My Teaching Experience : The Importance Of Learning

This essay seeks to critically reflect my current understanding of teaching and learning and how it has influenced my developing philosophy. This is an important concept to grasp, for any practicing educator at the beginning of their journey in becoming a qualified teacher in Physical Education (PE). To fully develop this essay it is vital to be able to define and outline a solid concept of philosophy, as this will make it easier to understand the principles that underpin practices within the teaching environment. However, the notion of understanding ones philosophy is not always a straightforward process, there are certain barriers teachers are presented with on a day-to-day basis that can sometimes restrict and prevent an all-inclusive pedagogical atmosphere. Understanding the crucial concept of philosophy will provide the essay with a strong backbone. The definition from The Oxford Dictionary describes philosophy as a “theory or attitude held by a person or organization that acts as a guiding principle for behavior,” (Oxford Dictionary, 2015). Integrating this definition into the practical setting together Lund and Tannehill (2005) argued that inside a professional teaching occupation it is critical that teachers come to terms with what they personally believe about physical education and its goals. Whilst reflecting on both definitions I found it difficult to emphasize and pinpoint exactly what my personal philosophy may include, as it seemed at first I wanted focus on

Like many others from my graduating class, I left college and headed for the fast track world of law and finance. After two years crunching numbers, juggling real estate projects and emerging from Black Monday in October 1987 relatively unscathed, I realized I hated my job. Landing a teaching position at Fessenden School became a watershed event in my life. Looking back over the past years, I fully realize that teaching is an essential part of me. Michael Thompson, once said, "There are some teachers who are effective and know why, others who aren 't effective and don 't know why, and a third are effective, but aren 't quite sure why." After five years at Fessenden, I felt like the latter. Therefore, I decided to attend graduate school in order to become a more effective educator. Theory, practicum, and research aside, graduate school was an epiphany for me. It confirmed in me that leading a school was more than a choice; it was a calling.

The learning environment supports students learning outcomes by faculty working with the students collaboratively and individually. The faculty response to student individual needs and concerns. For example, emails are answered promptly for assignment clarifications. The classroom environment supports students learning outcomes by a quiet surrounding that promotes focusing.

It is my strong belief that each child is entitled to a safe, secure, stimulating and caring learning environment. I always believed that each child is a unique individual with much curiosity and many academic, social and emotional needs. Children need our support in order to mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. As a teacher, one should aim to help students in fulfilling their dreams to become successful and educated individuals. We must provide them with a safe learning environment for their learning to succeed.

Learning Environments: In order to support learning environments to meet the need of every child in my class, I will get to know the child and their cultural background. When I am able to do this, I will be able to incorporate the child’s culture into the classroom. In

Through my experiences working in the education field and the classes I have taken at Cal State LA, I have developed a personal teaching philosophy that will be implemented in my future classrooms. My experiences working with middle school and high schools students have led me to pursue a career in teaching. For three years, I worked as an Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) tutor at my former high school helping students with their homework and problems they face. AVID is a college preparation program designed to help high school students become motivated and prepared to enter a four-year university of their choice. I also was fortunate to work at the CSULA Reading and Writing clinic as a teaching facilitator during their Summer

One of the videos we watched, talked about what students can tell us about teaching. Whether we are a teacher or a student, change is hard. It is uncomfortable and messy. Teachers need to teach into the unknown and we all need to be self evolving learners that embrace change to help us become successful. Our learning environments are always changing and we need to learn to adapt.

Young children learn about the world around them by experimenting and trying new ways of doing things. The bonds they form with warm, nurturing teachers and the stimulating environment of their classroom forms the foundation for future learning. We help develop

Gandhi said "Be the change you wish to see in the world". So really, it starts with educators. They need

My philosophy of teaching is deeply rooted in nurturing the potential each and every student in my classes. Providing a creative environment that allows self assessment, growth, group interaction and mentorship are at its very core. Having taught in Higher Education for many years, and as an instructor of Media Arts and Animation, and Game Design, I have had the amazing opportunity to work with some of the brightest and creative young professionals. Teaching has not only broadened my love of art and exploration, but my determination to help students that do not have the confidence to persevere through their education, yet have the passion to follow their dreams.

Fullan provides some basic lessons when thinking about educational change (Fullan, 1993). He states that one cannot mandate what matters, whether it be complexity of change in skills, thinking or committed actions in an educational enterprise. He adds that "effective change agents neither embrace nor ignore mandates. They use them as catalysts to reexamine what they are doing" (p.24). He also states that the merging of personal and shared visions take time, which differs from Rogers’ idea that the innovation drives the change process. Fullan believes that problems are the route to deeper meaning and change and ultimately profound satisfaction, and believes that conflict is essential to any successful innovative change. He adds that

I am teaching at McClure Middle School under the direction of Ms. Michele Crull. I am in a sixth grade social studies classroom where they are learning geography, government/civics, economics and history of five specific world regions. My collaborating teacher has a spectrum of students ranging from special education to on level children. She does not teach any gifted or advanced classes, but has 3 inclusion classes. Some of her students require more attention and guiding through their work, so Mrs. Carter comes into her classroom to aid these students in addition to Ms. Crull. Thus far my experience in the field is getting off to a rocky start, but things are slowly improving.

Before taking becoming a teacher I had volunteered in my community at home. I was always helping at the care facility that my great grandfather was staying in. Although this was a different kind of service than I did for my ACE hours I was still making an impact on someone in my community. I would help with the senior citizens, serving them lunch, playing games, and interacting with them. They loved when me and my little brother would come to help because it wasn’t just like any other day, we would take them outside to see the birds or take them to the movie room to watch a movie and have popcorn. I feel like with my ACE hours I made an impact on the young children in the community because I went and helped out in a sixth-grade science classroom. I went on a regular class day and a “lab” day. On lab day I got to be very interactive with the students. I really liked that I chose this service for my ACE hours since I want to be a teacher, it gave me real insight of what a class day looks like from a teacher position not as the student. The students knew that I am a Sam Houston State university student and they were very interested to know what college was like and what I was going to be “when I grew up”. They wanted to talk to me the whole class period about it, so we spent a couple minutes talking and then got to work.

Today when I got to school, I took time to walk around and talk to students about their weekends. Mrs. Prioreschi is big on letting kids express themselves and share things, and this time is perfect for allowing them to do that. After they got settled, I played their morning show on the computer for students to watch. Computer class was next and they were in a new programming software called coding with legos. I got taught how to complete a full set so could help students when they run into obstacles along the way. When we got back to the classroom, they got to have a mental brain break. This is where students stand up and mirror a dance to a song the teacher projects. It was so much fun because I got to see student’s personalities come out through this.

Teaching is complicated and intricate experience included the teacher, the students, and environment (Harrison et al., 1999). Earl (1983) said only a small number of teacher make an improvement in development of students’ skills, and the evidence that traditional instruction is positively related to the development of skills for students was rarely found. However, some teachers make an improvement than others. The reasons for this are varied, but the goal of teacher in physical education is same. The goal is to have students enjoy and play the game well. So, how should teachers do for effective teaching? Rink (1996) summarized effective teaching in physical education.