My Philosophy of Education Essay

Education is one of the most important things we learn in our lives. As a future educator my personal philosophy is to instill the values of cooperation, fairness and justice into the hearts of our students. Students need guidance and support in many areas of their life. A teacher can make a drastic difference in a child’s life. It is important to teach our future innovators to think critically, help them to see their worth, help the student to engage in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Letting a student have a voice in what they enjoy and what class rules should be can result in a positive learning experience. Creating teacher-student relationships and supporting them in play, passion, and helping them find their purpose will help support them through their failures which are positive learning experiences. Progressivism is a philosophy that supports this type of learning. Teaching academics with a progressivism outlook, it can help students with their outlook on the democratic society. Students can learn how to create their voice, what they believe, and increase their knowledge to achieve their goal along with teacher support.

My life has been influenced greatly by teachers. Since I was a child, teaching is all I wanted to do. My mother is a fifth grade teacher. I have quite a few friends that are teachers. I have been fortunate to be influenced by some great teachers throughout my academic career. I love to be around kids and I like participating in the process of learning. I appreciate learning even today. I enjoy the learning process and hope to one day influence students in the future. I hope to one day become a high school social studies teacher. I enjoy history and geography, and I especially love politics and discussing current events. I like class discussions and letting different opinions express themselves.

To be an effective educator, I believe one must have a foundation of moral and ethical principles. An educator should support the learning environment, while being flexible and teachable. He or she must also lay a foundation of beliefs on how individuals learn, seeking to enable individuals to reach their optimal potential. My personal educational philosophy begins with believing all children are unique individuals, with different emotions and different styles of learning. An educator has the incredible challenge of attempting to meet those needs. As an educator, I believe all children deserve the opportunity and resources that would better enable them to reach their maximum potential.

For me, the decision to become a teacher is more of a way of life than a career. I have always loved school, practicing at being school marm from a young age, and voraciously devouring every shred of education offered me in my career as a student. If it were possible, I would be a student for the rest of my life. And then I still would not have learned enough. As a teacher, I hope to instill this appetite for knowledge in secondary students. They are, after all, the future leaders of the world, and what better place to expand the minds of the generations to come than here in Appalachia where education programs, especially the sciences, which I plan to teach, are poorly funded and children’s dreams

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” (Angelou, 2009) This is a truth that I have witnessed firsthand. As a child, at the tender age of seven years, I was blessed with an educator, Mrs. Cager, whose commitment to her students was so profound until I have never forgotten her. She made me feel like I was the most important person in her classroom. Her encouraging words instilled a level of confidence within me that I still cling to and apply more than 40 years later. Her commitment is directly responsible for my personal philosophy of education also being commitment.

For many individuals, choosing a career is one of the hardest decisions to be faced with. The majority of students in college spend their first year stressing about what they are going to do with the rest of their life. I, fortunately, have known since I was in middle school that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. As a future teacher I feel that essentialism and progressivism are going to be my unique philosophies of education.

Education entails individual human development in the cognitive, emotional, creative and social areas. All children are entitled to a free education regardless of race, cultural background or handicaps. For education to be an effective part of the students life, the student and teacher must be actively and enthusiastically involved in learning. A teacher needs to be well prepared and organized. They need to know the perspective goals for each student and ways to achieve these goals. Teachers need to work with students to help them grow and develop ways to use their knowledge.

A driving objective for a teacher is to affect students to advance their expertise in education by finding them the correct course. The teacher should promote positive motivation and inspiration by adhering to legislation and codes of practice which will increase every student’s focus in developing and bridging gaps to display eagerness towards a healthy broad mindset, creative thinking and brighter approach. A mentor should coordinate assessments which will reinforce the ability to perceive individuals’ abilities and knowledge progressions and moreover support them further to boost their learning capacity to acquire a well-established national standards skill set.

My goal is to show my future students that they can learn as I did when I was a

Therefore, by being admitted into this program, I feel I will be in the right path into becoming a trained teacher with some exposure on how to manage a classroom, work with diverse learnings, learn some pedagogical skills, present and develop lesson plans, and observe teachers. As a future educator, I firmly believe that all children are capable of learning and achieving success through the guidance, dedication, and support from a teacher. My philosophy and teaching styles may change throughout my teaching career, and I want to remain receptive to suggestions and open for improvement. Teaching young minds is a task that cannot be taken lightly. It is full of challenges, frustrations, and responsibilities. However, it is a task that is also full of excitement, wonder, and

We know that all children need to feel happy and safe both in and out of school and take pride in the manner in which we behave to one another.

"Some people make things happen, some watch while things happen, and some wonder ‘what happened?’ Which type of person are you?" author unknown.

For a functional classroom, respect must play a large role. While there are many aspects of respect, three major roles needed are respect of students, respect of teachers, and respect of property. First, in a functional classroom there must be a respect of the students from the teacher. As according to Dr. Seuss, “A person’s a person no matter how small.” By respecting their students, a teacher is more likely to have a positive response in their classroom environment, leading to less classroom issues and adversity. Without these issues, a class is less likely to be distracted by inter-student issues, and more likely to be able to pay attention, as there is less distraction present. This makes the teacher’s life easier, as the easier a class is to control, the less stress is brought

For instance when inspiring a shared vision it is important to invite everyone to be a part of creating that vision. It is also important for the vision to be simplistic so everyone understand clearly what it is trying to be accomplished. Model the way is just as it states, through modeling what it as a leader you expect. This as a teacher could look like how you walk down a hallway verse how you want your students to walk down the hallway. If the expectation is to slightingly walk through the halls, having a teacher talk to another staff member in the hall is not modeling the way. I have personally seen this happen and usually it results in the students to begin to hold conversations, verses a teacher who is walking quietly down the hall way with their class showing the students what is expected. It comes down to showing what you expect and not just saying what you expect. Encourage the heart is giving that child a purpose for praise, by being specific in what the child is being praised for not only that child but other children as well will began to see and understand what they can do to earn a praise. Enable others to act in a classroom makes me think of cooperative learning, this gives each student personal responsibility, along with having to work in a group. Lastly, challenge the process which reminds me of story from Rita Peirson. This practice is focusing on small wins and how they can make a difference, in a Peirson’s TED talk she tells a story about how she put plus two on a student’s paper with a smiley face. The student came up to her and asked why she had put a smiley face when they had missed eighteen other questions. She responded by telling the student at least he knew two and didn’t get them all wrong which means they could learn and next time know even more. This, from her explanation, made the student feel

Education is the process of learning that can take place anywhere and at any time. I believe that creativity and activity as well as books and lessons are essential to the learning process. As a teacher, I hope to instill in the children a sense of knowledge and self-worth that will remain with them throughout their lives.