Personal Teaching Beliefs

Teaching is a lifelong learning process. It involves the learning of new strategies, philosophies, and methods. I can learn from colleagues, parents, classes, and from the students themselves. I want my students to take responsibility for their learning. I want to give them the tools to help become successful in their life. I think it is my responsibility to provide an educational environment that is encouraging and positive.

As an educator, it is my job to find new ways for my students to learn that coincides with their particular learning style and takes advantage of their strengths. In all practical terms, this will mean finding new ways for each of my students to learn in their own particular way. As a whole, my students will need more reason to learn with authentic experiences, hands-on

It is also very important to keep in mind that teaching is about enhancing development, and ensuring that students know that you genuinely respect, and want what’s best for them. When teachers get to know their students, they can plan more individually based on their specific needs. They are able to better prepare themselves to provide the students with the least

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

My role as a teacher is to assist and offer activities that enhance academic, social and emotional development by using strategies that incorporate all learning styles. Curriculum should be student centered and the student must play a part in their own learning process. To facilitate meeting the educational goals of my students my instructions must be clear and uncomplicated when delivering a lesson. Integrating and accommodating a classroom of students from a variety of backgrounds and proficiency levels can be challenging. Therefore, it will be my responsibility to determine individual learning styles. Furthermore, assessments and observations will provide me the opportunity to choose curriculum and experiences that take into account each student’s instructional needs. In order for students to develop intellectually they need opportunities to discover for themselves and practice in authentic situation that improve their own unique abilities. Presenting young students with unconventional means for acquiring knowledge (e.g. internet access, iPads) and allowing learners a number of ways to demonstrate what they have learned, will motivate them to respect and support their own

What beliefs have influenced the classroom teacher featured in the interview to create this effective learning environment?

Education is an essential element to the life of every person. Teachers must have a philosophy of teaching to be effective in the classroom. No matter what way of teaching an educator chooses, it should positively affect his or her students and help to keep them on track to growing into strong intelligent adults.

It is my desire as a role model and teacher to help students by meeting them where they are at and reach their fullest potential by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites ideas to be shared openly. It is my goal to teach students effective tools to gain a voice and be able to identify and understand other voices in this world. I believe the ideal curriculum is one which provides students with extensive individual freedom and requires them to ask their own questions, conduct their own inquiries, and draw on their own conclusions. My lessons and instruction will only be powerful if I have spent time establishing relationships and an effective behavior management system with my students. Also, by providing students access to hands-on activities and allowing adequate time and space to use materials that reinforce the lesson being studied, creates an opportunity for individual discovery and construction of knowledge to

students in relation to teaching and learning. First, I discovered their love and need of hands-on experiences. Every day that my students participated in a learning experiment, every student was involved and excited to see the results of the experiment. They constantly wanted to be the, “lucky volunteer”, and in their culminating project, I had students name their favorite part of the entire unit, and all 22 students mentioned one of the six experiments they participated in. Second, I discovered the power of student directed learning. Half way through the unit I began placing students who showed great understanding of the topics with students who had more difficulty understanding the topics of the unit. On these days, based on the conversations I observed between students, the students really enjoyed this opportunity of, “being the teacher” and their classmates enjoyed the experience of learning from a classmate. According to Adam Fletcher, an author with a focus in K-12 literature, states, “When students prepare to teach other students, learning suddenly involves active thinking about material, analysis and selection of main ideas, and processing the concepts into one’s own thoughts and words” (2016). Third, I discovered who they are as learners and what best suites them as individuals. Based on the formal and informal formative assessments the students took throughout the unit,

For students to learn what their teachers have to offer, they must feel fully appreciated as individuals within the context of their own distinctive ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds and with their own particular genders, sexual orientations, and sensory and physical abilities.

I will address a wide range of skills and abilities in my classroom by differentiating instructions. I believe that students reach their highest level of thinking at different rates and in their own way. Therefore, teachers must teach in the way their students learn. I will address my student's needs by using various strategies such as individual learning, collaborative learning and scaffolding my lessons. Individual learning will allow students to complete their assignments at their own level and rate and collaborative learning promotes peer learning. I believe peer learning will improve students progress as they work towards a common goal. I will also scaffold my lessons and design activities and assessments that will support multiple learning

What will make learning more fun? What will make them interest more with the teachers and students, and most importantly familiarizing themselves with the classroom. Research has shown that the quality of teacher-student relationships is the keystone for all other aspects of classroom management. Also the way in which I chose the five things "not to do" was my observation as a substitute teacher, being able to go from classroom to classroom and observing different teachers and their

Based on my experience in service hours what I had learned is, students learn the most by providing activities and materials that children find engaging. Supplying a developmentally appropriate environment, interesting materials, and adequate time to explore, play, and interact, children find learning easy and fun. When curriculum fun students are willing to learn more. Likewise, it’s important for students to be aware of learning strategies that are both effective and fun for them. If teachers and students can stay conscious of improving the learning process on a regular basis, it’s much easier to work together to keep lessons engaging and motivating. The strategies that can assist teachers and students with this process to make fun. For example, “offer choice” which I had to observe in my education 201 teacher shadowing experience, the teacher gives a choice of doing homework or playing the educational game on the computer if they did their homework. However, letting students pick the order of homework assignments they will work on may help. These help students to control their desire, it’s important to incorporate choices into lessons as often as possible. Also, make learning practical, giving the purpose of the knowledge. Instead of simply telling students that there is a practical purpose for the lesson at hand, give them some concrete examples. Help them to overcome conflict of

There are many teachers, with many different teaching styles. There are teachers who are strict and do not allow for any disruptions in the classroom. Then we have teachers who do not even really care what is going on in the classroom. The way that these teachers, and so many more, teach is a result of their personal philosophies on education.

I began to think of ways that I could first identify the needs of my students, without having telepathy. I knew that I needed to have conversations with each one on a one to one basis to try to gauge their interests. I also understand the many demands that are put on teachers and trying to insert any time for anything other than content is virtually impossible. Yet, this is one of the most important aspects of education—trying to fit the needs of each of our students as best as possible. I believe that students are young adults that are fully capable of reaching and setting their own learning goals. They only need the correct push and back ground to develop and flesh out their own thoughts. I began to think, what factors play into