Philosophy of Education
How might I describe my views on education? The words differentiation, excellence, community, and inspiration come to mind. In my experience, I really do believe that all students can learn. That means everyone, regardless of past experience, home situation, past schooling, past failures, etc. That does not mean though, that every child will learn in the same way or achieve the same level of success in each subject or assignment. There will be students who come in with advantages and those that unfortunately are not as privileged. This is where differentiation and excellence come to mind. As the teacher, I believe it is my responsibility to provide differentiation and scaffolding so that each child can achieve excellence by giving students opportunities to demonstrate their personal strengths. That does not mean each student will achieve the same score on every assignment, but instead that each child experiences moments when they are truly successful. This is, I believe, far more important to a child's future success than whether or not they can complete a math assessment perfectly. Students who feel successful are going to persevere when they don't understand, and perhaps most important recently, these students will be the ones that continue on through school instead of dropping out early. When you discover something that the student can excel in, really care about, delve deeply into, then learning and school becomes intrinsically motivating and a child's natural desire to learn takes over.
Likewise, as a teacher, it is intrinsically motivating and inspiring to see students succeed. It is unbelievably inspiring to see the moment at which a student genuinely believes that they are a reader, a writer, a mathematician. That is what drives me to continually become a better teacher. That is what guarantees I'll spend countless hours trying to make lessons engaging. This is why I hold my students to high expectations. It is the reason I am continually try to align and collaborate with fellow teachers. It also means that I am continually determining the best ways to help my students learn by understanding the current research and assessing my students' learning and growth. And this is where community comes into play. I think in education the only truly positive way to guarantee success is when it is a community of learners with students and teachers working together to achieve success.
It is a place in which ideas are compared, constructive feedback is implemented, and we, as teachers, are continually learning from each other, drawing on each other's strengths to become a better team overall. I think this is also true of the bigger community in which we teach, when we really use those around us, our community leaders, our parents, and the support groups (YMCA, etc). Indeed, I believe this relationship is reciprocal. When you educate students as future leaders, show them positive examples of leaders, and expect excellence, then students become those leaders who in turn give back and make the community better. So you are not only helping students succeed, but contributing to the greater community. And that is where you, as a teacher make a real difference. But you can never make that difference if you don't first know your students, and then inspire them to love learning. Indeed, I feel that you as a teacher have failed, if you can't inspire students to love learning.
Likewise, as a teacher, it is intrinsically motivating and inspiring to see students succeed. It is unbelievably inspiring to see the moment at which a student genuinely believes that they are a reader, a writer, a mathematician. That is what drives me to continually become a better teacher. That is what guarantees I'll spend countless hours trying to make lessons engaging. This is why I hold my students to high expectations. It is the reason I am continually try to align and collaborate with fellow teachers. It also means that I am continually determining the best ways to help my students learn by understanding the current research and assessing my students' learning and growth. And this is where community comes into play. I think in education the only truly positive way to guarantee success is when it is a community of learners with students and teachers working together to achieve success.
It is a place in which ideas are compared, constructive feedback is implemented, and we, as teachers, are continually learning from each other, drawing on each other's strengths to become a better team overall. I think this is also true of the bigger community in which we teach, when we really use those around us, our community leaders, our parents, and the support groups (YMCA, etc). Indeed, I believe this relationship is reciprocal. When you educate students as future leaders, show them positive examples of leaders, and expect excellence, then students become those leaders who in turn give back and make the community better. So you are not only helping students succeed, but contributing to the greater community. And that is where you, as a teacher make a real difference. But you can never make that difference if you don't first know your students, and then inspire them to love learning. Indeed, I feel that you as a teacher have failed, if you can't inspire students to love learning.