Teaching Philosophy

Our Students
Arent students the future to our countrys success? And arent they full of so much energy and bright
ideas? I want to bring attention to the amazing things our students can do. I want to build their self
confidences and help shape them into young adults that are ready to take on any obstacle they may face
during their young lives. I believe that education plays a vital role in our children's lives and in order for
me to convince students of this too, I get to know them as people first in order to build a solid
relationship, where they trust me and have a sense of purpose to succeed.

Writing
Having had the opportunity to learn about the importance of writing, the process of writing, and how
students can learn through writing, I feel lucky to be able to pass along the passion of writing to my own
students. Writing is a process, not a final product, because even after the product is done, it then moves
through a new stage of review and acknowledgement from the intended audience which may cause the
writer to edit again, make ideas more clear, or even change original thoughts because of newly founded
information. I believe that writing has to be taught as a process where stages occur, such as:
brainstorming, outlining, organizing, creating rough drafts of paragraphs, revamping theses, participating
in workshops for editing, reworking ideas, presenting a rough draft of the final, one on one edits, and
finally a product. Not only is the final product important, but having students write a reflection on the
process they took to achieve the end result is crucial. Students who write about their learning processes
and reflect on what things worked for them or didnt, are more likely to remember the journey they
traveled and maintain the knowledge acquired throughout the process.

I align the current writing Common Core Standards with my lessons, because they are a good foundation
when implementing what I want my students to achieve, while also creating real world writing
opportunities so that my students writing remains authentic. I stress the fact that a five paragraph essay is
not real life and I am consistently teaching my students how to use their audience as the goal for their
writing, rather than measuring their doneness by quantitative measures. For example, my students were
given the task to write a persuasive letter to The American Revolution Museum, opening in Philadelphia
in April 2017; the goal was the persuade the Museum Manager to choose their project to use in the
opening of the museum. Because I scaffolded the letter for students to address certain elements to include,
they never asked how many paragraphs were needed, but instead focused on the content in order to
incorporate the requirements for the authentic letter.

Reading
Its imperative for students to master their critical thinking skills, in order to be confident and successful
in their college journeys and in life. Students who understand how to read a text critically can become a
critical writer. I teach my students that to think critically is not to criticize what is written, but rather
respond in writing by asking questions of the text in order to analyze what is implicitly and explicitly
written. I then always ask students to ponder the question, why does this matter to me or to society?.
The focus of my pedagogy as an English teacher is to guide students to use writing as a way to
professionally express their ideas, add their voices to important conversations of society, and explore
societal problems with an unbiased perspective.

Students think its interesting when I tell them, I dont care whats in this book; however, I do care what
you think is important/interesting/questionable about this book. I offer to them the use of Sparknotes, if
they have difficulties understanding a reading and I explain in order to analyze and discuss or write about
a reading, they first must comprehend. At the end of the day, its vital to help students take ownership in
their own learning, thought processes, and ability to convey their message towards literature. In other
words, students are creating their own literacy environment by engaging in multiple forms of texts when
they read, write, work with, and discuss them.
Research
Living in a high tech society, where answers are constantly at our fingertips, is beneficial if students are
taught how to be good researchers. I believe in teaching students the skills of how to conduct useful
research by introducing the elements of checking sources for credibility such as: an authors argument,
possible biases, evidence aligning with the claim, counterarguments (if they even exist), data taken out of
context, etc. I teach students to use data triangulation when combing through evidence, so they take into
account the content from primary and secondary sources, observations, documents, photographs and such;
using this method helps students to verify credibility of information to determine its truthfulness. Even
more so, I encourage students to use the methodology triangulation which is the process of finding
different methods of research such as: interviews, surveys, ethnographies, and documents to verify
findings, because in each of these methods, students will be able to find both qualitative and quantitative
data to compare and use.

Google will offer answers to us with just a few taps of our key boards; therefore, I use the phrase with
students, you are looking to respond to an essential question, rather than answer. When using the term
respond, I believe that I am opening up the opportunity for students to do more exploring and analyzing
than finding a quick answer that doesnt allow critical thinking to take place. Each student has different
experiences and by acknowledging them and encouraging students to reflect on them, they all should
bring a different perspective to any research that we partake in, in the classroom.

Discussions/Oral Communication
Though we are in constant communication and connection with many people at once through social media
and text messaging, Ive noticed that students are declining in their ability to actually communicate in
person. Being a good communicator is a valuable skill to have for life; therefore, I conduct lessons that
empower students to use their voices. Through presentations, socratic seminars, interviews, debates, and
class discussions, students have the opportunity to practice speaking skills and working through the
process of agreeing and disagreeing with others. I invite the idea of debate always because we live in a
world where everyone has an opinion on something and our students should be prepared how to voice
their ideas, all while acknowledging respectfully opinions that are different than their own. I also work
with students who have anxiety and fear when it comes to public speaking and eventually we find a way
to work up to a real audience. By being positive and allowing students to work at their own pace, I have
seen a more productive outcome and more students that eventually step up to the plate and in the end,
wind up having amazing things to say and add to conversations!

Civic Responsibility
Though dated, I still think Henry Girouxs explanation of empowerment is central to my vision for what I
strive for in my classroom. Giroux once said:
[Empowerment] is the ability to think and act critically. This notion has a double reference: to the
individual and to society. The freedom and human capacities of individuals must be developed to
their maximum but individual powers must be linked to democracy in the sense that social
betterment must be the necessary consequence of individual flourishing (1992).
If students have the abilities to comprehend, analyze, and be critical of the texts around them, they will in
turn be able to successfully partake in developing a better democratic society for, as Giroux said, the
social betterment of the individual and society. Because I appreciate the process of teaching students to be
critical writers, readers, and conversationalists, I value the importance of making each assignment
authentic to the individual; I know I play a crucial part in teaching our young students during their
journeys towards college as well as aiding them in becoming helpful and productive citizens. Not only do
I value our students voices and ideas, I encourage them to use their skills and youthfulness to also get out
into the community to volunteer. Any chance I get, I align lessons to real life, so students always feel a
sense of belonging to their communities and readiness when they do eventually leave my classroom.