Teaching Philosophy

Tori Kilgore

I believe that a classroom is not only a place for learning, but also a place for
social, emotional, and physical growth and development. However, before a student can
become academically successful, they must feel comfortable, safe, and supported in
their learning environment. As a teacher, I have a responsibility to create this type of
environment by establishing a trusting and respectful relationship with both my students
and their parents. Every child is a unique individual and has a right to a high quality
education, regardless of their background, learning abilities, or learning disabilities.
Therefore, my teaching reflects the many types of learners there are.
In addition, I believe that structure and organization are key components to a
successful classroom. Procedures and rules should be introduced, explained, and
modeled from the first day of school that are school wide and consistent, so that routines
and expectations are clear and soon known. Students should also have the opportunity
to take part in creating a set of classroom rules, which will make students feel even more
a part of their classroom community. After students feel comfortable and accepted in
their learning environment, the learning process will be more effective.
I believe the learner should be at the center of education. Students should be a
part of a learning team, where the teacher is the coach. The teacher needs to serve as a
facilitator and guide to the learning process by exposing students to education
experiences, instead of merely filling students up with information to memorize and
recite. My goal as an educator is to provide students with meaningful and purposeful
learning that will inspire them to seek and construct knowledge to develop into
contributing members of our rapidly changing and diverse society.

In order to successfully achieve these objects, my main role as a teacher is to be

an effective and motivational model, as well as a facilitator of learning activities. I am a
social cognitive theorist. This means that I believe learning occurs best through the
observation of others behaviors. Students at the elementary level look up to people who
are older than them and think of them as a knowledgeable role model. As a social
cognitivist, my main objective is to be a model for my students in which will help make
them more successful in the learning process. In order to be an effective model as a
teacher, I will use age-appropriate language and tone, dress and act professionally, and
have a positive attitude towards learning. I will also model desired behaviors in which I
expect out of my students. I believe this type of model will be an effective way to engage
and inspire my students to develop as learners.
My job as a teacher is to help students acquire knowledge and the practicing of
those skills in ways that are useful, relevant, and meaningful to each student. I will
become more of a guide that will set up learning and practicing activities and model new
ways of obtaining and using information. I will set up educational experiences for my
students to transfer their newly learned skills to similar, but diverse situations. I will use
the concepts of the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, and social interaction to
encourage and support my students as they develop. I believe students need to have
some control of what and when they learn, and be an active participant in the learning
process. My classroom will be student-centered so that each student can learn through
the observation of others.
I will use the four processes aligned with social cognitive theory to assist my
students with their education. I will focus my instruction on grabbing the attention of and
engaging students, provide activities that promote retention of knowledge and skills,
encourage and support the production of desired behaviors, and postulate meaningful
explanations for each chosen learning experience. When learning activities are promoted

by these four factors, the whole classroom will be engaged and the artificial gap between
life in and outside of school will be greatly reduced.
Educational experiences should be connected to the students lives as much as
possible, and the teacher should take students from their current level of achievement
and challenge the students by holding higher expectations. This should be done using
effective scaffolding. I will encourage my students to be active learners, critical thinkers,
and to use higher order thinking skills by having them discover things on their own
through educational experiences, inquiry, collaboration, and problem solving. These
types of activities tightly align with the social cognitive approach to learning, as these
experiences will lead students to learn from the teacher and one another.
It is also important that students be held to high expectations and motivated by
their teacher to succeed. As a teacher, I should be aware of every students background,
strengths, weaknesses, and culture so that multiple instructional strategies can be used
to aid each individual to reach their full potential. Not every student learns best in the
same way and teachers will have to make adjustments, be flexible, and even use
differentiated instruction to meet the needs of every student. In addition, no single
assessment strategy can reveal all aspects of teaching and learning comprehensively, so
many approaches are necessary. My goal as a teacher is to model differentiated learning
styles so that all learners in my classroom have the opportunity to equally succeed.
I will strive as a teacher to support my students as they recognize and
acknowledge their own self-efficacy and push them to achieve more. I want to teach my
students to become self-regulated learners so that they succeed in planning, setting
goals, strategizing, and making adjustments throughout their learning process. By
teaching my students this, they will definitely increase their self-efficacy and will feel
more confident in the learning environment.

Through all of these objectives, is when I believe learning occurs. For the learning
process to be effective, I believe that the students and teacher both have to set and
reach goals as individuals and as a team. At the end of the school year, students will
have a higher sense of self-efficacy and self-regulation. My goal is for my students to
have confidence in themselves in which they can successfully imitate desired behaviors
by the end of the year. I also want my students to able to regulate their own learning by
setting up goals and strategies to achieve objectives. As students encounter all of these
objectives throughout the learning process, I truly believe that the learning process has
been effective and students will be able to use the concepts they have learned and
model them throughout the rest of their lives.
There are numerous ways that knowledge can be gained and learning can be
assessed. I believe the best way to structure a learning program is to use a variety of
approaches that are thoughtfully geared to both the learning content and individual
student needs. I will monitor my each of my students self-efficacy and self-regulation
throughout the year by observing how well they plan, set, and achieve goals, as well as
observe their confidence level and encourage them to strive higher. I will use my
observations to assess my effectiveness as a teacher and make adjustments as
necessary in which will help make my instruction more effective. A variety of learning
opportunities will make learning more enjoyable as well as give the students some
control over their education.
As a teacher, I feel I need to be a life long learner myself to strive to be the best
teacher that I can. I will constantly reflect on my teaching to see my strengths and
weaknesses, and how to make improvements in my instruction. Educators are the key to
the future, and I want to instill into every student that self-confidence, life skills, and
education they need to succeed and reach their full potential. I am truly inspired and
excited about dedicating my career and life to teaching.