As I have grown in my education and learned more about different subjects, theories, and approaches to learning, My philosophy in learning has grown with me. Not only does my education enable my philosophies to grow but also so do my own personal observations. When I began my teaching career my purpose was to have my class enjoy being with me and to feel as safe in my classroom as they would in their own household. My classroom will be areas with play and learning choices at a range of different levels. I have learned, however, that my purpose is to help prepare them for the future and to be independent thinking adults. Through the classes I have taken at Waubonsee Community College and my experiences in a preschool classroom at Rachel’s Learning Center, I learned how to work with students of different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, languages. I observed how the students played with others and their emotions throughout the day. In my classroom, I will look at the students’ needs and prepare my lesson plans accordingly. I am going into this field for the learning to students, but mostly for the love of learning.
I have a philosopher and an educator that I believe in and closely align myself with my own beliefs is Lev Vygotsky. He believed that children make sense of the world around them through their play methods. My philosophy is much of the same. One of his quotes is “Children do not play to be children. They play to make sense of the world around them. They play to be someone or something else.” (Vygotsky).When you watch a child play they do not pretend to be themselves. They want to be the doctor or mommy. They are learning and experimenting. He also claimed, “Child development is the result of the interactions between children and their social environment” (Vygotsky). These interactions include those with parents and teachers, playmates and classmates, and brothers and sisters. They also involve relationships with different objects, such as books or toys, and specific practices that children engage in the classroom, at home, and on the playground. Children are active partners in these interactions, constructing knowledge, skills, and attitudes and not just mirroring the world around them.” This is how you teach children. You explain something and see what they do with it. You teach them something and see where they go from there. There is no right or wrong through play. There is only knowledge, experimentation, learning, and progress. The teacher can teach in different ways that can be takin differently, so some children might remember this teaching and some might not.
Another theorist that aligns with my own beliefs is Erin Gruwell. She believes firmly that “education is the great equalizer”(Gruwell). She credits her ability to listen as the crucial tool which helped her to break down barriers and earn the trust of her students. Her faith in her students, and seeing beyond their low expectations of themselves, was the crucial catalyst for their change. She was assigned in a low-performing students in the school. She inspired me by letting every teacher know it does not matter if students are from low income backgrounds, many of them do not have any one at home to support them and help them. Therefore, they think school is not interesting to them because they are used to doing things that they see their parents are doing. They need someone to show them they care so they can change there attitude. It is up to the teacher to show them support and make schooling interesting for them but also teach them why they are having fun. Erin tried to find teaching methods that would get students involved she did not get up on them when they did not show her they did not care but she stepped up and used her time to change her classroom into something more appealing to them. That of a partnership between student and teacher.
My beliefs about students is that children are born naturally curious of the world around them. All children can and will learn with our support involved. They open up when we, as educators, guide their natural interests and direct them towards skill development. We recognize that all students learn in different ways. We teachers need to know that all students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process in the classroom. Assessments help gauge where every child is in their development but only when the tool used is able to account for many different things. Authentic assessments take many different avenues of learning into one collective document to show each child’s development and growth throughout the year. Only this way do we get a real picture into development of children. If you use only one form of assessment, you may not see developmental factors. You have to observe, take pictures, videos, and work samples. Using only one leaves gaps where there may not actually be any. We are the professionals that parents go to first when they have concerns about their child. “When a student displays low skills or is struggling to learn a concept, it is often assumed that the child must have some sort of internal, physical or psychological problem”(Hosp & Reschly). To provide students with the most effective services possible, we need to know their academic strengths and areas of need and not label them such as poverty, race, ethnicity, and family history.
