Educational Philosophy

Throughout my entire educational experience, I’ve had a number of great teachers that were compassionate about teaching. But I have to say my undergrad professor, Dr. M, enlightened my eyes to want to actually become an educator. She always told the class not to limit their abilities in what we want to do in our careers and life. Dr. M challenged us in ways to think outside the box and move away from our comfort zone or what we’ve all been taught growing up in the educational system. We all know from being younger, how we should act amongst our peers, how to use our manners, what is excepted and not excepted in society, that we’ve managed to duplicate the dos and don’ts into our classroom. Dr. M allowed us to think beyond and gave us the freedom to implement our ideas by developing projects and activities that we actually promoted on campus. Now I’ve had about three bad teachers I would say throughout my educational experience and honestly I can’t remember one of them because somehow I’ve managed to erase them from my memory. I can remember things that happened in the classroom, but cannot remember the actual teacher, which is sad to say. Although, my worst teacher I have to say was actually my Spanish 2 teacher in high school. She was a very sweet lady, however, her downfall was she always became overwhelmed with her personal issues outside of class. She allowed her issues to affect her way of teaching and poor into our learning time. Which then trickled into her organization of the classroom in every aspect. I believe she wasn’t a strong enough teacher because once some of my classmates saw her weakness; they were able to bring her down to a point that she could not even teach some days. It affected those that really wanted learn at the end of the day because she had no discipline or control of the environment. Now imagine that on a daily basis. It felt like the class became a free period for a lot of the students because there was no consistency, discipline, rules, consequences, and organization. I really felt bad for her at times, especially when some of the other surrounding teachers would come in the class to gain control for her. I didn’t learn anything in that class and all I knew was what I learned the previous year in Spanish 1.

To start off I believe the impact I received from my worst teacher was having control of the classroom. If there is no control of the classroom, you have lost the interest of the students and willingness to learn. In addition, there has to be a foundation established of all the expectations you have for you and the students before being able to grasp the attention of your students and take them to the next level of learning. And this is beyond setting the rules and procedures because that is a given. However, my best teacher has opened my eyes of knowing that learning can be fun and can be refrained from the typical lecture method, which is teacher-centered. My approach will definitely be student centered that encourages them to put on their higher order of thinking hats every time they come into my classroom. As an educator we have to incorporate different views on the ways of learning and teaching, as well as not limiting the endless resources that are out there and that are being developed. I believe a great teacher is someone who goes over and beyond to become a life coach. Being an educator comes with the territory of being an emotional, psychological, and supporter of the student’s well being.

My philosophy that I’m drawn closes to is Constructivism. However, I do believe that having other philosophies incorporated in your main philosophy, helps bring out a well-rounded classroom.  While reading over the different philosophies, I felt Constructivism described the foundation of what my classroom would be. I believe that creating and developing a learning environment where the students are able to experience a real-world setting, along with having collaborative work area, study areas, and resource areas; it will shape the students to get into their own ways of doing things, yet give equal opportunity to share responsibilities and ideas to finding solutions. In which I also am drawn to the Pragmatism philosophy in which education should be looked at as life itself and not just learning to get by. We as educators should capture the motivation of our students and give the opportunities to use their different talents and ways of learning in projects and/or assignments that bring out the positive outcome of the subject. I liked that Pragmatism brought out that students are not the same and sometimes cannot be taught the same way. Which then brought me to Howard Garner’s 8 intelligences of learners in the classroom. We have the math analytical learner, linguistic learner, nature, music, tactical kinesthetic, visual art, intrapersonal, and interpersonal learners. And as an educator I will incorporate all the many possibilities and create a diverse learning environment.

To get anywhere in our world you need education. And with technology rapidly growing I feel my motivation is embracing the new culture that has aroused by incorporating it into the classroom. I chose to be in the profession of teaching because I want to give people the opportunity to reach their goals and aspirations. Moreover, target students while they are young and trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up, that with time, effort, and dedication, they will be exposed to countless opportunities to succeed. And with the use of technology in the classroom, it not only will make education fun and interesting, but it will create the room for new relationships to be formed inside and outside the classroom, accessibility to new information, and more. As an educator I will not limit the capacity of the use of technology. Technology will be incorporated in my lesson plans, giving the students the different opportunities to create, develop, research, and collaborate on projects they come up with themselves. Which gives them the freedom to find their own solution with the guidance of my instruction. With the ongoing training of the different ways technology can be used, I will make sure that I am up to speed on the many ideas technology could be used in my classroom.