My philosophy for teaching has evolved from my classroom experience as a preservice teacher in the Bozeman Public School District,

along with the vast amount of

teaching strategies and philosophies I have been exposed to in my course work here at
Montana State University. As a teacher candidate, it is my mission to create a positive
learning environment where all students have the opportunity to become life-long
learners.
First and foremost, I hope to facilitate learning in my classroom by providing
engaging activities that spark a passion for learning for all students. I hope to accomplish
this by integrating student choice into a variety of assignments, while also aligning
instruction to students individual needs. By taking into account students individual
interests, passions, and desires along with their academic needs I hope to create a positive
classroom environment where all students have a passion to learn based on intrinsic
motivation.
As a teacher candidate, I think that creating a positive learning environment
where all students feel cared for and respected is absolutely essential. I hope to build a
strong classroom community by facilitating several team-building activities in the
classroom, and also by allowing students to collaboratively come up with ideas for
classroom rules and procedures at the beginning of the academic year. Not only does this
give the children opportunities to work together to come up with ideas, but it also gives
them accountability in regards to following these rules and procedures.
My personal teaching style is highly influenced by the view of constructivism and
humanism. This means that as a teacher I believe that students construct their own
understanding through experiencing, engaging, and experimenting with a variety of
subjects. I hope to implement student-centered instruction into my classroom by
providing engaging activities that are inquiry based and giving all students the
opportunity to deepen their understanding of a topic through exploration rather than
solely through lecture time. I believe that making instruction in the classroom studentcentered, engaging, differentiated, and relevant will foster a love of learning for all
students.
As a teacher candidate, I plan to assess learning in the classroom through a
variety of ways such as, implementing self-evaluation along with problem, project, or
performance-based assessments. These assessments will most likely take the form of
presentations, portfolios, diagrams, papers, and oral or written tests. I plan to provide a
variety of ways to truly assess what the students know, and also plan to provide a rubric
for each project based assessment so the students clearly know and understand the
expectations and requirements set forth for each project.
In conclusion, I hope to integrate the principles stated above into my own
teaching experience in order to foster a positive learning environment where all students
feel safe, respected, cared for, and passionate and enthusiastic about learning. May every
student in my classroom develop a desire to pursue his or her own goals while building a
strong foundation for life-long learning.