Rachel Bassingthwaite 1

Teaching Philosophy

My mission as a teacher can be summed up in three parts: fostering critical thinking in

all aspects of life, create understandings and accepting people, and lastly creating lifelong

learners. To foster these three things, I need to have a classroom environment that is both

welcoming and engaging. One way I will do this is by exposing my students to different cultures

along with all the things different cultures entail; teaching students about different cultures

includes but is not limited too: similarities/differences to their own, holidays, traditions, foods,

languages, etcetera. I will teach cultures and languages beside and along with required

standards.

Students best learn any topic including language when they have comprehensible input

from the teacher. Input will be comprehensible when given to the students with visuals and

presented in suitable way for the students developmental level. The material cannot be too

difficult for the student nor can it be too easy. When material is too difficult the students will

not be able to learn anything while for the latter the students will become bored. Students

learn material best when it is just out of their mental reach. As the teacher through knowing

your students as well as through assessments the teacher will be able to determine where the

students Zone of Proximal Development is. Once you know where your students are at for a

particular topic the teacher can scaffold the students learning by starting off with a low anxiety

exploratory task and then moving into working as a class or in groups. By meeting the students

where they are at in their development and in their knowledge the teacher can teach the most

relevant material to the students, in the most helpful way.

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Teaching Philosophy
As well as teaching students where they are at the teacher always needs to be explicit in

their teaching. By this I mean that the teacher is clear in what they are doing and why they are

doing it. This gives students a reason to be engaged in their learning as they see reason for it

and keeps the students accountable. Telling the students what is being done and why can also

lift some anxiety off of students. Taking away things that can make students anxious is

important as learning should always be done in a low anxiety setting that allows for students to

practice without fear of repercussions of not doing well. My students will know that there are

ways to productively fail and wrong does not automatically equal bad. Students will only

improve if they are allowed to practice and understand that each thing learned in class leads to

the next, material never becomes irrelevant. These sentiments need to carry over to

assessments.

Assessments will be where students are able to show what they have practiced.

Assessments are never finished though, I do not want to punish students for not knowing

something at some point, but not reward them when they know it at a later point. If they never

learn it that says more about me as their teacher then it does of the students abilities. To avoid

doing badly on assessment I will make sure there is as much practice as time allows during

class. Assessments will mirror what was worked on in class. Some assessments will be more

project based, some will be in IPA format, most (other than required state and district testing)

will not be in traditional question answer format. The test format will depend on the subject

and material covered. The way a classroom is set up to support this kind of assessment will

depend on teaching discussed previously. A class that will support a cooperative and positive

learning environment needs to mirrored in the way a the actual room is designed.
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Teaching Philosophy
The type of class I hope to design will have flexible seating so that students are

comfortable as well as able to work collaboratively. The flexible seating will allow for students

and the furniture to move around and for students to choose where they learn best. This will be

a process to teach students that sitting next to friends does not always contribute to learning

and that maybe they need more structure then on a couch or arm chair. As for decorations in

the room elementary schoolers cant have too much on the walls or it can be overstimulating

and distracting. Anything I put on the walls will be purposeful: having the rules with all the

students names signed on it, alphabet for reference, calendar for reference as well as for

instruction, one hundreds chart for reference, a few posters that a representative of many

different ethnicities, decorations representing thematic unit or time of year, and lastly student

work. Reference materials are important for students to have to complete work and have to ask

less questions. Representing different cultures around the room will help all the students of

different cultures and ethnicities feel included as well as showing students that all is welcoming

in my classroom. The student work makes students feel proud and shows that I, as the teacher,

am proud of their work as well. The classroom will also intermittently have concert materials on

display depending on different lessons being taught.

In an elementary classroom, I will use a lot of concrete materials. It is important for

children to actually be able to touch and smell what is being talked about. Younger students can

have trouble imagining things that are not right in front and that they cant touch. It is

important to expose elementary students to new things to experience them and expand their

vocabulary. The materials really add to lessons and make the lessons more comprehensible to

students. The materials also make lessons more engaging and can be used as great hooks for
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Teaching Philosophy
lessons. When teaching language concrete materials are especially important to make the input

comprehensible.

I want to teach Spanish to my students in Spanish club format once or twice a week for

15-20 minutes. I think it is important to introduce language to students because it is a great way

to introduce different cultures and young students acquire language quickly. Students generally

enjoy this and in a global world having knowledge about different languages and cultures is

important. Having some exposure to a second language could spark interest later in life, which

again is important in a globalized world. The goals of this Spanish club would be for students to

learn some basics about the language and expand their knowledge about language. More than

likely I will have students who speak another language at home and this club time would be a

great time to bring in culture and language from those student, whether that be from me or

from the student or a family member from the student.

In my classroom, I want to build positive and contributing members of society. I plan to

do this by giving my students the skills to critically think about things through exploratory

learning and scaffolding them through projects. Through teaching my students about people in

other cultures and introducing them to the Spanish language I hope to create students who do

more than just tolerate others, but rather be accepting of differences and appreciate them. By

teaching my students relevant and engaging material explicitly I hope the students will enjoy

the work and want to continue learning throughout their lives.