Week One: Educational Philosophy Rough Draft

My definition of a great teacher is one who is effective and energetic about teaching. A great teacher is aware of the varied learning styles present in the classroom and strives to meet the needs of every child in order to encourage the efforts necessary for academic success. In my classroom, I want my students to gain a strong sense of self-worth and to embrace their individual strengths and gifts.

Since deciding to become a teacher at a very young age, I have known that I would like to be most like some of the wonderful teachers I have had over the years who had a zest for their jobs. My favorite teacher I ever had in school was my second grade teacher, Mrs. Brown. She was so enthusiastic about school and teaching and learning. I can remember her climbing onto a desk and singing at the top of her lungs to capture our attention. She also got us involved in a pen pal program that year. My pen pal was a second grade girl named Sharon who lived on a farm in a small town in New York. That year Sharon and I exchanged letters, art and Valentines and forged a bond while learning a bit about life in a different part of the world than which we lived. Mrs. Brown also gave me my first solo opportunity in our class Christmas concert. She came to me and asked if I would like to sing the verses to Jingle Bells as a solo when we visited other second grade classrooms. I remember feeling great about the fact that my beloved Mrs. Brown thought I was talented enough to take on this responsibility. Mrs. Brown made school and learning fun and exciting. She was stern when necessary but also nurturing and kind. I never wanted to miss school for any reason the year I was in her class and had the Perfect Attendance Award to prove it. Mrs . Brown provided me with many opportunities to learn and grow in my studies but also as a person. This is the kind of impact I want to have on my students.

I have had a few teachers over the years that were sub-par, but the one who comes to mind is Ms. Barber, my Spanish I teacher in high school. Everyone thought her class was a joke. I was not a strong student, and I remember using a cheat sheet during a quiz I had to take in tutorial due to an absence. Ms. Barber caught me cheating and allowed me to take the quiz a second time, which, at the time seemed awesome, but in retrospect, I think she missed an opportunity to teach me a lesson or prove a point about cheating. She should have given me a zero. It was not until Spanish II that I actually began to learn anything about the Spanish language. Ms. Barber spent more time teaching us the poem about the months with 30 or 31 days and never even taught us the Spanish alphabet. She was old and, I think, just holding out for retirement instead of being concerned with effective teaching. Ms. Barber is a great example of the type of teacher I do not want to become. In her perceived effort to stay in the classroom until retirement, she lost any effectiveness and fire for teaching she might have once possessed. Because of this attitude, she overlooked numerous opportunities to teach her students--ABCs or otherwise.

I became Ms. Barber when I taught third grade because I was truly unhappy in my job. I was just hanging on until Christmas/Spring Break/summer vacation and not being effective in my teaching. Once I realized this about myself, I knew I had to make a change. At the end of the year, I quit my job and began the new school year teaching preschool, which I loved right up until I decide to stay home with my daughter. It is the love of teaching I felt in the classroom with my three-year old students that will get me back in the classroom someday.

When I read through the six different educational philosophies, I found that I tend to gravitate towards the Constructivism and Pragmatism ways of thinking. Because I hope to teach kindergarten someday and my training is in Early Childhood education, I applied and compared these two philosophies to my experiences in the preschool/kindergarten classroom. Like the Constructivist point of view, I like to provide my students with the opportunity to create and construct their own knowledge instead of creating an environment where each child's end product looks exactly the same. Instead of giving each child a reproducible art activity, for example, I would rather provide different supplies and mediums so that each can create his/her own personal response to a prompt or topic. Another area within the Constructivist approach that I agree with is the encouragement that is present for students to become autonomous--to do things for themselves independently. I find this especially true for the younger students.

The Pragmatic point of view is described as 'discovery education.' I like the fact that this educational philosophy believes in applying facts and ideas to real world problems and promotes problem solving skills. I also appreciate the importance that is placed on flexibility and variety in the classroom. I like having learning centers in my classroom because it allows me to change the various center activities to reflect the needs of my students, as well as the different environments my students might come in contact with at school, at home and in the community. I like for my students to have hands-on experiences in learning, another characteristic of the pragmatic approach. I have found that when learning takes place through hands-on activities, it is often more enjoyable for all involved and tends to make a more lasting impression on the minds of the students.

I decided to become a teacher because it is something I have always wanted to do. I enjoy working with young children and helping them learn and become independent thinkers. I do not feel that technology played a part in my initial decision to become a teacher; however, technology is a much more prominent factor in our daily activities, now more than ever, and as teachers, it is our job to provide our students with the proper technology education that will help protect them while they surf the web and will enable them to become proficient technology users. I did not do an adequate job of integrating technology into my lessons when I taught before, and I feel this is directly related to my own lack of knowledge and training in many types of technology. I hope to learn about some new ways to bring technology into the classroom when I go back to teaching one day. I will strive to be an 'informator' by identifying which types of technology and information is needed to improve the learning taking place in my classroom and at my school and by finding ways to connect my students to others by utilizing technology in the classroom.

*The benefit to having my educational philosophy down on paper is the opportunity it gave me to sit down and take a good look at myself as a teacher and think about why I think and teach the way I do. Having this philosophy statement will also help me to focus on the different areas of education where I can continue to make improvements and adjustments as needed.