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Luis Espinoza

Prof. Robert L. Shkorupa

EDU 202

25 Oct 2016

Philosophical Portrait of Myself

Today I am a Smart man on the road to success. In all honesty, this road was recently

found. I have not always been a bright young man. However, now grown and mature, my future

holds a teaching job three years from now. Since I am currently working on my teaching degree,

I am still learning how to become a good teacher. There is still a lot of learning and teaching

techniques to yet be learned. After many experiences and learning, I plan to pass on all my

knowledge to my future students.

As a teenager, focusing on school was not a priority. I was always truant. On the days I

attended class, I did not pay attention. Sadly, graduation was never met. Towards the end of the

school year, I was expelled and spent time in jail. I became a felon at the age of eighteen. For the

next three years work was never stable and failure piled up. Now, fast forwarding to today, I am a

new and improved man. I am a current CSN student since 2014, with a 3.9 grade point average.

Three years from now I picture myself working as a physical education teacher for a

secondary school. Within the first couple of years in teaching I picture myself with my own

house, cars, and possibly a family. Although, this will only be possible from hard work and

dedication, after experiencing many failures in life, I came up with my own philosophy on

reaching goals. As we know, formulating a plan to recognize and avoid cognitive traps is difficult

but possible. The first thing you need to remember is if you never try, you will never succeed.

Thats why I normally take my opportunities because whether you succeed or fail, at least you
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tried, most people just need motivation. My motivational plan has been to post my goals on my

bedroom wall or somewhere I would see it every day. Think of it as a child writing themselves a

million dollar check and posting it on their wall. That childs goal would be to cash in that check

one day. As you see, my plan to reach goals would be to use means-end analysis (plan out my

road to success). Once mapped out, I can eliminate some of the cognitive traps. Whenever I am

feeling trapped, I would just go back to my means-end analysis graph and rearrange it until that

goal is possible again. Ever since I joined college I have been visualizing what it would be like to

succeed in life. Whenever I feel weak or tired I take a drive towards the mountains. There is this

empty lot sitting on top of a hill. Once your there, you get the whole view of Las Vegas. Its a

really beautiful view. Once Im there, I would tell myself stick through it and one day this lot

would be yours. Once I succeed in life, I picture myself building the house of my dreams on

that lot. My way of avoiding cognitive traps is to make everything possible. If Justin Bieber can

do it, so can I! People just have to find motivation, especially when theyre giving up. One of

everybodys goals should be to never give up, just how they teach little kids, never say never.

That being said, cognitive traps dont exist in my life. This time, graduation will be met and I

will become a teacher three years from now.

It is still very surprising how I once hated teachers and now wish to become one. All the

credit goes to those professors who were able to get through to me. Not just anybody can teach

me. Most importantly, now that I noticed strategies on learning new information, I have also

learned how to give out that information. This came from observing instructors teaching styles.

This will be useful when I become a teacher. As noticed, there are multiple learning styles-

perception modalities, philosophies of education, or many misunderstandings between teachers

and students. This may be difficult for some students to be taught. As for me, my preferred
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teaching method is hands on, but many subjects do not acquire hands on. So, my second option is

imagining hands on. The lectures need to be viewed as a real-world experience. Students should

have a feel of where and how the information being taught is performed. This could also be

thought of as progression (an educational philosophy), since the lessons could be brought to real

world experiences. Although there are many strategies that can be used to memorize information,

in my opinion, connecting the information being received to something you have interest in is

very effective. For example, I once took a CCW (carrying a concealed weapon) course. The

whole lesson taught on when or how you can or cannot use your firearm legally. Well, I have

always liked video games dealing with war or action movies. As the instructor gave instructions,

I was placing an image in my mind as a movie. I would view myself using my firearm towards

my threat. My imagination just flew as the instructor put images in my head by his lecture. This

strategy allowed me to understand and memorize everything taught that day. As you see, I

figured a way to bring it to my interest and lock it into my memory.

Once teaching my students, I will also have them visualize the lecture, as I explained

above. As advise to the students, if no interest is developed just think of the first think that comes

to mind when hearing that word. Something that would be memorable such as, an event or image

that gives a picture in their minds when that word/information is heard or needed to be

remembered. For example, in Psychology class I had no idea what the vocabulary words meant

or how I would even remember them. Well the instructor graphed one in my memory quite

quickly with a strategy he shared with the class. The word Hippocampus is now well

remembered. The word hippocampus is a part of the brain that consolidates new memory. Well as

that word was presented he showed a picture of a hippopotamus on top of a human. The

instructor said hippocampus and hippopotamus both start with hippo and you wont ever forget
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if a hippo ever sat on you (as showed on the image). The way the instructor made a connection,

was to show an image describing the word and that made it stick in my memory. Well, I shall do

the same for my students.

After learning new information people can maintain that knowledge by rehearsing

it once in a while. For instance, the word hippocampus, if the learner would start using it in their

vocabulary, it may always be with them. Better yet, having my future students practice their

learned information in the real world, as the same they would with vocabulary, in order to easily

remember the information. By practicing the information, students will not forget about it

because it will refresh their memory of what they learned. Think of it this way, your brain is a

muscle just like the rest of your body, as when somebody works out at the gym their muscles

grow and grow. But if they stop working out for a long period of time, their muscles will shrink

and loose strength. Well the same process goes with the brain. people have to extra size it by

rehearsing thier knowledge so that it will not weaken as time passes. These strategies will help

me become, as well as preform as a good teacher. Of course, not all students learn the same, so I

will have to switch up teaching methods for certain students. Even coming across challenging

students, I feel confident in making them knowledgeable.

In Summary, I started from a horrible education, but now I lead myself through a

successful one. As long as I take my hard work and dedication with me, I will become a good

teacher in three years. I plan on taking all my knowledge acquired from college and experiences

into the classroom and feeding that information to my students.