Teaching Philosophy

Overall, the most important part of teaching is leaving a positive, lasting impact on your students. It has been proven “that really good teachers have profound effects on student learning and can positively influence a child’s life” (Teach, p. 209), and I want to be the type of teacher that can make a difference in someone’s life. The children we teach may be our students, but that’s not all they are. They are young people with lives of their own, and the influence that a teacher has over them can affect their lives in a positive or negative way. They spend so much of their young lives at school, and it is crucial that their school environment is safe, productive, academically challenging, and their teacher is kind, caring, patient, and understanding. As stated by James Comer, “No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship”.

Each individual student is different, which is why it is important to introduce multiple learning styles in each lesson. Each student is going to have a unique background, way of thinking, mindset, attitude, and culture, which is what makes the classroom environment so diverse. On top of that, you will sometimes have disabled students in your classroom as well. One way of learning isn’t going to click for all of them. During my interview with a teacher, I asked said teacher for some tips on some different learning methods he uses in the classroom. He shared several options with me, all of which I plan on using to switch up my teaching styles and to keep my students engaged in the material. The first is called Think-Pair-Share, where you ask a question, have students think about it on their own, then pair up to discuss their ideas, and finally share with the class. Another method is the Jigsaw Method, where students are divided into groups to study different specific topics, then are tasked with teaching their peers. Next there is gamification, which is when you use digital tools like Kahoot or Quizlet to study in class. Finally, there is the 70/30 rule, which is when you aim to have 70% of classroom time be student activity and talking time while only 30% of the time is teacher instruction. I remember being taught with methods like this, and I remember how much more invested I was in the lessons when I was doing something instead of just sitting and listening to a teacher drone on and on. There might be even more styles of teaching necessary in order to teach disabled students. Those teaching methods will be listed on their 504 plan or IEP.

Continuing with the topic of diversity in a classroom, specifically the differences in cultures and beliefs, it is also important to include different viewpoints of history and to teach about different cultures within your classroom. As a teacher, I want my students to feel seen, and to be educated from all points of view. Up until very recently (and sometimes even still), the viewpoint of the white man was the one taught in classrooms in the United States. I would like to help flip the script so that students can be as knowledgeable as possible about history and culture, especially their own. We as Americans can’t just sweep history under the rug, we have to acknowledge it and learn from it in order to move forward and do better. 

I plan to be the kind of teacher that does her best to not let students give up on themselves. If students are struggling, I will do my best to make sure the students are at school as often as possible, I can break the lessons down into smaller parts, or I can have the students benefit from group work with their peers. I will help struggling students in any way I can. I also think it is important to be empathetic and understanding of things they might have going on outside the classroom. I have a growth mindset, and I would like to instill that in my students as well. A growth mindset is when you believe that you can continue to grow and learn anything with hard work and dedication, there is no limit to what you can do. The opposite would be a fixed mindset, which is when you believe that you are born a certain way and will only go so far before you can’t get any better at a certain skill or topic. I was taught a growth mindset from a young age, and I believe that it is part of the reason I have made it so far in life and have succeeded thus far. A growth mindset will aid students in developing their own critical thinking skills. The purpose of schooling is to push young people to come to conclusions on their own, think for themselves, and develop their own opinions with the diverse information they are given. School shouldn’t just be a place of memorizing and reciting, it should be a place of learning, thinking, growing, and creativity as well.

For the teaching dispositions #1 and #2, I gave myself a 3 out of 4. This is because I consider myself to be an inclusive and intuitive person, but I’m nervous to give myself a 4 in these categories right away because I’ve never worked in a classroom before. I have full confidence in myself that I will get there, I just need some hands-on experience first. I’m only a sophomore in college, and I think that I will take many more teaching classes before I graduate that will provide me with more strategies and tools to help me become more confident in these areas. I’m very excited to become a teacher, and I have the qualities that will help me become a great teacher, but I’m also very nervous of things I have never done before. The beginning will be the hardest as I get used to everything, then I will be able to work up from there. For dispositions #3, #4, and #5, I gave myself a 4. I personally think that all three of these dispositions have to do with common sense, caring about others, and having a love for your job. Even though I haven’t actually started teaching yet, I already have a love for the profession and am very excited to do it. As long as you care about your job and care about your students, you should excel in these categories. As I have previously defined, caring about your students involves caring about their educational success as well as caring about them as people. For a teacher to truly make an impact on their students, you need to be there and be understanding about all aspects of their lives.