Philosophy

I believe education should train young people to use their minds skillfully and
rigorously. Also, to get young people to take responsibility for what they do with their
lives and make them realize it was their choice; therefore, they have to accept the
consequence. My philosophy on education is based on the philosophical approach or
theory of existentialism. Existentialism "emphasizes the existence of the individual
person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts
of the will" (Oxford Dictionary, 2013). What this really means is that students should be
able to make good choices and be responsible for their own actions, as well as
consequences. Students have needs that need to be met and their needs can be met
by allowing them to make their own choices. In my class I would value every student
individually. Students in my class will have a voice to be able to communicate with me
their needs and wants in the classroom.
This relates to the theorist William Glasser on his idea of choice theory. Choice
theory "acknowledges that we cannot control anyone's behavior except our own and
cannot successfully make a student do anything. What we can do instead is help
students envision a quality existence in school and plan the choices that lead to it. From
that vision come student involvement and responsible behavior" (Charles, 2008, pg. 74).
Glasser has identified five basic needs of a student that not only the teacher should
meet, but the school as well. The five basic needs of a student are survival, belonging,
power, fun, and freedom. In order to approach their need of freedom, power, and fun
they will be allowed to come up with ideas for their individual projects rather than telling
them they can only do it one way because students will be more engaged and

interested if they are doing an activity they enjoy. I will also allow my students to create
the consequences, if the rules of the classroom are broken because this will make them
feel they have power. This allows them to take ownership of their work and choices. In
order to meet the need for survival and belonging, I will make sure they feel comfortable
in the classroom, as well as if they belong and are part of the learning community. By
doing all this I hope for my students to leave my class with the understanding that they
have an individual existence, personal freedom, and authentic choices to make. When
their needs are being met they will feel valued as an individual, be responsible, and
make good choices. They will also understand to take responsibility for the
consequences of their decisions and actions.
Routines and Procedures
By having routines and procedures in your classroom, it will make teaching
easier, as well as save valuable classroom time. It is important to have a routine in the
morning for when the students come into the classroom, so they are ready to start the
day as soon as possible. I will have students get into the routine of putting their
backpacks, coats or sweaters, lunchboxes, and homework where it belongs every
morning. We will continue to do this every day until they are able to do it smoothly on
their own, which will allow us to go straight into learning. Another routine that will avoid
wasting valuable learning time is having a procedure for taking role. Taking attendance
is very time consuming; therefore, I will have students sitting in groups and when I go
around each table they will tell me whose absent from their table. This will make it
easier and faster than calling out every students name and wait for them to say present.
Another good procedure to have in a classroom is having a job chart where students will

be assigned to certain jobs in order to keep the classroom clean, organized, and help
out in any other needs of the classroom. This will avoid every student wanting to be
called on to go run an errand, pass out papers, clean the white board, etc. Every month
I will switch the students job, so every student will have an opportunity to take on a
different responsibility. Having students assigned to a certain job or task to do in the
classroom will allow them to have a responsibility. It will also build a community, as a
classroom, and they will learn that they have to work together in order to keep their
classroom clean and organized.
Discipline and Rules
In my elementary classroom, I will allow the students to make their rules and
consequences. This will allow them to take ownership of their actions and
consequences, if rules are not followed. This makes them feel like they are in control of
themselves, which also allows them to be responsible. After the rules and
consequences are set everybody will write them down on a sheet of paper. They will
then have to sign the paper in agreement that they understand and will respect the rules
and consequences they set as a classroom. Their parents will be obligated to sign the
agreement on rules and consequences as well to show that they are aware of what can
happen if their child misbehaves. It is important for parents to be involved and know
what is going on in the classroom. The students behavior will be monitored through a
behavior chart. Each time they break a rule they will have to change their card. It is
important to be fair and consistent with the rules because you do not want to show
favorites by letting one child slide and punish the other child for doing the same thing.
As Kounin mentions, withitness is an effective skill to have. Withitness is the ability of

knowing what is going on in all parts of the classroom at all times (Charles, 2008,
pg.58). If a child is misbehaving it is important to take action right away rather than
waiting till recess, lunch, or after school to talk about the issue because it will be less
effective. The key to discipline and rules is to be consistent with them.
Student Autonomy
As I mentioned before, in my classroom I will allow students to make their own
rules and consequences, which makes them responsible for the choices they make.
They will understand the consequences and will not be able to disagree or argue about
them because they came up with the consequences as a class. Also giving students
choices or options on how they want to do their given assignment or project allows them
to learn in the way they prefer and benefits them. Not all students like working in groups
or alone, so this allows the students to choose what they prefer or what fits their
learning styles the best. All students learn differently, so it is our job as the teacher to try
to accommodate these different learning styles in our activities, assignments, and
projects.
Use of Time
Being an effective teacher means using your instruction time accordingly. In other
words teachers need to waste as little time as possible doing non-academic things in
the classroom. One strategy that can maximize instructional time is having certain
methods that help transition from one activity to another smoothly and quickly. When
students transition from one activity to another they usually get distracted and it takes
them a while to get focused and started for the next activity. If this is monitored