My beliefs about teaching and learning is about constructivism beliefs. Learning is to communicate in a clear and structured way, to give students clear and resolvable problems, and to be calm and concentrate in the classroom. It is up to me to begin my teaching career with motivation and inspiration. Teaching and learning become a journey for both the teacher and students when students' are excited and happy by a teacher's compassion for learning, because everyone is ready and willing to participate in learning. I myself must show and express confidence in my students' abilities to learn and be successful. Constructivism methods of teaching in a classroom forces students to take an active role in their education by making choices and responsibility for discovery. For instance, discussions, projects, and experiments to know the students achievement and allow students and the teacher to discover individual student's strengths. It is up to me to set achievable but challenging class tasks. I want to teach students by me less talking and show and point while helping them learn. The more the teacher talks without showing the more the student gets uninterested in listening to you. Lesson plans need to be planned form teaching activities that involve the students' interest. When each child is doing great work in the classroom, I will provide positive feedback that helps the students move from their current to a higher level of understanding. As a teacher, I have to be a constant role model for my students. Children who were not brought up without any guidance and support it is up to me to be there as a positive role model when they come to class. When it is time to show the students creative games to play and learn I have to be the best organizer as possible and giving instructions. The success of many activities depends on good organization and on the students knowing exactly what they are to do next. Instead of sitting, telling, and pointing at the students on what to do I the teacher should be involved and engaged with them giving them feedback during their play. I have to keep parents involved with their child when they enter my classroom. I will set my lesson plans as a creative curriculum so students are able to learn but also do hands on work. This method is great when teaching student’s activities because it is a well-balanced for when they work in groups, free play in each of the areas in the classroom. The creative curriculum helps the student develop his/her emotional, physical, intellectual, and social skills.
My belief about what is worth knowing is that skills that prepare students for the real world/their future. I the teacher will teach them everything and anything they will need and use for when they grow older. If you make learning fun, the children remember. A Chinese proverb that rings well with my philosophy is “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.” My teaching methods are along the same lines of this. This is why when I plan a curriculum I try to make every activity I do involve the children. When I read a book to the children it is not just me reading and them listening. They will not remember. I involve them in the story. If a character is jumping, they can too. I make animal noises and they can repeat after me. It is up to me to show them with hands on through play. Also it is okay for the student to be wrong because it can be beneficial for them they well learn as they go when they do wrong they will realize by looks at others expressions that they know what they did was wrong. I cannot force the student to do the right things all the time sometimes you have to sit back and wait until they notice. I can redirect them and ask them why they did wrong. If we teachers yell at the child for doing wrong, the student will always lash out and still do the wrong things. That would make it worse. I have a strong belief in sensory learning in my classroom. Each of the areas in the classroom will be divided separately for each student to learn more by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, and exploring than by just listening to the teacher speak all day long. I will acknowledge each student on what they do or say. I will let the students know that I have noticed what they are doing by giving positive attention to them.
My belief about knowledge is I believe knowledge is having the students the ability to experience and explore I believe knowledge is having the ability to experience and explore. I will take my students out to the zoo, planetarium, and science museums, and so on for them to interact instead of teaching in the classroom. The students need to be able to see, feel, and interact with the experience they are getting outside of class. Whatever is learned will not be forgotten. I want to teach the best I can to my students so that they can remember that I taught them that instead of me teaching how other teachers teach. Knowledge does not have to be just about books. When I am in my classroom, I do not need a book even if there is not a book. I will be able to teach my students using objects in the class and finding ways to teach them instead of following a book all the time. This will impact my teaching by letting me do and teach how I want to with using books and without being told what to do. To show my student I know what I am doing and that I am ready.
My beliefs on teaching behavior are by redirecting the student, time out, privilege removal, and parental support. When I see a student pushing in line, I would kindly ask the student if he/she can choose another spot, if not they will have to go to the end of the line for their misbehavior. Most importunely when I child misbehaves I will try to get the students mind elsewhere by making the student help me out in the classroom. I as a teacher will never talk to the child inappropriate on his/her misbehavior in front of the class. I will kindly ask the student to please step outside or away from the rest of the class. Talking to a child in front of the class will only make things worse. The other children in the classroom will overhear what I the teacher is saying and think bad about the child. This will cause bulling to the student by the other students in the class. When the students are squabble over toys or with other students, I would talk to the child to explain why such behavior is not acceptable and offer suggestions for other toys or activities that will redirect the student’s attention and solve the problem. In the classroom if the student is causing disturbance and not responding to the redirection, I will remove the child from the area and have him/her take a time out to calm down. I will talk to the child to explain why the behavior is not appropriate, offer suggestions, and then leave him/her for a minute or two. The student will then be welcomed back into the activity. When the student is hurting things such as toys, using the equipment in an unsafe manner or fighting over toys, and so on. The privilege to use the equipment/ toy will be taking from the student and will be redirected to another activity. In my classroom, I would make a rewarding system, such as using a shoe holder with each of the child’s picture. Every day a child behaves, they can pick one sticker and place it in their pocket. If a student misbehaves than there will be no reward for that day. At the end of the week, the student who gets the most stickers wins a prize. This will promote better behavior in the classroom because the student will do his/her best to receive a reward.
