Educational Philosophy
As an educator, I believe that education allows children to explore their interests, set future goals, and prepare for adulthood. School not only teaches children to learn academics, but also instills values and discipline they will carryout throughout their lifetime.
I am committed to creating a warm, safe, caring, friendly, and positive atmosphere where children can learn. The students will feel comfortable with themselves, their classmates, and their teacher to express their thoughts. It is my responsibility to create a nurturing environment in which students are enthusiastic about learning. I am also responsible in ensuring my classroom stays positive and stimulating.
As a teacher, I believe in setting high expectations. In order for students to be successful, the material must be challenging or they will lose interest. I will practice the self-fulfilling prophecy and my students will do as well as I expect them to do. However, my strategy for high expectations includes communication, incentives, motivation, student involvement, and frequent student feedback.
Furthermore, building critical thinking skills is crucial. I believe when children build knowledge through critical thinking skills they learn life long skills to solve real life problems. Critical thinking skills help students think independently and build self-confidence. For example, cooperative learning, classroom discussions, open-ended questions, real life problems, puzzle solving, and experiments are imperative to my classroom plans. It is my goal to teach children how to learn, so that they are able to explore throughout their life. Learning is an ongoing process; therefore, I, too, learn with and from my students. I do not just give information; I teach my students how to utilize, discover, and explore information to find answers.
Lastly, I understand that children learn through a variety of methods. It is my goal to incorporate the seven learning styles into my lesson plans. Creativity is the key to my lesson plans. I will use several learning styles to reinforce and teach concepts. For example spatial, linguistics, music and bodily kinesthetic styles will help students become actively involved in learning.
Consequently, teaching is a rewarding experience as I will mold children’s thoughts and behaviors to develop into positive, knowledgeable, imaginative people. A teacher is a forever learning and growing person. I have the passion to teach and to inspire students to learn. Robert Maynard Hutchins better explains my philosophy: "The objective of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”