Teaching Philosophy !

My goal is to help students develop a passion for learning and to accomplish their intellectual best by emphasizing higher level learning strategies rather than plan for students to memorize large amounts of factual information. I believe that this can be accomplished by creatively piquing a students interest and helping them use their prior knowledge to guide them into new understandings, providing them with richer, more contextual understandings. This process will that require students to internalize the information given and to test it against prior knowledge. !

I want to be able to deploy effective teaching strategies and tactics to help each student be the driver of their knowledge. By challenging students to think critically, communicate in writing, and collaborate with classmates, I hope to build their condence, knowledge and help them to articulate concepts in meaningful ways. I will teach my students that communication is not just written and spoken. I want to help them interpret and express communication through the arts; both visually and artistically. !

For children to feel that is all right to make mistakes in the learning process, they have to know that they are in a safe environment and know that learning happens when we get it right and when we make mistakes. I want the children to know that I will accept them for who they are and that I am willing to support and encourage them. It is my goal to be a person who the children can count on as a consistent person that they know has their best interest at heart; both socially and academically. !

I have often told the children in my classroom that my job is to help them stretch their minds and learn as much as they possible. In doing so, we have to learn and discuss what we are learning and be ready to question and defend their thoughts. I have made use of exit slips and mini assessments as an evaluation with the goal of not only checking to see what the children have learned, but to also see where I need to improve in my instruction. Using this method has allowed my to better tailor my instruction to give every child the opportunity to succeed. In order for the children to be able to learn, the proper classroom environment is critical. There has to be an established and agreed upon set of rules that the class will abide by. The only way to gain acceptance of rules is to have the children develop and agree to the rules and consequences. This process has to be fair and consistent to all involved. !

A central theme in my philosophy of teaching is believing in the potential of every child. I believe that every child is entitled to receive an education that has the opportunity to elevate them to reach any level they aspire. I have seen how zip code or parentage has colored an instructors opinion on the intellectual capabilities of a child, while not investing in the child based on their own merits. Moreover, I believe that every child needs to understand that collaboration is the key to making strides into leaning new concepts and ideas. Connecting with others is a powerful talent; be it visually, orally or

artistically; and one that should be encouraged and honed. It is my goal to present as much my lessons using a cross curricular method so that the children have the opportunity to see how math skills and understanding helps to develop discoveries in science and economics. !

What has been most impactful during my student teaching is making sure that I am able to meet each child where they are, socially, emotionally and intellectually. My placement it Webb Elementary helped me to see how important it was to maintain high expectations for each child, but that the expectations had to be reasonable and attainable for each child to succeed. I believe that the children appreciate being challenged and providing differentiated instruction allow each child to be appropriately challenged and allow them to be successful based on their capabilities. However, in order to be effective, mutual trust and respect is critical. These components are built when the teacher has been fair, consistent and has communicated well with the children. !

As I begin with the end in mind, I hope to leave a legacy of children who were motivated to learn based either on their perceptions being challenged and they were taught to look at the world to ask questions to help them get contextual understanding about it. I hope to either be the spark or fan the ame of intellectual curiosity that leads to a life of asking questions and learning. This can only be attained by me being the best educator that I can, always cognizant to meeting each child where they are developing a rapport and then helping them stretch their minds to learn. !