Philosophy of Education: ​A Narrative of My Educational Philosophy

Deidra Glaser

EDU - 201

11/05/2017

Dr. Ce_Isbell

PROFESSION:
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Becoming a teacher was not my first choice for a career, however after exploring

different degrees and subjects in things like Hotel Management, Counseling, Philosophy and

Anthropology I feel like teaching is the right career for me. One of the main reasons I want to be

a teacher is that I have a love for knowledge and learning new things. While being a teacher, I

will always be able to continue my education and pursuit of knowledge. So I am very excited to

become a teacher and to be able to pass down this love to future generations. I also love the

scheduling that comes along with being a teacher; the salary and fringe benefits are alright; and

the fact that I get to work with children is a major plus too.

When I was going through school I always had good grades, but I never tutored or

watched other people's children very often, so I was kind of worried about becoming a teacher.

Different questions ran through my mind like: ​Can I teach? Do I work well with children? Would

I be able to teach well?​ However, after doing my student observations, lecture presentation, and

talking about it with my grandmother and her other teacher friends, I think I can do all of those

things I worried about well. My grandmother was an eighth grade teacher for thirty years, she

told me not to worry, and that I would eventually get the hang of teaching, and I believe her. She

has been a major influence in my decision in becoming a teacher and has been a major help in

sorting out different future ethical dilemmas I may face as a teacher or instructor.

I was also very influenced by my student observations. After being able to sit in a

classroom and observe for ten hours, I really felt like that was the right place. Being a teacher

seems like a lot of fun with something new and exciting each day. Teaching is constant work and

will take a lot of energy, however I have a lot of energy and enjoy always having a task to do.

Elementary school students seem very fidgety, but they are young, so that can be expected, so I
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realised that the students will need to have something to do constantly or else they will find

something else to do. In contrast to that, the students also seem eager to learn and always willing

to try an activity so as long as the teacher is willing to teach it and show them the materials. My

ideology then is if I come prepared with a war chest of knowledge and lessons everyday, that

will help serve me well in becoming a good teacher. As a teacher, I will be the “ringleader” in

charge of keeping them on task and focused on the lesson. This may be difficult, but I think I

will be able to do that with all of the different activities and lessons that I plan on doing.

TEACHING:

One historical event that inspired me is the fact that as early as 1636, the Colonists

established Harvard University, only sixteen years after they arrived in America. This shows me

that people have always had high aspirations for their children's education and felt that higher

education was important. My educational philosophy is mainly centered around the fact that

education is important. Based on the chapters from the textbook ​Becoming a Teacher,​ the

educational philosophy I connect with the most is perennialism and progressivism. Perennialism,

“views truth as constant. The aim of education is to ensure that students acquire knowledge of

these unchanging principles or great ideas, and the function of the school is to educate the

intellect.” Whereas progressivism is, “based on the belief that education should be

child-centered rather than focused on the teacher or the content area. The content of the

curriculum is to be derived from students’ interest rather than academic disciplines, and learning

is essentially active rather than passive.” (Parkway, 2013, p.125-28)

Personally, I view education as something that should be child centered and very active;

in addition, the content area that should be focused on should be considered that of “the classics”
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or great ideas of human history, and that the function of school is to educate the mind; which to

me is a good combination of the two views. I also believe that teachers’ perceptions can be really

important in students’ success and self image. So it is important as a teacher to think highly of all

students regardless of background, cultural beliefs, disability, ethnicity or gender. From an article

from the ​Las Vegas Review Journal,

​“the Society for Research in Child Development published from a longitudinal

study showing that students’ perceptions about their own capability to succeed on

academic tasks in math and reading play an important role in motivating their

achievements over time… it’s important to note that teacher perceptions become realities

as well - and not always to positive affect.” (Cepeda, 2017, p.7B)

My role as a elementary school teacher is going to be a very important one. I will be setting up

the stage for the students to either feel confident in their academics and skills or incompetent.

My overall hope is to inspire students to have a love of learning, to always keep improving, and

to explore different subjects areas that interest them or in which they excel.

INSTRUCTION:

Instructional strategies and assessments will vary across the board. I would hope to be

able to use time honored strategies and activities; however, in our ever changing world and

expanding technology, new strategies are available and being created so I will have to be

adaptable and be able to combine the traditional with the new. With a combination of different

materials including technologies and arts and crafts projects I hope to be able to reach different

types of learning styles. Every student learns differently and as a teacher it is important to be

adaptable to the student’s needs and capabilities.

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There are different strategies for dealing with all kinds of things in the classroom such as:

behavioral issues, teaching certain materials, meeting educational standards, valuing and

teaching diversity and much more. By recognizing the uniqueness of all students a teacher can

adapt instructional strategies to meet the learning needs of all their students. There is no “right

way to teach,” however each student has the potential to learn and grow given the right

instruction, materials and learning environment. My hope is to promote a classroom environment

that implements equal specialized learning for all.

FUTURE:

In order to continue in this profession, and personally feel successful, I will need to

become more knowledgeable in different subjects and attain a lot more teaching materials. I want

to be more knowledgeable in the basic subjects like reading, writing, math and science. I also

want to become more knowledgeable in how to handle difficult situations dealing with children

and their psychology. I want to try to know ”beyond the basics” so that I can provide as much

information to the students as they want or will need.

I also need to build my war chest of lectures, lesson plans and activities for the years to

come. A school day has six full hours of instruction time and there are nine months in the school

year, so I am going to be the one who will need to fill all of that talking time with beneficial

instruction and lessons. Thankfully, there are a lot of websites out on the internet today that offer

different lesson plans for all kinds of subjects for other teachers to use. All I have to do is do my

research and find some fun activities that will fit the standards for my classroom.

As of right now, I officially have three full years left until I get my bachelors degree in

Elementary Education at UNLV. So I have got some time to prepare myself in becoming a
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teacher, plus I will be taking all of these educational courses and picking up lots of valuable

information. If things go as planned, in one year from now I will be graduating from CSN with

my associates in elementary education. After that, I will be transferring to the UNLV education

program. I will then have a year at UNLV, and hopefully, fingers crossed, I will get to do my

student teaching in Spain.

My trip to Spain will expand my knowledge of Spanish and European cultures,

languages, and will be a trip of a lifetime. I will need to set up several counselor meetings with

both the UNLV Educational Department and UNLV Study Abroad Program Department. In fact,

I actually spoke with both departments last year, and they said to call back around Spring of

2018, a time a little closer to my CSN graduation date. I am also currently doing research on

Spain and learning Spanish to get myself prepared for this trip of a lifetime!

REFERENCES​:
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● Cepeda, E. J. (2017, November 01). Teacher Perceptions can Become Real for

Kids. Las Vegas Review Journal, p. 7B.

● Parkway, F. (2013). W. Becoming a Teacher. 9th ed., Pearson Education Inc.,.