Ms.

Sitterleys Professional Teaching Philosophy They say that time flies when youre having fun, but what about when you are in school? Although school can and should be fun, and will be promoted in my classroom, school should also feel purposeful. endell !erry says that the average time spent in

school is five thousand hours for a student. "ive thousand hours is a long time, but even longer if its time made useless or time spent doing something that ma#es you want to tear your hair out. $n order to be a good teacher, or even a teacher at all for that matter, you have to want to teach and encourage your students to want to be there as well. As a teacher, $ want students to feel that my class is helping them, that it has a purpose for them. The time $ put into teaching, should be both well spent for the student and me. As a student in %lementary school, $ loved all of my teachers, but as $ grew up $ started to sense who was a good teacher and who was not. hen $ was older, $ didnt

&udge a teacher &ust on whether they were nice, $ was more interested in the way they handled their sub&ect matter 'even if $ disli#ed the sub&ect( and whether $ could leave their class and actually have more #nowledge of something than when $ wal#ed in. As a student who strongly disli#ed science growing up, it was difficult for me to &ust pic# #nowledge up in any science class. $f $ left a class #nowing and remembering something from the science lesson, then $ #new my teacher was effective and actually helped me to learn. Personally, if $ did not leave a classroom feeling as if $ gained anything, then the class time was not effective and the teacher did not do a very good &ob teaching. )oming from a very well rounded high school that offers many different classes and electives, $ believe in the *gods of general education.+ $ feel that if a student does not #now their basic fundamentals and have e,posure to them 'even if they #now later on in

life that they will possibly never use the fundamental classes they learned in high school ever again(, then they will probably most li#ely not be a very well rounded individual. $ thin# that even if a student thin#s that they will never use certain math s#ills again. $t could be time well spent and beneficial for them to ta#e math courses anyway, as long as a student can ta#e something away from the class instead of &ust sitting through it because they have to. Ponder this- if a student had not been given the opportunity to ta#e math classes, then they would not #now if they did not li#e math or that they may not need it for the field of study that they want to pursue. As a teacher, $ want my students to #now the importance of #eeping their #nowledge up in multiple sub&ect matters, not &ust the ones they feel they are going to use. Although $ will be teaching %nglish and am terrible with science for e,ample, $ still believe that science is important and $ will tell this to my students. $t is very negative and unbecoming to bash other sub&ects from the one you teach as a teacher because then it shows your students that you only care about the one sub&ect that you personally teach. $f students feel their teacher is sub&ect.bias, they may feel that your e,pectations for them will be too high in your sub&ect matter, or if a student does not really en&oy the sub&ect you teach then they may be more li#ely to feel discouraged. /afe %s0uith would probably agree with this, because although he is very passionate about Sha#espeare and has a strong focus on literature in his classroom, he still pushes and has high e,pectations for his students in other sub&ects as well. $n my classroom students will e,perience strong motivation and high e,pectations. 1ust as /afe %s0uith in his classroom and 1aime %scalante in Stand & Deliver had high e,pectations for their students, $ will have the same. $ #now that in each classroom $ teach, the e,pectations will be situational. 2ou can not e,pect the same all

the time from one class to another, although you can motivate the same amount. %ach class is different and $ feel that many teachers do not recogni3e this, but they should and should be tuned in to the differences from class to class. As a teacher $ will also be very aware of my surroundings. $ have seen many teachers4professors go on teaching as if nothing is happening because they either do not want to deal with the situation or they &ust do not notice when a student is upset. $t is not a teachers &ob to act as guidance counselor, but it is a teachers &ob to teach. $f a student is creating a distraction while being upset, it is most beneficial for me as the teacher, the student upset, and the entire class, to get the upset student out of the classroom and feeling better. hether this be done by sending them to the bathroom or guidance during

a brea# $ ma#e for other students to do class wor#, it does not matter as long as that student is o#ay and not disrupting the rest of the class from learning. As a teacher $ must always remember that it is my goal to teach in the end. $ am and should not be considered more than a students teacher. Although it is hard sometimes not to learn more about students lives, students need to #now that $ will be a mandated reporter, $ am not a guidance counselor or social wor#er, $ am not their best friend or parent, but $ am their teacher and my main goal is to further their education in %nglish. $ admit that this will be difficult at times, but $ #now that it is also o#ay to be close with your students on a certain level. $ feel that as a teacher $ have the right to tell students what $ e,pect of them in my classroom. This could raise the issue of teaching students morals, but $ plan to only teach them positive morals that they should pursue while in my classroom. 5ow students choose to behave outside of my classroom is their decision, but in my classroom $ e,pect

students to have a common respect for each other, school materials, and myself. Although the values and morals $ have and will e,pect in my classroom may be different from those the student is used to or practices at home, $ do not thin# that it will be a problem. $ &ust as# that all of my students uphold the common courtesy that $ feel is beneficial to have within a positive classroom, and $ will give them all the same courtesy in return. This concept will also be incorporated into a small form each student and one of their parent4guardians will need to sign in the beginning of the first 0uarter of school to promise they will adhere to my classrooms courtesy procedures. This brings me to the point that no matter where $ teach, there are going to be people who believe differently than $ do, or possibly differently from the person sitting ne,t to him4her. hether in a public school, private school, trade school, etc. people are

going to believe and feel different. 6o matter what the name of the school is that $ teach in, it will always be public in some way. $t is almost impossible not to consider a private school public when the views that private school students have are more than li#ely coming from the public and their surroundings. %ven if students are all females and )atholic and attend a private all girls )atholic school, there are going to be discrepancies between the beliefs of the individuals within the school. $ believe that everyone should have the same basic education, which is also why $ believe in the *gods of general education.+ 6o matter what school someone attends, students should receive the same type of education. After high school or finishing whatever a student wants to finish, a student has many choices to choose the path they want to go down for their future. hichever path they choose will be easier to ma#e $ believe, if they have a good bac#ground and e,posure of general education. $n 6ew 2or# State we have the 6o )hild

7eft !ehind Act, but if every student receives a different education and has an opportunity to learn different things from another student. $n a way this can be considered leaving a child behind. As a teacher $ will use each students five thousand hours to the best of my ability. $ will not let a student leave my classroom unless $ feel that $ have taught them something or feel that they are developing a process of understanding something better in my classroom. $f $ do not feel that all my students have benefited at least once due to my teaching during a lesson, $ will not be happy with my teaching ability and will wor# harder towards reaching that goal. My students will #now what $ e,pect from them and will be motivated to reach the potential that $ see in them. Students in my class will be as#ed to follow the rules and values that $ set in my classroom but will #now that they can do as they feel outside of it. $ will teach my students that $ am not trying to change them, but change the way they act around certain people and get them to understand that $ cannot tell them who to be when they leave my classroom. They ultimately have to figure it out for themselves.