As a future educator, I believe my philosophy and teaching styles will change throughout my teaching career. For my future teaching career with my future students, I want to show them that I can be the best academic role model. It is my goal to have the best teaching career by keeping my communication open with students and their parents. You must involve students every step of the way. If learning is not messy it is not fun, if it is not fun they are not learning.
I have a philosopher and an educator that I believe in and closely align myself with my own beliefs is Lev Vygotsky. He believed that children make sense of the world around them through their play methods. My philosophy is much of the same. One of his quotes is “Children do not play to be children. They play to make sense of the world around them. They play to be someone or something else.” (Vygotsky).When you watch a child play they do not pretend to be themselves. They want to be the doctor or mommy. They are learning and experimenting. He also claimed, “Child development is the result of the interactions between children and their social environment” (Vygotsky). These interactions include those with parents and teachers, playmates and classmates, and brothers and sisters. They also involve relationships with different objects, such as books or toys, and specific practices that children engage in the classroom, at home, and on the playground. Children are active partners in these interactions, constructing knowledge, skills, and attitudes and not just mirroring the world around them.” This is how you teach children. You explain something and see what they do with it. You teach them something and see where they go from there. There is no right or wrong through play. There is only knowledge, experimentation, learning, and progress. The teacher can teach in different ways that can be takin differently, so some children might remember this teaching and some might not.
Another theorist that aligns with my own beliefs is Erin Gruwell. She believes firmly that “education is the great equalizer”(Gruwell). She credits her ability to listen as the crucial tool which helped her to break down barriers and earn the trust of her students. Her faith in her students, and seeing beyond their low expectations of themselves, was the crucial catalyst for their change. She was assigned in a low-performing students in the school. She inspired me by letting every teacher know it does not matter if students are from low income backgrounds, many of them do not have any one at home to support them and help them. Therefore, they think school is not interesting to them because they are used to doing things that they see their parents are doing. They need someone to show them they care so they can change there attitude. It is up to the teacher to show them support and make schooling interesting for them but also teach them why they are having fun. Erin tried to find teaching methods that would get students involved she did not get up on them when they did not show her they did not care but she stepped up and used her time to change her classroom into something more appealing to them. That of a partnership between student and teacher.
My beliefs about students is that children are born naturally curious of the world around them. All children can and will learn with our support involved. They open up when we, as educators, guide their natural interests and direct them towards skill development. We recognize that all students learn in different ways. We teachers need to know that all students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process in the classroom. Assessments help gauge where every child is in their development but only when the tool used is able to account for many different things. Authentic assessments take many different avenues of learning into one collective document to show each child’s development and growth throughout the year. Only this way do we get a real picture into development of children. If you use only one form of assessment, you may not see developmental factors. You have to observe, take pictures, videos, and work samples. Using only one leaves gaps where there may not actually be any. We are the professionals that parents go to first when they have concerns about their child. “When a student displays low skills or is struggling to learn a concept, it is often assumed that the child must have some sort of internal, physical or psychological problem”(Hosp & Reschly). To provide students with the most effective services possible, we need to know their academic strengths and areas of need and not label them such as poverty, race, ethnicity, and family history.
My beliefs about teaching and learning is about constructivism beliefs. Learning is to communicate in a clear and structured way, to give students clear and resolvable problems, and to be calm and concentrate in the classroom. It is up to me to begin my teaching career with motivation and inspiration. Teaching and learning become a journey for both the teacher and students when students' are excited and happy by a teacher's compassion for learning, because everyone is ready and willing to participate in learning. I myself must show and express confidence in my students' abilities to learn and be successful. Constructivism methods of teaching in a classroom forces students to take an active role in their education by making choices and responsibility for discovery. For instance, discussions, projects, and experiments to know the students achievement and allow students and the teacher to discover individual student's strengths. It is up to me to set achievable but challenging class tasks. I want to teach students by me less talking and show and point while helping them learn. The more the teacher talks without showing the more the student gets uninterested in listening to you. Lesson plans need to be planned form teaching activities that involve the students' interest. When each child is doing great work in the classroom, I will provide positive feedback that helps the students move from their current to a higher level of understanding. As a teacher, I have to be a constant role model for my students. Children who were not brought up without any guidance and support it is up to me to be there as a positive role model when they come to class. When it is time to show the students creative games to play and learn I have to be the best organizer as possible and giving instructions. The success of many activities depends on good organization and on the students knowing exactly what they are to do next. Instead of sitting, telling, and pointing at the students on what to do I the teacher should be involved and engaged with them giving them feedback during their play. I have to keep parents involved with their child when they enter my classroom. I will set my lesson plans as a creative curriculum so students are able to learn but also do hands on work. This method is great when teaching student’s activities because it is a well-balanced for when they work in groups, free play in each of the areas in the classroom. The creative curriculum helps the student develop his/her emotional, physical, intellectual, and social skills.
