just as Freire suggests. I
remember having units that would culminate in a grade wide performance or a
cultural day to experience the parts of a culture we had been learning about.
In second grade we learned about the countries in Asia by traveling to
different second grade classrooms and spending part of a day there with a
different teacher. Each room was decorated to look like that country. We
listened to music, wore costumes, tasted food and experienced a culture rather
that just listening to direct instruction from our regular teachers. Its
authentic experiences like this that I plan to bring into my own classroom.
If
an outsider were to walk in and observe me interacting with my students I hope
that they will say that I am very open with my students. I hope that an
observer will say that I interact with my students in a way that allows my
students to be completely open and honest with me and that my students feel
comfortable enough to ask questions and take risks. I want to work with
students because I believe that having positive influences in school shapes who
a student will become as they grow up. I want to be part of helping my future
students become happy, healthy, successful adults. I believe that as a teacher
I have the opportunity to influence my students’ futures and who they will
become as adults.
In
order to asses my students’ understanding I want to asses their growth. In the
test driven world we are entering as new teachers I know that my students will
face strict grading and evaluations often. It is my belief that as often as
possible my students should be evaluated based on their growth and engagement.
If I see that my student has worked hard by being actively engaged in their
learning and has made progress in learning concepts I will evaluate them
accordingly. If I see a student has not made progress I will have to evaluate
their level of engagement in the lessons surrounding that concept and see if
there is something I can do to increase their engagement. I want to see
students excited about learning something new and turning educational
experiences into true learning that will help them grow and develop.
One
of the questions Herbert Kohl suggests new and hopeful teachers ask themselves
is “what do you want from the children? Do you want them to do well on tests?
Learn particular subject matter” (Kohl, 20)? Although I hope my students will
do well on tests I know that every student I have will be different and they
won’t all be good test takers. What I want from my students is growth and
development. I want my students to develop into life long learners. I want my
students to have a positive experience in my classroom where they learn that
learning can be fun so that they look for fun ways to learn throughout their
lives.
A
goal that I have for myself as a teacher is to never be done learning. I
believe there will always be new ideas for teachers to learn about and bring
into their classroom. I hope to continue my professional growth by attending
conferences, reading articles, attending professional development events and by
taking courses from time to time to refresh my teaching methods and learn about
new ideas.
I
am really looking forward to taking on the large responsibility of having my
own classroom. I am excited about the opportunity I will have to be part of the
growth and development of so many young students. I hope that I will be
remembered by my students as a positive influence in their lives when they
graduate from high school or college and reflect on their educational journey.
One last belief that I hold as a future educator is that I believe my teaching
philosophy will be ever changing. I believe that as I gain experience as a
teacher I will continue to develop my beliefs and my teaching pedagogy.
Bibliography
Cowhey, Mary. (2006). Black Ants
and Buddhists. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Freire, Paulo. (1973). Foundational
Education. (3rd ed., p. 103). Los Angeles.
Kohl, Herbert. (1976). Educational
Foundation. (3rd ed., p. 20). Los Angeles.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. (1762). Emile.
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