The Statement Of Teaching Philosophy

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.

Deciding that I wanted to be a teacher didn’t take much effort; deciding what kind of teacher I want to be however, takes much more thought. There are numerous educational philosophies, most of which can be traced back to one of four major perspectives: idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism. All of these philosophical systems have an impact on educational thought; however, I find it hard to choose

As a future educator, it is the my job to educate all students through means of teaching that enable students to be successful in health, fitness, leadership, character development, and accountability for their regular lives outside of school.

I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially.

Throughout education there are six main philosophies to take into consideration, and they are as followed. From a teacher centered classroom approach they include Essentialism, Behaviorism, and lastly Positivism. In a student centered classroom approach they are Progressivism, Humanism, and Constructivism. What do these terms mean? Essentialism is and educational philosophy that there is a common core of information and skills that an educated person must have. Behaviorism is a psychological theory and educational philosophy that asserts that behaviors represent the essence of a person and that all behaviors can be explained. A person acts the way they do for a reason. Finally positivism is a social theory and educational philosophy that limits truth and knowledge to what is observed and measured. These are all important for a teacher to take into consideration. Progressivism is an educational philosophy that emphasizes that ideas should be tested by experiments and that learning is better developed in questions developed by the learner. Humanism is an

Like a good business plan, every teacher should have a personal educational philosophy in place. Witcher, Sewall, Arnold, and Travers in Teaching, leading and learning: It’s all about philosophy (2001) say that a

After completing this teacher interview activity, I am beyond excited to become a teacher. I feel this way not only because Heather strongly agrees that teaching is an optimal choice of a young person today but due to the passion she possesses for her job. As Heather described her classroom and what it is like to spend all day with children, I just cannot wait until I am teaching. Children have this undeniable excitement about them; everyday is a good day, as they do not have a care in the world. I hope this positive outlook on life with fill my body everyday just as it has there’s. Ultimately, what I am most excited to do is make an impact on a child’s life. There is no greater feel in the world that knowing that that you have helped someone. I hope that I will make an impact on every student I have so that they can think back and say, that teacher changed my life. I know that this profession is not going to be all fun and games or that everyday will be a good day but I am up for the challenge. Impacting the lives of our nations youth is completely and totally worth it.

Upon graduation, I aspire to become an elementary teacher. In order to do so, I have to complete my Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. Within this major, creative thinking and problem solving is necessary. I have set out several academic goal while attending my university.

I see students as the next generations’ heroes in so many fields. In my vision, I have to inspire students and prepare them with confidence, knowledge, experience and skills. Which means I encourage, communicate, guide, teach, and assess students in order to enrich their infrastructures.

As a student teacher I have been challenged to examine these goals in light of my personal experience in the classroom with real students. As a result of this self-examination and evaluation I find my primary motivation for becoming a teacher has not changed. It is my desire to make a positive impact on my student’s lives by helping them see that the challenge of learning can be fun. I hope to share my own love of learning and science by appealing to my student’s natural curiosity about the world around them. Creating challenging lesson plans that engage student’s on every level allows me to utilize my own creative talents and fan the creative spark in their minds and create a positive attitude toward learning that will help carry them successfully through their own academic

My own personal journey through my education and reflection as a student studying, teaching, and learning has shaped by beliefs in the way I learn and the way I want to teach. My personal teaching philosophy consists of several teaching philosophies. It is a mix of progressivism and existentialism. I believe in progressivism, I believe the concept that students should be provided with learning experiences that are dynamic and teach using hands-on approach. I think when a student is learning about a subject that interests them and is relevant to them, learning is improved. Lessons should boost curiosity and be thought provoking. Although, funding in some school makes this difficult due to lack of materials, teachers should attempt to improvise

Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.

Aristotle once said, “The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.” Teaching enables students to gain the intelligence needed to excel in life. I believe that a teacher’s philosophy of education is a crucial role in his or her approach to leading students on their educated path. A philosophy of education is the set of beliefs that every school and every teacher stand behind. The certain philosophy that one chooses provides the answers to many vital questions, such as the purpose of schooling, a teacher’s role, and what should be taught in the classroom.

I consider and know that children are the future of our world; we have to know how to teach and educate them adequately so they could be prepared to lead future generations. I consider that each child has its own way of learning; there are multiple ways in which a person could be intelligent and capable of completing tasks. I want to be able to help children with everything they need. I want to motivate them to do and be the best in every task and area, everything that they dream and think about, to persuade their dreams and never give up no matter how hard they think it is or how difficult becomes trough the way. I don’t want to be the type of teacher that goes through the school year teaching what I have to and limit my capabilities to show them things and lessons useful for their lives, I want every child that goes to my classroom, leave it at the end of the year with instructions or lessons that make them better persons. Additionally, think that it’s important to have a good balance between discipline and kindness with students, it’s important to have a good relationship with the students because in that way is easier to communicate with them; if they have any problems or trouble learning a lesson or something in the content, if they have a good communication and relationship with you, it will be easier for them to tell you about what is causing them trouble. In some cases, when the educator is strong and teaches with hard discipline, the students tend to evade them and

After reviewing these teaching philosophies and educational theories, many of them reflect my own personal educational philosophy and my instructional practices and choice of classroom curriculum. The four that I found the most appealing are: Realism, Pragmatism, existentialism and progressivism. I find the combination of the three very complementary.