Barbara DuVan-Clarke

December 1, 2014
PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
A long and winding road led me to the decision to become a teacher. I am a licensed
attorney in the State of California, and for a long time I believed that lawyering would be a great
fit for me both personally and professionally. I became a plaintiffs-side employment
discrimination and catastrophic injury lawyer, helping people who suffered discrimination or
tragic injury due to someone elses negligence or faulty products. About five years into the
practice, I concluded that being a lawyer was not the right career for me. I decided that I wanted
to have a work-life balance while still doing something fulfilling, and working 80-hour weeks
was not conducive to having a family or personal life. I thought for a long time about what
would allow me to still make a tangible difference in peoples lives. I thought about the twentytwo years I had spent in school from preschool through law school, and it occurred to me that
there were people along the way who had inspired me to reach further and try harder my
teachers. So I concluded that is what I wanted to do with my life. I hope that you read further
and understand my philosophy of teaching.
Why I Want to be a Teacher:
I have had several great teachers who inspired my creativity and who pushed me to
achieve. I will be eternally grateful for those teachers, and one of the best ways to honor them is
to help students in the same way I was helped. Teaching is a good fit for me both professionally
and personally (see above), and still allows me to help the world become a better place. This is
the perfect fit for me. I am enthusiastic about giving students the kind of inspiration I was given
as a child.

Education in Todays Society:

I think that todays teachers are facing an uphill battle on several fronts. Students are less
interested in school and more interested in technology, and that process has caused a lack of
humanity and personal contact. While technology can help students, it must not be the only
source of input. A balance is necessary to make sure that our children are learning in the best
way possible to achieve as much as possible. Our job as educators is to find and develop ways of
giving students these tools to succeed.
What is Good Teaching?
A good teacher is one who encourages students to reach beyond what they thought was
possible. As clich as that may sound, it is true. Students will generally live up, or down, to
expectations. That is why it is necessary to set high yet attainable expectations for our children
in the classroom and give them the tools to reach those goals. Further, students must be given
individualized goals because the one-size-fits-all approach to education has failed our students
for far too long. A good teacher is one who works to integrate the different types of intelligence
in lesson plans in order to reach each child and give them different avenues for achieving their
dreams.
Methods of Instruction:
Successful methods of instruction are going to vary from year to year, and even student to
student. Not all students learn in the same ways. Not all lessons will get through to each child.
The trick is going to be integrating different forms of instruction across the topics in order to
make sure that each child can learn. In this regard, I intend to use small group work, individual
work, homework, projects (both individual and group), presentations (both individual and
group), quizzes, oral question and response, lecture, and end of unit tests. I plan on using guest

speakers and field trips based on availability, technology as available, and I plan on having an
integrated classroom for those students with special needs.