Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" - Nelson Mandela
PHILOSOPHY - Mentors pushing student beyond their potential
My philosophy of teaching revolves around the idea that teachers are motivators, leaders, guides, mentors, and everything in between who push students to mature socially and intellectually. I believe that as teachers, and most importantly secondary instructors, we must push students to reach beyond their potential. My goal is to create positive, healthy, and growing citizens. Although sometimes challenging, I believe with dedication, an active mind, and patience we can help our students grow into each of those things.
GOALS - Professional development and teaching in a global world
As an English teacher, I want to be the ongoing expert of information, but also flexible to their needs and adaptive to the future. That means, I will continually seek out professional development, advice, and incorporate reflections throughout my career. My classroom will then modify as needed for the students. I plan on incorporating all aspects of the language arts ranging from reading and writing to speech and film. As a teacher in a global and technological world, it is absolutely necessary to include all forms of expression because our world changes so rapidly. I will mentor my students by engaging them with controversial films, motivating them to write empowering speeches, and encouraging well-reasoned arguments over the philosophy of challenging novels. By modifying the expectations I not only provide students with the opportunity to practice code switching but also differentiate specific skills through a variety of assignments.
RIGOROUS CURRICULUM - Standard-based grading while tracking student progress
While teaching, I hope to provide a fair but challenging academic curriculum. Since I understand that all students function on varying levels of abilities, I will use differentiated instruction throughout my lessons. One specific way I plan on differentiating is by using portfolios for writing samples and monitoring my students' progress individually. I believe a combination of a standard-based and progress-based method is necessary to monitor student growth and also the standards they have met. By differentiating, I believe I will both effectively assess and challenge my students' capabilities. Because smaller assignments focus on providing the necessary practice for improving the skills that will be used on papers and in speeches, I will grade these activities by completion and use the students’ actual performance to assess their understanding. Thus, students should come to class with their homework completed and complete in class assignments as well.
LIFELONG LEARNERS - Personal beliefs match expectations for students
My main goal is to inspire lifelong learners. If I can teach my students to always inform themselves, readily react to new material, and thrive in change, then I believe I will have succeeded. When my students value their education and are excited to meet the demands of the day's challenges, then I will know they are learning. This response should be evident by the students’ general attitude in the classroom; they should be willing to participate, actively involved in the portfolio process, and tackling issues that resonate with their personal interests. I will also monitor their learning along the journey as I map how they change. Again, the portfolio process will help me monitor how they progress. From my experience with portfolios it effectively allows students and teachers to work on the process of changing editing and growing as life-long learners.
SELF-MOTIVATION - Create meaningful, relevant curriculum that works with, not against, students
In addition to challenging my students within the realm of English, I want to teach them to value self-driven success. I hope to push my students to find meaning in education for themselves, and then I hope to instill in them an appreciation for all subjects and let that guide them to grow into hard workers as they enter a global world and job force. We are competing in a world market and to combat it, I want to show my students how language will enable them to be heard in whatever profession they choose. Should they want to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, cosmetologists, mechanics, they must know that the number one way they convey success is through their attitude that directly relates to the language arts.
PURPOSEFUL - Students should see their end result
Overall, my aim as a teacher is to be one who raises awareness about the world and shows our students what we can each accomplish as individuals. I want to inspire my students to be proactive learners who seek ways to better themselves and the world. I believe we can create motivated students if we focus on taking whatever abilities they have and harnessing it to their interests while challenging them at the same time. Even though this will be a challenge, and especially challenging when bridging the gap between equality and fairness in education, I believe a positive attitude and strong sense of determination will guide me. My teaching philosophy is essentially that hard work and passion will enable teachers to inspire students no matter what the obstacles are.
My philosophy of teaching revolves around the idea that teachers are motivators, leaders, guides, mentors, and everything in between who push students to mature socially and intellectually. I believe that as teachers, and most importantly secondary instructors, we must push students to reach beyond their potential. My goal is to create positive, healthy, and growing citizens. Although sometimes challenging, I believe with dedication, an active mind, and patience we can help our students grow into each of those things.
GOALS - Professional development and teaching in a global world
As an English teacher, I want to be the ongoing expert of information, but also flexible to their needs and adaptive to the future. That means, I will continually seek out professional development, advice, and incorporate reflections throughout my career. My classroom will then modify as needed for the students. I plan on incorporating all aspects of the language arts ranging from reading and writing to speech and film. As a teacher in a global and technological world, it is absolutely necessary to include all forms of expression because our world changes so rapidly. I will mentor my students by engaging them with controversial films, motivating them to write empowering speeches, and encouraging well-reasoned arguments over the philosophy of challenging novels. By modifying the expectations I not only provide students with the opportunity to practice code switching but also differentiate specific skills through a variety of assignments.
RIGOROUS CURRICULUM - Standard-based grading while tracking student progress
While teaching, I hope to provide a fair but challenging academic curriculum. Since I understand that all students function on varying levels of abilities, I will use differentiated instruction throughout my lessons. One specific way I plan on differentiating is by using portfolios for writing samples and monitoring my students' progress individually. I believe a combination of a standard-based and progress-based method is necessary to monitor student growth and also the standards they have met. By differentiating, I believe I will both effectively assess and challenge my students' capabilities. Because smaller assignments focus on providing the necessary practice for improving the skills that will be used on papers and in speeches, I will grade these activities by completion and use the students’ actual performance to assess their understanding. Thus, students should come to class with their homework completed and complete in class assignments as well.
LIFELONG LEARNERS - Personal beliefs match expectations for students
My main goal is to inspire lifelong learners. If I can teach my students to always inform themselves, readily react to new material, and thrive in change, then I believe I will have succeeded. When my students value their education and are excited to meet the demands of the day's challenges, then I will know they are learning. This response should be evident by the students’ general attitude in the classroom; they should be willing to participate, actively involved in the portfolio process, and tackling issues that resonate with their personal interests. I will also monitor their learning along the journey as I map how they change. Again, the portfolio process will help me monitor how they progress. From my experience with portfolios it effectively allows students and teachers to work on the process of changing editing and growing as life-long learners.
SELF-MOTIVATION - Create meaningful, relevant curriculum that works with, not against, students
In addition to challenging my students within the realm of English, I want to teach them to value self-driven success. I hope to push my students to find meaning in education for themselves, and then I hope to instill in them an appreciation for all subjects and let that guide them to grow into hard workers as they enter a global world and job force. We are competing in a world market and to combat it, I want to show my students how language will enable them to be heard in whatever profession they choose. Should they want to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, cosmetologists, mechanics, they must know that the number one way they convey success is through their attitude that directly relates to the language arts.
PURPOSEFUL - Students should see their end result
Overall, my aim as a teacher is to be one who raises awareness about the world and shows our students what we can each accomplish as individuals. I want to inspire my students to be proactive learners who seek ways to better themselves and the world. I believe we can create motivated students if we focus on taking whatever abilities they have and harnessing it to their interests while challenging them at the same time. Even though this will be a challenge, and especially challenging when bridging the gap between equality and fairness in education, I believe a positive attitude and strong sense of determination will guide me. My teaching philosophy is essentially that hard work and passion will enable teachers to inspire students no matter what the obstacles are.
Written in Spring 2012