As a future educator, I am an individual who is passionate about working with elementary students and assisting them in achieving their full potential. I believe that teaching is a rewarding career that requires a substantial amount of patience, understanding, and preparedness in order for an individual to become a successful teacher. I believe that everyone can learn, and that learning is a continuous process that does not have an end. I aspire to be a teacher who radiates excitement that will spread to her students to get them excited to learn.
I like some aspects from two of the major teaching philosophies, and I like certain characteristics from the essentialism philosophy and the progressivism philosophy. From the essentialism philosophy, I like the idea of aiming to instill students with the essentials of academic knowledge, patriotism, and character development because I believe that it is vital for every student to have access to a high quality education, I think that it is important for students to appreciate the country they live in and have respect for it, and I also believe that it is crucial to teach children how to be kind, considerate, compassionate, and respectful of themselves and towards others. Lastly, I like the idea of the students working in groups and having the teacher circulate around the room because I think that the teacher is better able to help each group if she is nearby and actively listening in on each group’s conversations.
I believe that the essentialism philosophy is important because I think that textbooks can be a useful resource and guide for a teacher to use along with other resources to teach the content to the class. I would like a textbook that is relevant to what the students are learning. I want my teaching style to be one that is welcoming, including, and that it will include a variety of methods to promote every students’ learning. In addition, I aspire to be a teacher who is calm, collected, organized, prepared, considerate, compassionate, and able to personally relate to all of my students in at least one way. My goal is to be a teacher who is patient with all of her students and equipped to handle any situation that arises.
I would like to build a welcoming classroom community where all students will feel safe and a sense of belonging, and I will accomplish this by working to create an environment that is inspiring for students to learn, grow, and feel comfortable asking questions. I can envision the culture of my future classroom as bright, vibrant, cheerful, uplifting, and encouraging. To
accomplish this, I plan to have inspirational quotes on the walls, posters with uplifting quotes, and multiple student-centered decorations and wall hangings that promote learning, kindness, growth, and positivity.
For instructional methods, I would like to teach my students in an engaging way that involves them for a majority of the class time and incorporates hands-on activities in a flow-style classroom where the students and I are completely engaged, the learning is fun, and there are smooth transitions between activities. I believe that the I do, We do, You do model is effective for ensuring students’ understanding and success. I want the instruction and lessons to be student-centered as an aspect of the progressivism philosophy. I think it would be more beneficial for the students to learn about topics and concepts that they are interested in. Finally, I hope to be able to clearly see and recognize my role as a teacher who strives to help every student learn and be successful. I believe that it is crucial to have many methods of assessment to fairly assess all students’ learning and to allow students to express their creativity. I will strive to give specific, timely, actionable, and relevant feedback to all students and will praise all students for their efforts.
To grow professionally, I will communicate with the principal and other teachers for advice on how to teach more effectively and better engage students in the learning process. I will attend meetings and professional development sessions for teachers to learn new systems and methods that I can incorporate into my lessons for engaging the students in their learning and encouraging their participation and involvement in the classroom.
