Teaching Philosophy
Teaching allows me to fulfill what I believe to be a fundamental responsibility of educators:
to impact the lives of each and every student
engage them in a positive learning process
motivate them to become lifelong learners
Not only will I teach my students but I will also learn alongside of them building on our knowledge, critical thinking, and inquisitiveness together during the journey of learning. By doing this, I will begin to understand the different types and unique learning styles of my students and design my instruction around them to help my students establish effective strategies that will accommodate each and every one of them. I will continuously build positive relationships with my students, their families and my community. These relationships will allow students to feel a sense of safety in their classroom environment and allow them to grow socially, emotionally and academically.
Students will be entering my classroom with multiple layers of:
Knowledge
experience
backgrounds
To give opportunities for students to share their knowledge, experiences and backgrounds they will be a part of our classroom family’s morning meetings. During this time, students have an open conversation about themselves and connect with their classmates through sharing. It is in that time where I learn the most about my students. I will use what each student brings to my classroom as base or foundation to build a greater understanding of more complex material. Allowing my students to actively apply their prior knowledge in a creative, meaningful, and authentic way will create that greater understanding, enhance their learning and allow them to connect it outside of the classroom. I believe my approach should inspire my students to process concepts in ways that are most meaningful to them and really personalize their learning.
As a teacher, my job is to inspire my students to:
learn
create
collaborate
I will motivate and encourage them throughout the entire process. It is important to me that my students understand that failure is normal and when they find themselves in a moment of failure they’ll know to reflect, learn from it and create success. I will model how to learn by showing them how much I still learn each day. To inspire creation, I will create projects, ideas, and areas with my students and involve them closely in the process. Collaboration will occur daily through partnerships, group work, morning meetings, and working with younger students in our school with any subject. My student’s success will stem from their active engagement of my lessons that will build on their already existing learning process. I will create ample opportunities for my students to communicate by modeling good communication skills that will benefit my students in the real world. I will create an environment where students feel safe and comfortable to express their ideas, opinions and beliefs so that other students can have a chance to learn and benefit from their peers communicated ideas. I will give my students strategies and tools to regulate and identify their emotions.
My love for teaching flourishes when my students transform into the:
positive
motivated
inspired
learners they were meant to be. My love will continue to grow while I learn along with my students and create a motivated and enthusiastic classroom where my students love to attend every single day. I will share with my students daily how they have changed me as an educator and the love that I have for them. When I share what motivates me and how each student inspired me, my only hope is that those same feelings will transfer to them. Teaching is not only my job, it is my absolute passion and at the end of each day my heart is full when I have effectively impacted my learners, transformed them into the capable communicators that they can be and ultimately connecting them to their own passions and lifelong learning.