Teaching Philosophy Change is a hallmark of a teaching career.Each year students come into the classroom, change what the teacher knows about teaching, and then leave the teacher at the end of the school year to start all over again the next year with a new group of students and challenges. Each day offers a different quirk, and each unit presents its challenges. Few things remain constant in teaching. Sometimes the constant may be the teacher that returns to the room each year, but in many ways, even the teacher is transformed. My philosophy of teaching has changed each year that I have been studying and preparing to be the teacher I am today. Few things have remained constant, but my values about education remain the same. I believe that the classroom is a place where all students have the opportunity to fulfill their potential as citizens.It seems that many children have not yet had the experience of learning how to treat each other with respect and how to learn from each other's experiences.In my classroom, I will expect students to build and appreciate a respectful environment where they can take appropriate risks without worrying about others' judgment. It is my hope that when a student leaves my classroom that they will have learned what empathy means and are able to feel empathetic towards others in class as well as in society. The students in my classroom will have opportunities to succeed at an academic rigor level that is appropriate for them.The learners will recognize when they walk through the classroom door the very first day of school that everyone will expect high growth and pushing oneself to achieve great things. Through these expectations students can find consistency and a foundation for achievement. All students will use goal setting throughout the year to keep track of the academic victories they make as the tasks became more difficult.Differentiation plays an important role in the daily effort required by teachers and students to meet these types of long and short term goals.Teachers owe it to their students to give them a work expectation that allows them the opportunity to succeed.Success is truly measured by the amount of learning progress a student can make throughout the year, not by the number of students finished with a certain number of math units by the end of the year. The students that enter my classroom will also enter an environment that encourages preparedness, responsibility and organization.These three interconnected positive habits are keys to success in all ventures of our lives.To keep students accountable for their own work, and to develop the skills necessary to be a successful learner as they get older, they must master organization.Being prepared, organized, and responsible for one's self fosters healthy pride in one's work, effort, and oneself.It instills self-worth in the students and stimulates maturity and confidence. Lastly, students will develop the understanding that completing work does not entitle an extrinsic reward.I hope to work with students to help them learn that the satisfaction, academic, and personal gains made through hard work are really the best reward.Candy, extra recess, and free-time motivate for the short term, but a time will come in a child's life when those rewards hold little value or fail to serve as strong extrinsic motivators.It is unlikely that the satisfaction of achievement and the intelligence gained day after day through a student's effort during school will ever be shown up by an external factor.The confidence associated with academic achievement and social growth gives a greater and more meaningful payment to be used to make future gains in the student's life, short and long term.Plus, the student learns to rely on him or herself, instead of someone or something else, to get their job as students done. The most important philosophy tenet I hold about teaching demands that the teacher never stop learning.With as many expectations as I have about learning for my students, I hold the same number of goals and standards for myself.Expectations for my students to be life-long learners drawing on intrinsic motivation to better themselves and for no other reason, can only be taught and encouraged through example.I hope to lead my students by modeling and not just speaking how they should perform.Showing them my joy in learning can lead by example for all the students I teach.
Teaching Philosophy
Change is a hallmark of a teaching career.Each year students come into the classroom, change what the teacher knows about teaching, and then leave the teacher at the end of the school year to start all over again the next year with a new group of students and challenges. Each day offers a different quirk, and each unit presents its challenges. Few things remain constant in teaching. Sometimes the constant may be the teacher that returns to the room each year, but in many ways, even the teacher is transformed.
My philosophy of teaching has changed each year that I have been studying and preparing to be the teacher I am today. Few things have remained constant, but my values about education remain the same. I believe that the classroom is a place where all students have the opportunity to fulfill their potential as citizens.It seems that many children have not yet had the experience of learning how to treat each other with respect and how to learn from each other's experiences.In my classroom, I will expect students to build and appreciate a respectful environment where they can take appropriate risks without worrying about others' judgment. It is my hope that when a student leaves my classroom that they will have learned what empathy means and are able to feel empathetic towards others in class as well as in society.
The students in my classroom will have opportunities to succeed at an academic rigor level that is appropriate for them.The learners will recognize when they walk through the classroom door the very first day of school that everyone will expect high growth and pushing oneself to achieve great things. Through these expectations students can find consistency and a foundation for achievement.
All students will use goal setting throughout the year to keep track of the academic victories they make as the tasks became more difficult.Differentiation plays an important role in the daily effort required by teachers and students to meet these types of long and short term goals.Teachers owe it to their students to give them a work expectation that allows them the opportunity to succeed.Success is truly measured by the amount of learning progress a student can make throughout the year, not by the number of students finished with a certain number of math units by the end of the year.
The students that enter my classroom will also enter an environment that encourages preparedness, responsibility and organization.These three interconnected positive habits are keys to success in all ventures of our lives.To keep students accountable for their own work, and to develop the skills necessary to be a successful learner as they get older, they must master organization.Being prepared, organized, and responsible for one's self fosters healthy pride in one's work, effort, and oneself.It instills self-worth in the students and stimulates maturity and confidence.
Lastly, students will develop the understanding that completing work does not entitle an extrinsic reward.I hope to work with students to help them learn that the satisfaction, academic, and personal gains made through hard work are really the best reward.Candy, extra recess, and free-time motivate for the short term, but a time will come in a child's life when those rewards hold little value or fail to serve as strong extrinsic motivators.It is unlikely that the satisfaction of achievement and the intelligence gained day after day through a student's effort during school will ever be shown up by an external factor.The confidence associated with academic achievement and social growth gives a greater and more meaningful payment to be used to make future gains in the student's life, short and long term.Plus, the student learns to rely on him or herself, instead of someone or something else, to get their job as students done.
The most important philosophy tenet I hold about teaching demands that the teacher never stop learning.With as many expectations as I have about learning for my students, I hold the same number of goals and standards for myself.Expectations for my students to be life-long learners drawing on intrinsic motivation to better themselves and for no other reason, can only be taught and encouraged through example.I hope to lead my students by modeling and not just speaking how they should perform.Showing them my joy in learning can lead by example for all the students I teach.