Reflection # 7- Revised Educational Philosophy

My Educational Philosophy has not really changed in the aspect of my vision and beliefs of my classroom, however, the enormous amount of information that I've gained from taking this class has driven me to want to do and incorporate more tools especially with technology. I still believe that 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. After all there are unlimited possibilities and multitudes of different technology tools I can integrate in the classroom.

 As a whole, the way I look at my past teachers and how they ran their classroom, I believe the impact I received from my worst teacher not being able to control her classroom was knowing that it is a must in 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. By providing lessons that are incorporated and integrated with technology tools and devices, students would get a wide realm of the unlimited amount of resources that are out there. As an educator we just have to think ahead from the traditional way of teaching. 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 has not changed in the aspect that I’m still drawn closes to the Constructivism teaching style. 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. Specifically with the integration of technology. Thanks to this class I feel extremely comfortable of learning more on how I can incorporate more technology tools into the classroom.