Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy is that teachers need to relate the concepts that students learn to the world around them. Students attend an educational institution to prepare for future employment and to enter the real world. The basic skills that are needed to survive in society are taught in the classroom like reading and writing, but students must also be taught that the concepts that they are learning in the classroom will prepare them for the rest of their lives. The concepts that a student is learning must affect his or her life directly. To be more specific, students should be able to feel as if the subject matter that he or she is learning is somehow related to them and has an affect on the world that they live in.
Students need to be able to relate to their school work to supplement further engagement. The more that a student feels they can relate to a specific subject, the stronger the possibility that the student will continue to be eager to learn the subject. For example, in an English classroom, students should be able to see themselves in an aspect of the literature they are reading. A group of seventh graders may have a hard time relating to a book about someone who is 5 years younger then them, but they may be eager to find similarities between themselves and a character that just happens to be of the same age.
Showing your students that you care about their world allows your students to see that you care about them. If a teacher cares enough to relate the subject matter to a situation that may be occurring in his or her student’s lives, then the student will appreciate it. It motivates a student to excel and makes the teacher seem more approachable to the students. For example, the teacher should chose
Content area literacy, as with all learning, should directly relate to the students’ lives. When students can relate to a subject, they retain the information better and are more excited to learn. Relating subjects to students’ lives provides them with the desire to participate in the lesson and make connections with previous experiences. Lee (2014) wrote that “culture is the primary medium through which humans learn” (p. 10). Connecting the readings to students’ lives helps them activate their prior knowledge of culture and experience and allows them to transfer it to their learning.
2. Explanation and connection: Studies state when teachers teach about real world issues students are more engaged with the lesson.
Education is the means by which a student gains the tools for a successful future. Through education, a teacher is not only teaching facts, but also teaching life skills. Education teaches students discipline, responsibility, and many other life skills. As a teacher, I hope to instill these skills in my students. I also hope to help them develop as adolescents. Education should allow students to fully understand and discover themselves, in addition to giving them the ability to survive in the real world. Education involves respecting every student's race, sex, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and religion. Education should teach the students to think on their own, and to accept and embrace their individuality.
Ralph W. Tyler, an influential figure in early twentieth century educational reform believed that “the purpose of life was learning.” He said, “When one ceases to learn, one ceases to live life to the fullest. The biological basis of man has changed little since the cave days. However, each generation creates new ideas and elaborates on those ideas which have previously existed.” With education, ideals set forth from a society or culture can be preserved and create a powerful generativity of knowledge, linking the past with the present while ensuring future posterity.
The role of public education as I see it is to provide every child the opportunity to become a valuable member of society. It is an institution where parents, teachers and the community can collaborate to help each student achieve educational success. It takes all kinds of individuals with different teaching styles and philosophies to achieve this. I believe my role as a teacher is to challenge students to think for themselves, think critically (solve problems) and to encourage learning through lessons that are fun. My philosophy is that I should strive to provide authentic learning experiences through student engagement and collaboration. As an educator it is my responsibility to facilitate learning opportunities whether they come from direct instruction, student collaboration in the classroom, or involvement in community activities.
My theoretical perspective on teaching and learning reflects of those of John Dewey way of thinking. I believe that children learn by doing. He also felt that letting children explore their question taught them to make real-life connections. He felt that true education should come from children's natural curiosity and should be guided coming from the teacher (Dewey1900). Learning needs to be relevant to the children. Children should be able to relate to what is being taught to
... the students’ lives. I know too many people who never feel that their life will amount to anything, and if I can affect just one life and make a difference in that one, I will be satisfied. I had many teachers in my school career, but I can honestly say that my mathematics teachers had the greatest affect on my life. I see this in my personal life and in the way I teach and feel that teaching math should be handled.
Upon being faced with the task of writing my philosophy of teaching, I made many attempts to narrow the basis for my philosophy down to one or two simple ideas. However, I quickly came to the realization that my personal teaching philosophy stems from many other ideas, philosophies, and personal experiences. I then concentrated my efforts on finding the strongest points of my personal beliefs about teaching and what I have learned this semester, and came up with the following.
Education is an ever-changing part of society. A classroom teacher is faced with new challenges and obstacles that have never been dealt with before. Students come to the classroom with different life stories. Every student has strengths and weaknesses that surface in the classroom environment. Teachers must understand and focus on utilizing each student's strengths and work to improve weaknesses. Students learn in a variety of ways. The classroom must be a safe zone that appreciates student's viewpoints and allows room for mistakes. When topics in the classroom are related to "real-life" experiences, the information is more likely to be retained. Students learn from one another. The ideas and perspectives that each student brings to the classroom can bring insight into what is being learned. Students have to be allowed to explore new ideas, try them to see if they work, and sometimes fail. When students are encouraged to explore, they begin the process of becoming lifelong learners.
“The Real World Is The Optimal Learning Environment”: When activities and lesson are connected to real world problems or events happening it will tend to resonate more with students because it has an important meaning. I know that as a student, a lesson resonated more with me when I knew the importance and urgency of knowing that specific knowledge or doing a specific activity.
I believe teachers should serve as role models and be the center of a classroom. In order to maintain that students stay on task and are all on the same page, the teacher needs to serve as a guide and direct the students. I do not believe that students learn best in a textbook based setting, but that textbooks are important when referencing material. I believe all students learn differently and look for new ideas or ways to teach lessons and concepts, so that my students can learn as effectively as possible. I also believe that a teacher teaches much more than the subject. It is very important for students in my classroom to something other than the subject that I teach. I want them to learn life skills that will help them in more areas and aspects of their life other than education. I believe my students should strive for hard work, dedication, and integrity, and go beyond learning just the content of a
As a future teacher, my teaching philosophy is that I want to be known as the teacher that teaches outside the box and does not have a limit to what I teach. I would like to educate the students on learning how to look for more resources to learn and not just stick to what they learn in class. I prefer to be known as the teacher that gives a lot of work and teaches big lessons but that the students can say that they do learn and fully understand what they are seeing in class. I want to prepare my students for their future, that every student can be fully prepared on what they will be exposed to in future grade levels.
It is a commonly known fact that students who can relate to their teachers, subjects, or even the content that is being taught in the classroom, those students will succeed better than the students who do not care, or are not interested. When teachers are able to get those students to care, be interested, and put in the extra effort, chances are they are practicing Personally Meaningful Education. Personally Meaningful Education is when a teacher is able to go above and beyond to actively engage their students and perform better in the classroom. Teachers can achieve this goal by building a rapport with their students and having a positive learning environment, being able to identify how each of their students learn and adapting their class
My personal philosophy on teaching is to inspire my students to think and to be objective thinkers. Like life, classrooms are filled with incidents on a daily basis. It 's interesting, as an active participant, to actually experience these moments shared between teachers and students as relationships are built mostly based on personality. As professionals, it 's expected that emotions take the back seat in decision making, but humans think with their heart a lot. A teacher in my estimation is one of the most human