Philosophy of Teaching

I believe the purpose of education is to produce productive members for our society.
Through education people are supposed to gain baseline skills to communicate with other
members of their society and gain specific knowledge in order to fill some niche in their
community. Think about the way our education system is built. In elementary school children
learn social skills such as sharing and responsibility. While children are still working on their
social skills we begin to infuse learning that deals with communication. These are our standards
of what we believe children should know. It is in high school and later life that we eventually
begin to specialize. That specialization can occur in through electives in high school or deciding
a major or trade in college. While ideally there would be a balance between baseline skills and
finding ones purpose it seems as though our actions sometimes focus on the former. I hope to be
a teacher where scholars are not only taught based on their needs, but also their interest.
Children learn best when they feel safe in their environment, are reasonably challenged,
and excited to explore. First, scholars must feel that they will not be hurt mentally, physically, or
emotionally. Safety is essential for the survival of a species. If a scholar has to choose between
knowledge and safety, safety will win every single time. When scholars ideas or mental work is
uplifted by others in the classroom it makes them feel as though they can share ideas in the future
and causes them to better engage by formulating questions, hypotheses, or solutions about their
fellow classmates ideas. Instead of using energy to decide if their comment will be construed as
dumb, scholars can focus on using precise and concise language. In every subject scholars should
be working on learning vocabulary words and creating ideas that are coherent. Similarly, if a
scholar feels emotionally unstable and/or in danger physically, scholars will act to minimize that
behavior. If a classroom environment allows for a scholar to be bullied the scholar is now trying
to figure out how stop that emotional or physical abuse and cannot focus on learning.
Second, scholars always strive to meet expectations. It is important that expectations are
high enough that scholars time is not wasted and reasonable enough that scholars are not
completely confused and give up. Assuming a scholars mental, emotional, and physical needs are
met, most behavioral problems stem from a lack of challenge or too much challenge. If a
scholars has already completed the assigned work or already understands the curriculum being
taught, the scholar feels no need to explore that concept further and therefore finds something
else to investigate. Similarly, when students are challenged too much, they decide that what the
class is not investigating is not important and begin to explore a different concept. Children have
a natural talent for exploration. Children are exploring how their classmates will react to their
actions, investigating how the teacher will respond, and also just observing what is in the
classroom. Unfortunately, when scholars explore in this way it often can be categorized as
misbehaving.
Lastly, scholars learn better when they are genuinely curious. If a scholar has not interest
in the material it makes it hard to learn it. Scholars need to be taught in a way that the materials
are exciting or they see the relevance to their future life. This is why it is so critical that at the
beginning of the lesson a teacher connect the contact back to things children experience in their
daily life or even pair the lesson with exploration in the classroom. I therefore believe scholars
need to feel safe and what they are learning matters to their life.
Through school children are supposed to become more intelligent, demonstrating the
ability to retain knowledge and skills and apply it to real life circumstances. While I do not

Philosophy of Teaching
believe that there can be a true scale of intelligence, society often tries to correlate intelligence
with a number. In the last few decades we have seen the rise of standardized tests, where children
spend hours over papers or computers. At the end of the test, I like many other teachers feel these
tests do not accurately represent the learning of my students and does not test for those necessary
21st century skills. For example, someone can be really good at doing math problems, but may
not understand how to complete a job interview. Conversely, someone may excel at a job
interview, but struggle with algebra. Both are intelligent in one way, but only one will be truly
judged in any intelligence diagnostic. The person who can do math will be marked as intelligent,
but will not be able to get a job. People demonstrate knowledge many ways. Scholars
demonstrate knowledge often through tests and projects, but can also demonstrate knowledge by
solving a real life problem or through conversations with other people.
As a teacher I believe I should support learning by fostering a safe learning environment,
creating a curriculum that is rigorous but fair, and making connections to everyday life explicit. I
attempt to make sure all scholars are respectful to one another by addressing rude comments or
behavior right away. I try to uplift connections scholars make and I try to incorporate hands on
activities so scholars can truly use all their senses to connect with the concepts. Lastly, when
planning I try to scaffold so those that are naturally inclined do not get bored, but those who are
struggling get the supports necessary to strengthen their understanding.