Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is more than just standing at the front of a room and lecturing people on a subject or
concept in school. There are more goals to teaching than just having students learn material. I believe
that the goals of teaching are and ought to include the following: Help students learn subjects, help
students learn something about themselves, and help students learn to work with other people.

I believe that teaching a subject to a student is an important goal in teaching. When we finish
teaching a lesson we should feel good and feel as if we completed our job for the day and helped the
students to learn something new. This should be a goal for teachers because we become teachers to
help others, not for the pay or the benefits. Being able to walk out of a classroom and be satisfied with
what we accomplished should be the goal for every teacher every day.

The second goal is that teachers should strive to help students learn something new about
themselves. This can be seen through teaching them a new way to learn, or how that student learns
best. A great teacher sees that each student learns in a different way and adapts the curriculum to meet
the needs of each student. Furthermore, teachers can help students to see what their interests are and
pursue them. If a student seems to be drawn to the world of sports, a good teacher finds a way to bring
sports into the classroom to better connect to this student.

The final goal is that every teacher ought to help students learn to work together. I believe that
school is the best place for students to learn to get along with people they may not like because in the
real world you can’t just walk away from something if you are working a job and not getting along with
someone. Also, working together allows students to learn teamwork. Assigning group projects is one of
the trickiest assignments for students to handle. In my experience there are three ways a group project
goes. In one scenario everyone splits up the work evenly and they all get their individual work does for
everyone to succeed. The second scenario everyone is assigned their own parts but there will be the
one or two kids that do not do their part so someone who wants a good grade must do it for them. And
finally, there is the scenario where one person does all the work by themselves because they do not
trust anyone to do their job the correct way. Everyone should be doing their own part in the group, but
the reality is that most of the time that does not end up happening. As the teacher is important that
groups are assigned in a way that all the students feel they have a part and are willing to accomplish
their job. There are slim to no jobs in the real world where someone will never have to work alongside
someone else, and school is the perfect time to teach kids how to handle working with others, be it your
best friend or your worst enemy.