effectively, they will not waste much time on transitioning, which will allow the students,
as well as the teacher, to get started quickly on their next activity. Another way is by
having teachers well prepared for the day. This requires teachers to pre-plan for the day
and have all the materials that are necessary to deliver the plan ready. Also good
pacing reduces dead time and keeps students involved and on task. Another strategy to
maximize instructional time is to avoid or prevent bad behavior and disruptions. This will
depend on how much the teacher enforces the rules and procedures. If the rules and
consequences are well enforced then this should limit the bad behavior. Procedures,
such as, arranging your classroom to where you can see all of the students if they are
on task or not and being able to maneuver around the classroom, can avoid disruptions.
Accommodations
The key to being a good teachers is getting to know your students individually.
This allows you to see where they are at on their reading, writing, comprehension or
math level. Once you have figured out where each kid stands academically, you can
arrange them in groups based on their proficiency in certain subjects. For example, if
some students are higher in math than the other students, you can provided them with
more difficult worksheets. This way they can work together as a group and help each
other out if they get stuck on a problem. The whole class will be working on the same
concept but certain groups will have more difficult worksheets than others. It is also
good to give each student individual attention and help. You can provide this help for
English language learners on improving their reading and writing skills. In reading,
students will be given a number based on the scale of the Developmental Reading
Assessment. This determines the level they are at and where they are at on the

proficiency scale. Students will each have a bag of books based on their reading level
and every month they will be tested to see if they improve. Throughout the month they
will also receive individual help from either the teacher or literacy coaches to help them
improve and get them to their goal. Not only are accommodations required for students
with different levels of proficiency, but accommodations are also required for students
with learning disabilities. Learning disabilities are for students who have difficulty
learning in a certain way. They might not grasp the information by just simply reading a
book; they might need to have hands on activities in order to get a full understanding of
the concept. All these learning disabilities should be take into consideration in order to
provide every student the opportunity of fully understanding the concept.
It might take teachers a few weeks to see how every student learns best, but once they
see the students strengths they should keep those strengths in mind while building their
lesson plans.
Peer Interaction
Peer interaction is important when you are trying to build a learning community
among each other. Getting to know each other is important to the students because
they need to feel comfortable with their classmates and respect one another's different
perspectives and values. One way of getting students to know each other is by playing
Bingo. Teacher can provide a chart with questions in every box for example, some
questions can be "Has traveled to another state," or "Is the only child." The goal would
be for students to go around the classroom and ask each other questions in order to get
to know each other. Even though many of these getting to know activities are done at
the beginning of the school year they can be done in many different ways throughout

the year. One way to promote peer interaction throughout the year is by having
students work in groups. These groups should be arranged by the teacher in order to
have students of different ethnic backgrounds collaborating. Another way to have
students work together and learn about their diverse classmates is by arranging the
students into groups and giving each group two different ethnicities. They will then
create a chart of things they find interesting and enjoy about that particular culture. This
will make the students feel comfortable with their peers from different ethnicities as well
as appreciate them.
Fairness, Equity, and Respect
Fairness is a difficult task to make students understand. It is important for
teachers to be fair with all students and treat every student equally. Teachers should not
show favoritism because students will notice it right away. It is important for teachers to
enforce their consequences on all students and not let some students get away with
certain things or let them slide. Unfortunately, this gets complicated when you try to
make accommodations for students with learning disabilities. For example, if a child has
difficulty reading you may provide that student with an audio book that provides
headphones for the student to listen to the story. Many students may say that this is not
fair and ask why that student is allowed to use the Ipad to listen to the story. This is
where you have to have a conversation with the class and make them understand that
everybody learns differently. You want them to understand that we want everybody to
learn the same material, so there are certain changes we have to make in order for
everybody to get an equal education. Many students will understand, but there might be
a few who are still upset they cannot use an audio book. If this does happen then you

will have to speak to those students individually and explain to them that we have to
respect each other's differences. It is important to enforce everybody respecting each
other, especially for any adults.
Parent Communication and Involvement
Communication between a parent and a teacher is important. Parents
involvement in their child's education is also important because it is believed that
students, whose parents are involved, succeed more. One way to get parents involved
is by having the parents read and sign the agreement on the rules and consequences,
as I mentioned before. An additional letter can be attached asking parents what is the
best way of reaching them whether it is email or by phone. On that letter you can also
provide your email and phone number for them to reach you if they have any questions
or concerns. Another way to involve parents is by having them volunteer in field trips or
special activities at school. A newsletter of the month can also be made and delivered to
parents in order for them to know what is going on in your classroom for that month.
They will be aware of the material you will be covering for that month as well as all the
activities or important events happening that they need to know about. This can help in
having parents involved in their child's education as well. Since they know what their
child will be learning that month they can work with the child at home and do extra
activities with them that will be related with their school lessons. It is also good in
communicating with the parents where their child is and what goals you have for their
child. You can also tell the parents what they can do at home with their child to help you
get them at that goal. Parents communication and involvement makes a teachers job
a bit easier because it helps build a good relationship with the parents, which can often

lead to their child being successful in your class. When a child is having difficulty or
behaving bad and you have no parent to communicate with or help you it just makes it
ten times harder to try to fix the problem or help the child out.
Conclusion
Based on my plan and philosophy I hope to be a successful teacher. I want to
ensure that my students have an equal education; therefore, I will make any
accommodations necessary for my students to get an equal opportunity to learn. My
students will build a learning community through peer interaction in their diverse
classroom. Rules and procedures will be enforced to minimize any bad behavior and
limit interruptions on instructional time. I want to make sure every student in my class
leaves with more knowledge and skills than what they came in with. I hope to get every
student to meet their goal we set up for them at the beginning of the year. It is every
teachers goal to see their students improve. With these strategies and procedures I
hope to accomplish this goal every year I teach.

Reference
Charles C.M. (2008).Building classroom discipline. Washington, DC: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Oxford (2013, November 7). Existentialism . Retrieved from
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/existentialism