Educational Philosophy

Education is about the maturation of students cognitively, socially, and emotionally.

Teachers must embrace the task of guiding students in this process. It is also the responsibility of
the teacher to provide students with an abundance of content through accessible instruction and
materials while also helping students to develop their ability to engage in the learning process
and apply it to their personal lives. Furthermore, a teacher must strive to make the classroom a
welcoming environment where students feel comfortable engaging in dialogue, asking questions,
making mistakes, and learning cooperatively with their classmates.
The students are responsible for acquiring and retaining the content from class, but they
are also accountable for mastering the process of learning. Students must learn how to take an
active role in their education so that when they leave school, they can continue their education as
independent learners. In the context of foreign language, this includes especially interacting with
a variety authentic, cultural sources in the target language. One way I integrate this into the
classroom is by providing students the opportunity to acquire grammar first through authentic
sources such as songs or newspaper articles before explicitly reviewing a structure. Students
need to learn that they are able to grapple with the language in real contexts and, moreover, that
it can be enjoyable.
I take a student-centered, process-oriented approach to teaching to accomplish these
goals. This requires differentiation regarding presentation, process, and product in order to
ascertain that students receive material that is appropriate for their respective ability levels and
that is presented to them in an accessible and appealing manner. I take advantage of Gardners
theory regarding multiple intelligences in an effort to achieve this. I also utilize group work to
enhance student learning both through ability level groupings and mixed ability level groupings.
I firmly believe students can benefit from one anothers knowledge and way of learning, an idea

reinforced by Vygotskys concept of a zone of proximal development. It is vital to me to

constantly modify and alternate the way in which I instruct students to ensure that students still
are exposed to a wide variety of educational experiences and are challenged to learn and think in
different ways.
Assessments should reflect both what and how students are learning. Therefore, I prefer
to use traditional assessments such as quizzes to formatively evaluate if students are regularly
studying vocabulary or to check if they understand a basic grammatical concept that will be
foundational in a unit. In contrast, I employ project-based assessments that involve multiple
communication skills for summative assessments. Students often learn more effectively and
retain information better when they use the material. It also provides ample and diverse
opportunities for students to demonstrate their interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational
communication skills in a more genuine, integrated manner.
Students deserve to receive an education that is meaningful, enjoyable, and applicable to
their lives. On a basic level, learning a foreign language can give students the ability to
communicate with a large, diverse group of people. From a broader perspective, it grants the gift
of global awareness and cultural understanding. Grammar and vocabulary are, of course,
important in foreign language education, but it is the application of this knowledge and its
potential relevance in the students lives that should be made a central focus. Overall, success in
the classroom is contingent on the interaction of all of the aforementioned components and the
continual effort and motivation of both the teacher and the students.