My belief about what is worth knowing is that skills that prepare students for the real world/their future. I the teacher will teach them everything and anything they will need and use for when they grow older. If you make learning fun, the children remember. A Chinese proverb that rings well with my philosophy is “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.” My teaching methods are along the same lines of this. This is why when I plan a curriculum I try to make every activity I do involve the children. When I read a book to the children it is not just me reading and them listening. They will not remember. I involve them in the story. If a character is jumping, they can too. I make animal noises and they can repeat after me. It is up to me to show them with hands on through play. Also it is okay for the student to be wrong because it can be beneficial for them they well learn as they go when they do wrong they will realize by looks at others expressions that they know what they did was wrong. I cannot force the student to do the right things all the time sometimes you have to sit back and wait until they notice. I can redirect them and ask them why they did wrong. If we teachers yell at the child for doing wrong, the student will always lash out and still do the wrong things. That would make it worse. I have a strong belief in sensory learning in my classroom. Each of the areas in the classroom will be divided separately for each student to learn more by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, and exploring than by just listening to the teacher speak all day long. I will acknowledge each student on what they do or say. I will let the students know that I have noticed what they are doing by giving positive attention to them.
My belief about knowledge is I believe knowledge is having the students the ability to experience and explore I believe knowledge is having the ability to experience and explore. I will take my students out to the zoo, planetarium, and science museums, and so on for them to interact instead of teaching in the classroom. The students need to be able to see, feel, and interact with the experience they are getting outside of class. Whatever is learned will not be forgotten. I want to teach the best I can to my students so that they can remember that I taught them that instead of me teaching how other teachers teach. Knowledge does not have to be just about books. When I am in my classroom, I do not need a book even if there is not a book. I will be able to teach my students using objects in the class and finding ways to teach them instead of following a book all the time. This will impact my teaching by letting me do and teach how I want to with using books and without being told what to do. To show my student I know what I am doing and that I am ready.
My beliefs on teaching behavior are by redirecting the student, time out, privilege removal, and parental support. When I see a student pushing in line, I would kindly ask the student if he/she can choose another spot, if not they will have to go to the end of the line for their misbehavior. Most importunely when I child misbehaves I will try to get the students mind elsewhere by making the student help me out in the classroom. I as a teacher will never talk to the child inappropriate on his/her misbehavior in front of the class. I will kindly ask the student to please step outside or away from the rest of the class. Talking to a child in front of the class will only make things worse. The other children in the classroom will overhear what I the teacher is saying and think bad about the child. This will cause bulling to the student by the other students in the class. When the students are squabble over toys or with other students, I would talk to the child to explain why such behavior is not acceptable and offer suggestions for other toys or activities that will redirect the student’s attention and solve the problem. In the classroom if the student is causing disturbance and not responding to the redirection, I will remove the child from the area and have him/her take a time out to calm down. I will talk to the child to explain why the behavior is not appropriate, offer suggestions, and then leave him/her for a minute or two. The student will then be welcomed back into the activity. When the student is hurting things such as toys, using the equipment in an unsafe manner or fighting over toys, and so on. The privilege to use the equipment/ toy will be taking from the student and will be redirected to another activity. In my classroom, I would make a rewarding system, such as using a shoe holder with each of the child’s picture. Every day a child behaves, they can pick one sticker and place it in their pocket. If a student misbehaves than there will be no reward for that day. At the end of the week, the student who gets the most stickers wins a prize. This will promote better behavior in the classroom because the student will do his/her best to receive a reward.
As a future educator, I believe my philosophy and teaching styles will change throughout my teaching career. For my future teaching career with my future students, I want to show them that I can be the best academic role model. It is my goal to have the best teaching career by keeping my communication open with students and their parents. You must involve students every step of the way. If learning is not messy it is not fun, if it is not fun they are not learning.