Teaching Philosophy

For as long as I can remember I have found myself helping people, my siblings, friends, classmates, parents, or whoever needed me. Helping along with resilience, patience, and tenacity became a part of who I am and easily guided me towards a teaching pathway. Along the way I have learned more than I imagined. While a teacher is a helper a helper is not a teacher; empathy, energy, and a willingness to learn and develop are vital skills to a teacher. Understanding that I will never stop learning and changing to adapt to the world of the students around me, I lean towards a progressivist philosophy. Believing that we live in a changing and a constantly evolving world and because of this our education system should be changing and developing alongside it. 

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Curriculum should be crafted to meet my own interests, but also my schools, community, and students as well. I believe the curriculum should be firm but dynamic to meet the needs of the learners, always shifting and growing to be better. Students’ work should utilize a variety of methods in order to expose students to as many learning styles as possible. Work should encourage skills that meet standards as well as develop problem solving skills. In school, students should be learning about the standards and content that is state ordained, but they should also be learning life, social, and emotional skills. Skills that will turn students into the best versions of themselves. School is about more than the standards. Within my classroom I use an inquiry-oriented teaching style, using various techniques to obtain information and allow for new experiences. Students are overwhelmed with information in our society, so making things personal, fun, exciting, and relatable will allow students to better understand and remember the content.

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I believe school serves to educate students on curriculum standards, but to build knowledge, experience, social skills, identity, to experiment, form connections, make mistakes, and shape students into the best versions of themselves. Students bring so many ideas and experiences to the classroom. Every student holds influence over the classroom environment and therefore the curriculum. Giving way to a teaching experience that is  always developing to meet the needs of the experiences from the world around us. Learners are teachers and teachers are learners. Beyond being a learner, teachers have multiple roles to sustain within the school system. They are socially, emotionally, and intellectually teaching and supporting students, playing a huge role in the development of children. They are also role models to students and staff, demonstrating what it is to be honest, kind, patient, and resilient.

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Ultimately, I believe school is for maximizing individual potential and teaching life skills and qualities that will give students the best possible chance at success in life. School develops learners into good citizens within our constantly changing society. Teachers are to be progressing the curriculum and teaching methods to be a reflection of that changing society in order to best prepare the students to achieve. Students should be exposed to social justice issues and societal standards and be able to make their own decisions as to where they wish to be within society. Encouraging community values and importance but also giving importance to independence and sticking to who you are and what you believe.