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My Teaching Philosophy

As a future educator my philosophy aligns with a quote from Aristotle, “Educating the

mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” It is important to build community and

valuable relationship between students and teachers. By establishing meaningful relationships, it

opens the door to where optimal learning is possible because it has been reinstating in multiple

academic sources, students need to feel safe and supported for the brain to be in optimal learning

mode. My future classroom will allow students to be agents of their success. I want to be able to

build the curriculum that is student centered because I am their aid to achieve upward mobility to

be successful. My future lessons will not be materials to be learned for a moment but will

transcend outside the four walls of a classroom. I want my future students to make connections

from home, community, and school life. When I was in middle and high school, I felt I did not

have the opportunity to obtain skills needed to be a well-rounded individual when I left the k-12

education system. Most of my learning and growing happened in college. However, there were

essential moments in my k-12 career where I encounter teachers who supported my learning.

Some helped me see for myself the things I needed to understand something that I found

troubling and difficult. It made me happy that I was able to understand something clearly for the

first time. I remember when I was in sophomore year, I was taking chemistry for the first time

and I did not understand chemistry concepts and I felt like I was alone. It was tough trying to

covert moles, grams, liters, and utilizing the periodic table. It was a frustrating experience and

my sophomore chemistry teacher at the time Ms. Kuzco (I hope I spelled her name right) pulled

me to the side after class after writing a note on one of my tests that had a D letter grade. I went

up to her scared not knowing what she will say because I was disappointed at myself of the

grades I have been receiving. She welcomed me in good spirit which ease my worries and told
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me that she saw I have been struggling and noticed similar mistakes happening in my

conversions. She then told me to come during lunch so I can receive tutoring so I can do better

on the next test. She believed in me that I can do better and I myself was not a failure. I took the

chance to come in to lunch and noticed there were other students there as well struggling to

understand chemistry. I realize the honors, AP, and the chemistry club students were there to

tutor the struggling students. In that moment I did not feel alone, and everyone was encouraging

and helpful! I did some practice while Ms. Kuzco walked around made sure everyone was

understanding. I remember the moment when I successfully converted moles to liters and was

able to understand the process! I was so proud of myself and Ms. Kuzco and the fellow honors

and AP students were happy that I got it! After those moments coming in during lunch, I was

excelling the quizzes and tests with As and I fell in love with Chemistry. If it wasn’t for Ms.

Kuzco’s kind heart and not trivializing my bad grades, uplifted me by believing that I had the

potential to learn anything that seems impossible at first. If she hadn’t offered the lunch tutoring,

I don’t think I will love Chemistry as much as I do now. Although I am not planning to become a

science teacher, Ms. Kuzco’s kind attitude shape my perception on what an effective teacher can

be. It will be a blessing experience to have a positive impact on a student’s learning in my future

English Language Arts’ classroom and embody the Ms. Kuzco’s effect as a guide to unlock a

student’s potential