Teacher Belief Statement

As teachers, our beliefs and philosophy on education hold the core of our
daily subconscious action in our classroom. This core affects how we believe
students learn, how we administer instruction, and how we reflect on our ability as
teachers. When we start the very first day of teaching, we keep in mind what was
ingrained in us by our undergraduate lessons and the advice we received from
experienced teachers. We also apply theories and practices we observed working in
their classrooms. However, sound advice and successful lessons in one teachers
classroom may not meld with the needs of students in our classroom. As an ESL/ELL
teacher I am responsible for taking into account a students culture, educational
history, special needs, accommodations, family dynamics, personality, history, and
their perspectives in order to teach them, interact with their families, and work with
their other professors. I believe each student learns differently based on their needs
as an individual. However with todays class sizes, this can be difficult to near
impossible to provide. Therefore, teachers need to be mindful of how students learn
and keep in mind their socioeconomics and cultural backgrounds when planning
their lessons. A teachers classroom should also be a safe place where a child is
comfortable, but willing to work, and learn towards the end goal of having the skills
to succeed in and out of the classroom. To achieve these goals as a teacher, I
believe that students needs should be met individually, on a case by case basis,
and instruction should give students what they need and have a relevant and stated
purpose; for this I need to reflect critically on my students needs and my
instructional delivery.
As Dewey (1933, p. 15) wisely stated, unless there has been some
analogous experience, confusion remains mere confusion. That is, one cannot
reflect critically if they do not have the experience on what is discussed. As
teachers, we have a variety of experiences, yet we may find ourselves with the
inability to connect with students that have an experience we have not witnessed.
This requires us to be researchers and inquire more about the childs needs through
their lenses. We need to take a step back and try to see the situation through the
childs or parents eyes. I believe students learn for three reasons, one is the
purpose of the lesson is clear and made relevant to the students needs. A child will
not be willing to put forth the effort to learn something that cannot benefit them or
their family outside of the specific learning environment, or the child will learn the
information, but not retain it. The second reason is mutual respect and open
communication between a teacher and the pupil. It is best explained that students
expect teachers to care for them before the care about school. (Valenzuela, 2009,
page 28) This idea is based on trust and understanding and may take time to
develop; however, mutual respect can be started simply by showing interest in the
students hobbies or family.
I started my student teaching working with high school ESL students, who
were involved in gangs in downtown Richmond. As a young, white, female I was

already labeled by the students when I walked in the door. Without revealing that I
spoke Spanish, halfway through my World History 1 lesson a student whispered to
another a joke about how the new gringa teacher was cute and he would enjoy
spending time with me. This is when I politely thanked him in Spanish for the
compliment, but I was already engaged to someone. I received quite a few laughs
and I quickly explained to them that I was a language learner myself. This gained
the respect of most, but not all of the students. I earned my admirers respect by
not judging him with the strong gang member persona he was building, but through
his love of soccer by coming to a few of his games. I constantly told him that I was
proud of his hard work as a student and of his talent as a soccer player. The third
reason for students to learn is to have a comfortable learning environment that the
students are willing to be challenged in. It is understandable to fear the unknown
and the lack of control. Native students are afraid of mockery or social strife in the
classroom, let alone students from another culture, who are still trying to
understand the dynamics of an American classroom.
These three reasons for student learning have a heavy influence on my
instruction. Students need relevance, so in the beginning of each class I have a
warm-up to introduce the topic of discussion, then share with the students the
objective for class that day and for the week. With the objective I also tell them
what is expected of them to complete and understand each day. With this, there are
no insecurities for the unknown and the students understand what they will be
doing in class that day as well as the rest of the week. I then share a corny joke that
deals with the topic of the lesson. I believe jokes are important to a language
classroom because it helps build understanding of figurative language and idioms. I
also believe instruction needs to have a teacher led component and a student
practice component. Students need explanation of a subjects material that is
interactive and relevant to their learning styles.
For example, during the first week of classes in my level 1 English Language
Learners, we were learning school and classroom vocabulary. After a fun joke, I
showed a power point of the vocabulary with associated pictures. Instead of giving
the student worksheets and flashcards, I printed index card sized copies of the
vocabulary words. The student then got up and walked with me around the room
and I showed them the objects on the cards. Next I passed out tape and the
students placed the words on the items. I also pulled out a large, hand drawn, birds
eye view map of the school that each student receives with their planners. The
names of all rooms and locations were erased off from the map. Once again, I had
the students stand up and walk with me to the map, and then pin the words on the
map. Yet, this only helped the student memorize the location of objects in my
classroom. Afterwards, we went for a little field trip and around the school. This
made the vocabulary words much more relevant to the students and helped them
feel better orientated. The vocabulary words remained on these objects and the

