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Teaching: My Personal Philosophy

I often think about the purpose of education and the role I wish to play.
While it is important to teach students about literary techniques and to
familiarize them with Shakespeare, their education is much more than filling
their minds with knowledge. My goal is to teach to help inspire my students
to find what motivates them and to pursue it. This idea closely aligns with
the critical theory of education which emphasizes the benefits education can
bring to a society. I strongly agree that society can improve through
education and, as an educator, I will play a big role in this. This task seems
daunting at times, however I learned the value of a good teacher when I was
in the sixth grade. Mr. Wajerski supported and encouraged all of his students.
I remember feeling engaged in class and eager to share my own
experiences. The fact that I can still recall the way that he made me feel
makes me realize the impact educators can have on a student, which both
excites and intimidates me. When I teach, I hope to create an atmosphere
similar to the one I had in my sixth grade classroom.

Mr. Wajerski may be my inspiration for pursuing teaching as a career,

however I need to take into consideration what will work best for me as well
as the students that I will be teaching to create my own philosophy of
education. I am a secondary education major, therefore the classes that I will
be teaching will range in age from twelve to eighteen so I must take into

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consideration puberty and how it affects students moods and daily learning.
This aspect of my philosophy was pulled from Rousseau who believed in
development-based learning. While older teenagers may look like adults it is
important to remember that they are not yet fully developed. It is also
important to keep in mind that some students, middle school in particular,
might have difficulty sitting for an entire class period, discussing a difficult
topic because they are not mature enough.

I may also teach in classrooms with students who come from

backgrounds in which I am not familiar. When I think about this I am
reminded of Aristotle, who believed education was the most important part
of life and that it was not limited to filling a students mind with information;
but that education is a balance of body, mind and soul. These beliefs closely
align with my own on what I believe education should be. With such a wide
variety of possibilities, it will be my responsibility to create and implement
effective lessons and teaching strategies for my community of learners. To
do this, one must understand what makes up a community of learners, which
is a group of individuals who actively engage in learning from one another.
This also includes the teacher, who should set out to not only teach her
students, but to learn from them as well. This concept is very closely aligned
with John Dewey and his belief that the teacher should learn alongside the
students.

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To create this community it is vital to make the learners feel that the
classroom is a safe place to share their opinions and beliefs. Students should
also feel challenged, but not overwhelmed. This part of my philosophy stems
from Socrates and Plato. They believed in the importance of pushing
students to think critically which also presents an opportunity to cater to the
needs of each individual student. Each classroom has students of different
ability levels. A strategy to meet the needs of each student is the use of
cooperative learning. A way that I have learned to use cooperative learning
in the classroom is to group students using their MAPS test scores. To ensure
an equally heterogeneous group, the teacher should place students in groups
of about four. One student being a high performer, one a lower performer,
and two that fall in the middle. This strategy allows for students to have
more time to share their opinions with an academically diverse group. The
use of small groups also encourages increased participation from each
student. While the students are participating in the small groups the teacher
can do informal assessment by circulating throughout the room and
assessing the comprehension of each student by listening to the groups and
asking questions that appropriately push the level of thinking for the
individual based on their ability level (this method of critical thinking was
also something that Socrates and Plato believed in). While this is one
strategy that I have found to be effective, there are many other ways to help
a healthy community of learners.

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Pushing students to achieve academically by using effective teaching
methods such as cooperative learning can only be done if the teacher
understands her students. To get to know students the teacher should reach
out to their families in the beginning of the year and maintain fairly regular
contact with them throughout the year. Having consistency in the classroom
and at home is a great way to motivate students to achieve. To learn about
what interests your students and about their diverse backgrounds are
integral parts of Deweys philosophy. He believed that learning should be
interest-based, which also engages students.

I have found that diversity can actually be an interesting topic for

students. Diversity in the classroom should be celebrated and can help
support a larger world view; a way to do this in an English classroom is to
give students journaling time. Journal topics should vary from week to week.
Sometimes it may be helpful to give students a topic to discuss, such as a
current event to bring a sense of global awareness into the classroom, and
other times the teacher can simply allow students to write about what they
please. The possibilities for this activity are virtually endless. A lesson idea to
expand upon the journaling time and to encourage self-expression is to allow
students to pick one journal entry from the month and make it into a more
formal piece of writing. This allows students to have some freedom in their
choices and it is also likely that they will be engaged with the assignment as
it is something with which they have a personal connection. This assignment

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not only allows for the student to improve upon their writing skills, it also
helps the teacher to form a connection with her class.

I chose the journaling activity because it ties in many of the

philosophical ideas that make up my own philosophy. For instance,
phenomenology discusses a persons need to pull meaning from their own
experiences. I believe there is value in analyzing the events that occur in
your life as well, and I felt that this would be a great way to practice this part
of my philosophy with my own class in the future. This is also very similar to
the analytic philosophy in that students will be required to go back and
clarify their thoughts and to write with meaning when they are asked to
polish a journal entry and to create a more formal piece of writing; which is
also an aspect of the analytic philosophy.

Another way to cater to the needs of your students and to encourage a

healthy learning environment is to take into consideration the way in which
each student learns; because each student is different and while it is
important to create whole-class activities, it is equally as important to think
about the individual. This part of my philosophy was taken from the
existentialist approach of focusing on the individual. While some students
may enjoy journaling on their own, others may prefer a group discussion and
it is the responsibility of the teacher to create opportunities for each student
to achieve in a way that works best for them. Talking to faculty and staff can

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be helpful in learning about students. This can be done even before the
school year begins by asking colleagues who have had the students about
assignments they seemed to enjoy as well as things they may struggle with.
This is beneficial because staff can work together to find out what works best
for each student and other faculty members may be able to provide some
helpful ideas. While there is value in learning a little about your class before
you meet them it is also important to keep an open mind. If a student had a
difficult time following directions in one class, it does not mean you should
go into the year expecting negative behavior; it is also possible that the
student is unaware of how to behave. This is also something I thought about
a lot in reference to my own philosophy and how Aristotle believed that
morals are something that have to be taught. As teachers we often go into a
classroom assuming students know how to be respectful and what is
appropriate. However, things like this need to be taught, even in secondary
education.
When I initially thought about my own teaching philosophy I tried to
think of a singular statement that would sum up my beliefs on education.
However, the more I thought about all of the components that make up a
great teacher and reflected on those who have inspired me, I realized that
my philosophy was far too complex to be summed up in a few sentences. I
also realized that it is continuously evolving as I continue to learn and gain
experience. After taking this into consideration, I came to the conclusion that
my teaching philosophy, at its core, is to learn from my students and to

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support them as best as I can academically and emotionally. My focus must
be on each individual as well as the group. Which may seem contradicting at
times, however this is why I referred to my philosophy as ever changing and
growing based on the needs of my students. While my philosophy may
continue to change as I gain experience; I believe that the foundation from
which I have built it through my studies thus far will remain the same.