Our Ever-Changing World:
My Philosophy Of Education
During one of my many fantastic Service Learning visits, I learned something that has truly changed my opinion on motivating students towards history. To truly motivate students, when it comes to history, it is not as important to know exact dates as it is to understand the effects of events on our world. It is equally as important to make sure students see how and why events happen. The role of a history teacher is one of being able to give a student benign tools and techniques required so they can construct their own opinions and views of the world, past and present. I will do this by making sure that the information I present is factual and unprejudiced. I feel my current and on-going education will help me to understanding the information I am presenting. I feel that there is a strong necessity to show my students that every event has two sides, and while one of those sides may be darker or sadder than the other, I must make my students realize the every event has happened only because those two sides intertwined at that moment in time. The most rewarding experience I feel I will have as a teacher will be showing my students that their opinions do matter and that they have importance. To know that they might some day put those opinions into actions to change something they disagree with, or work to create something they believe in is a feeling that is incomprehensible. I also feel that a teacher is someone who has the ability to reach out to all of his or her students, and while all will not allow their compassionate hand to help them, those who allow it will never forget how much that teacher truly helped them.
I feel that it is also my duty to understand how each of my students learn, and use that knowledge to help each student excel. I plan on using that knowledge and preparing lessons that appeal to all types of learning styles. A teacher must also be able to gain a respect with his or her class that allows for free thinking and speech. As a teacher I will try my hardest to allow my students to speak their opinions, through many group discussions, unless they are hurtful to another. I know is a daunting task because it is not always obvious what offends another, but I feel the respect I gain with my students will help me to succeed at accomplishing this goal. As I create and earn this respect, I will also make sure my students understand that as their teacher I am there to help them succeed in any way I can. My students have to be aware that I do believe they can accomplish and succeed at anything they put their minds to. They must know that they can succeed.
History is a living entity that is ever-changing, therefore a student must be able to visually see the past, not just open a book and read about it. My classroom will be ever-changing, much like our world. Creating a classroom that will open my students’ eyes and minds to times and places their imaginations can only dream about is key in my goal of teaching. My classroom walls will be collaged with pictures, stories, and maps of times that we will be learning about. My walls will also be decorated this way so that if eyes do wander, they will not wander far from their studies. There will be one wall that will stay the same throughout the year. This wall will consist of memories of a moment in American history, September 11th, 2001, a day that changed our America and our world forever. I never want any of my students to forget the sacrifices or heroes made that day, or the impact that that day has had on not only America’s future, but also the world’s future. I feel this is the greatest example I can offer my students about how truly important history is. I can only hope it will also show my students that every event can change the course of our future. I know from my own experiences that visuals of the past allow the imagination to wander past just what is being learned in the book and allows questions about the past to be shaped.
There is not a day that goes by that an event occurs that changes someone’s life. Every day a page is added to the history books of the future. As a teacher who will teach those future books, I must make sure my students understand the importance of history. While I make them aware I must also make sure my students understand all the facts and all sides of a story. While this will be a difficult task, I feel that it is my most important responsibility. I also feel that it should only be required of me, as a teacher. After all, the students I teach will someday become the citizens of our ever-changing world and some of those citizens might someday become the people that teachers teach about in the history book pages of our next generations.
Graphics provided by Personal Photographs and Personal Clip Art Program
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