My Philosophy of Education

All throughout my years in school I have had amazing teachers. Many of them challenged me to work harder than I have ever worked, while also making sure that the learning was fun. I have wanted to follow in their footsteps since elementary school. To ensure that I wanted to pursue a career in teaching I took a job coaching gymnastics classes to children ages three through twelve and I became hooked. I could not imagine being as happy or challenged in any other profession. I loved to see the learning that took place while the children were in my class and from this experience I learned what I would like to incorporate in my classroom as a future teacher.

I believe in the Constructivist philosophy of education. I want my future classroom to be student-centered; each student is in control of their learning. They have knowledge that they can teach the class as well as things to learn from others. I want the tasks that the students complete to be authentic instead of textbook recitation. I want the projects to be interdisciplinary, because life is not separated into Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts. I believe that projects, either group or individual, are a great way to incorporate the Constructivist view that I hold. I want to give students choices in what they study. For example, they can choose a person or idea to research from the Civil War era. Students can research information on a topic that interests them and they can then create a meaningful project such as a song, presentation, original story, or artwork. I can assess the learning from these projects while students are also able to use their choice of talents.

I want to foster a sense of community in my classroom. I do not want to be the authoritarian head of the class; I want everybody in the classroom to have the chance to teach and learn. One way I plan to create a strong community is to come up with the classroom rules as a class. I do not want to post a self-created list of rules. Each student should give their input and then treat the rules like a contract.

Another way that I plan to create a strong sense of community is to get to know each student individually. I want to know about each student’s interests. I also want my classroom to be a space that students will not be afraid to talk and discuss. I will not put up with students being laughed at for speaking their mind in our classroom. I believe that if students are unafraid of making a fool of themselves they will go much deeper into discussion and therefore learn more. I want the students to be tolerant of each others ideas, beliefs, ethnicities, and abilities.

For classroom management, I believe very strongly in preventive management rather than discipline. When I was a student I always respected teachers who gave positive attention when things were going smoothly rather than wait until something went wrong to show concern. For example, I want to thank students for doing what they are supposed to. I want to randomly reward students for good behavior either by positive comments or by academic related tokens such as pencils or books. I also want to be aware of student needs. Sometimes students need to take a short break so that they can recharge and become more attentive to what they were doing. I want to incorporate small physical exercises that can be tied in to the lesson, but will give the students their much needed break. Using these short physical lessons is a way to give students a short break while also utilizing the time.

I plan to continually learn about my profession. I want to go to conferences and seminars so that I will be as up to date and prepared for my students as possible. Teaching is a dynamic profession and using the same techniques year after year will eventually become not only boring to me, but also ineffective with students who are becoming more technologically savvy and culturally informed.