school map was hung on the classroom wall until they were all comfortable with the
vocabulary.
Students need time to interact with the material on their own, and especially
talk and share their own thoughts about the subject. For example, when we read a
chapter of a novel, we will read as a class, stop to have a teacher led discussion
about what happened, and reflect on the events in the chapter. Then I will give the
students a few minutes to discuss their opinions about what happened in the
reading as well as infer what will happen next. However, a small group cannot
happen successfully without clear instructions and purpose given by the teacher.
The role of an accepting environment, and respect from the teacher, is necessary
for a student to be willing to share their opinions and to receive constructive
feedback. These two aspects prevent the students from feeling oppressed and help
them share their own thoughts and opinions. After the students lead an open
discussion or finish individual practices, I have students review by answering three
essential questions before they leave. They bring me their answers individually
and we quietly discuss their answers about the material and have an open
discussion how the students answers are correct or if they could be improved. This
gives relevant practice to the lesson, while having the students feel respected in a
safe environment.
This past year we read the eye opening and sobering novel The Cage by
Ruth Minsky Sender. The novel goes through a first persons eye few of what being a
Jew and a young child during WWII in Poland. It followed a girl until adulthood as she
and her sibling tried to survive the slums and internment camps. This helped my
students better understand what they were learning in World History class. For the
countries that were not directly involved with the World Wars, it common for them
to have never taught about the atrocities that went on there. In American history
classes, this is not a new subject and is quickly reviewed between classes. For my
ELLs, they were hungry to know more about this event, and this novel brought it to
life. My class was twelve students and since I have worked with a majority of them
before, my students tend to speak their mind and open up about experiences that
normally can be difficult to discuss.
One of my seniors led a discussion the novel. In Central America, many cities
are plagued with Gangsters who claim to be there to offer protection. However,
once a family cannot pay the Gangsters for their services, they are known to take
one of the children and kill them in front of the family as an example. This exact
horror happened to his younger brother. His parents were terrified for his safety and
sent him as a refugee to America. He then became one of thousands of children in
American foster care. He never discussed what happened with anyone, because he
felt he was alone in this experience, until we read the novel. He was a sassy, yet
sweet child in my class who spoke his mind, yet this connection to the reading was
strong, and by most unexpected. Not only did the novel make his history class
relevant to him, but also gave his the courage to share a secret that plagued him for

years. With opening up and making this connection to the reading, others opened
up with similar stories. I will not forget him telling me after his story that the novel
gave him hope, if the Jews survived this, maybe my people can too. This helped
the students build a stronger bond with each other, because of the student led
discussion and the safe environment of the classroom.
As an educator, reflection is necessary. Systematic reflection is important
because it prevents me form falling into a stuck routine. I will have to constantly
tweak my lessons and strategies to reach students needs. Critical reflection also
plays a role because reflection on a dialectical, contextual, and technical level is
important when teaching ESL students. I need to inform students on a technical
level, for example, a cultural norm in an American education system, like respecting
authority and following school rules. Contextually I need to examine how I can
better explain directions or change assignments based on students
accommodations, or even LAP meetings for creating students accommodations. For
my students learning styles I need to take a step back and approach students
needs through different lenses or perspectives. (Brookfield, 1995) This stepping
back can also help me identify the assumptions that we absorb naturally as
teachers. Inquiry is also a necessary part of reflection. If I do not look at problems
by identifying the experience, describe the problem, analyze possible solutions, and
then experiment (Rodgers, 2002), they my reflection is not goal oriented.
All teachers are put through pressure: deadlines of SOLs, SMART Goals,
graduation rates, and list go on. This can make it hard to take a step back when we
are constantly trying to propel forward. This situation can also make us slaves to
routine. (Farrell, 2012, page 10) While pursuing these goals we can sometimes
overlook teaching on a dialectical level. This past year we had about seven snow
days in February alone. My level 1s and 2s ELLs and I were reading and unabridged
version of Shakespeares Hamlet by Reading 180. I was reading the chapters to
my students in the interest of time, after reading one the chapters I stopped to ask
a few comprehension questions. To which one of my students quickly replied, How
would we know, Miss? We didnt read it. This answer helped me step back and
reflect on how I was teaching the lesson that day, solely in the interest of time. To
analyze a problem, such as student achievement in particular skills, data collection
and careful examination is a must. This can help us reflect on the problem, whether
it is a lack of relevance, miscommunication of motive, or difficulty of material. This
can also remind us as educators that the fault of poor students achievement lies
with us just as much, if not more, than the fault of the students.
Data collection is an amazing tool in helping us realize how close we are to
reaching our goals. It helps us monitor student achievement, however if it is not
used to help us reflect and inquire on a dialectical level to reach our students, we
may be falling into the assumptions that we failed when we do not get a perfect
score on our evaluations. Brookfield explains how assumptions haunt every teacher
or what he calls the, The Perfect 10 Syndrome. (Brookfield, 1995, page 17) I can

find myself in situation each year during our evaluations. As teachers, we want to
reach every students passing score and every positive statistic, yet this should not
drive us to do our best. What should drive us is giving our students the education
and love they need to survive and thrive outside our school system. With critical
refection we can arrive at the dialectical level to know our students and give them
what they need, not evaluations. This does not mean our administration is
responsible for the missing marks or impossible odds caused by this system. As
Brookfield states, Administers who use this system are not vindictive or oppressive.
They are tired and burned out from making an unworkable system appear to be
working. (1995, page 18)
Overall I believe that students needs and instruction should go hand and
hand. I also believe that reflection, critical reflection, inquiry, and data collection or
research is key in keeping us in the mindset of teach students not classes. The
practice of critical reflections will help us give students a safe yet, challenging
environment with clear purpose and where they will feel respected. Therefore to be
successful educators we need to take a step back and analyze on a dialectical,
contextual, and technical level to provide instruction based on student need not just
state mandated guidelines.

References
Brookfield, S. (1995). What it means to be a critically reflective teacher. Becoming a
critically reflective teacher (pp. 1-27). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (CHAPTER 1)
Brookfield, S. (1995). Learning to know ourselves: The value of autobiography.
Becoming a critically
reflective teacher (pp. 49-70). San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass. (CHAPTER 3)
Dewey, J. (1933). What is thinking? How we think (pp. 3-23). Boston, MA: D.C. Heath
& Company.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2012). Reflecting on reflective practice: (Re)visiting Dewey and
Schn. TESOL Journal,
3(1), 7-16.
Minsky Sender, R. (1997). The Cage. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective
thinking. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-866.
Valenzuela, A. (2009). Subtractive schooling, caring relations, and social capital in
the schooling of U.S.Mexican youth. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The
curriculum studies reader (3rd ed.)
(pp. 336-347). New York, NY: Routledge.