Running Head: Philosophy of Education 1

Philosophy of Education
Tearra Camacho
Ed W. Clark

Abstract

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This paper will go into depth about my philosophy on education. Within the paper it will include
sources from theorist and other statistics on what seems to work better in the classroom. There will be a
philosophy in each topic: Discipline, Rules,Teaching style and the overall importance of Education.

I plan to be a 7th grade history teacher for a behavior school. The reason I picked history is
because I admire how history repeats itself and we get to learn from the past. I have a passion for students
that are in behavior school, as a part of my family had to go through that process. I believe those students
have been looked at and teachers and adults in their lives give up on them, even their role models. All

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these kids need, is to be listened to and be understood. Usually this leads the students to give up on
themselves, I want to be a person that can show these kids that they can do it by themselves and that their
actions dont have to define them. Knowledge is power, and I want to be able to bring that to them. Id never
give up on these kids because they can be saved and become a person with high respect. Like history and
behavior school the common theme we learn is learn from the past, and do what works.
Discipline and Rules
Behavior students are not like other students, they need that one-on-one time, and need to be
looked over constantly for their behaviors and work ethic. I believe that the students already have a hard
time following rules, so in my class Id only have one rule that goes over and beyond any other rule and that
is: 1. Be respectful. Respect means so much, it means to be prepared for class, to be kind to one another,
to participate in the classroom. This rule goes a long way and it is only one rule. With one rule, the students
will be encourage to make their own choices and to grow independently. As William Glasser who received
his doctorate in Psychiatry in 1953 at Case Western Reserve University believed in personal choice,
personal responsibility and personal transformation. I would want my classroom to go through the path as
Glassers thinking. A student that can grow into a person taking responsibility is a person that will think
more about their actions and consequences. In fact Glasser also believes teachers should meet the
students needs not the other way around and to be able to do this the teacher must develop a close
relationship to understand the students behavior. Glasser incorporated the five basic needs: survival, love
and belonging, power, freedom, and love. I would like to pay more attention to the students
accomplishments than disciplining their misbehaviors. Most likely they already have multiple people that
pay attention to their bad actions but no one is noticing their good actions. As always there will be
consequences for the misbehaviors, there will be talks with the students and talks with parents, and in
major problems there will be actions taken for another place that best suits them or whatever the state

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recommends. If anything Jane Nelson said it best, that teachers should focus on the solution not the
punishments. Students in behavior school need to know that there is always a solution for every problem
and that they can get out of the environment they put themselves in. Becoming a teacher I would definitely
focus on the solution more than the punishment, my main goal is for them to learn from their mistakes.
Jacob Kounin was a educational psychologist at Wayne State University in 1946. Kounin wanted to focus
on preventative classroom management techniques. He had six key ideas for an effective classroom, the
one that stood out the best was the ripple effect. The ripple effect is when a teacher corrects the
misbehavior of one individual student and the other students in the classroom normally will correct their
misbehavior as well. The students will observe what will happen if they did the act as the misbehavior of
their classmates.

Teaching style and The importance of Education

Every teacher has a different teaching style, well for kids in behavior schools dont have patience
and they like to go out and do things. So a teaching style Id like to incorporate is a hands-on curriculum, in
1884 Dewey received his PHD in John Hopkins University. He played roles as a chairman of the
department of philosophy and psychology and president of the American Psychological Association. John
Dewey believed that lesson plans should be hands on and enlisted the Interdisciplinary Curriculum
meaning that students are better off learning by doing. He also believed that students should construct their
own path. Hands-on activities will give the students a chance to be moving and be active, the great thing
about this is that the students can explore and do things their own way. Everyone has a different way of
doing things, giving the students a chance to finish an activity in their own creative ways will spark
something within themselves. Creative thinking is good to incorporate in the classroom because it will lead
the students to think on their own and create new possibilities. William Wattenberg taught at the Teachers
College at Columbia University, Fritz Redl taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago,

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and Wayne State University. The two theorist described on how a teacher can support self- control, they
can use humor and show interest in the student's work. Walking around the class is a major key, this lets
the students know that you are interested in their work and what they do. Most of the time the students
may feel neglected at home and not be praise for their accomplishments. Well walking into my classroom
Id make sure that everything they do matters. That their accomplishments, their work will be presented. In
the process of completing assignments they will always know that I will be right behind them supporting
them and guiding them to the right path.
The importance of education, education is powerful in its own way. If you want to be powerful in
life, educate yourself, -Anonymous. I believe kids in these programs want to be powerful, for an example
the kids that get into the program because they fight a lot, fighting in hoping to win, showing who is the
most powerful among the two. What I want to be able to tell these kids is there is another way to be
powerful and that is through knowledge. Most of these kids want the best they just dont have that guidance
they need and dont have someone to put them back on the right path when they steer away. Education
should not be anything to take lightly, especially when there are other people in the world fighting to get the
education we have in America. These kids need a reminder that there are others fighting and going through
punishment for even thinking about school. That they should be taking advantage of the opportunity given
to them. Showing this passion to the class will hopefully be transferred to the students and that they will
hold the same respect and passion for education as I do. I really believe these students just need someone
to show them the light and that light is through education, nothing else.
Now in days education is very essential, more and more people that did not graduate are now
getting GEDs because jobs are requiring it more. Many people believe that McDonald's or any fast food
restaurant will take them in without a diploma, which is not true. It is very difficult to receive a job without no
diploma or even with a diploma. Education is getting very competitive, more and more people are going out

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and going to college. Meaning students need to take education seriously and conquering more degrees
and not do the bare minimum because if they do that it will be likely that they will have to work for someone
else or not receive the job they wanted in the first place.
Classroom Setup
Going to school for twelve years now Ive seen many classrooms, some with nothing up and some
with the walls filled with various things. One classroom that stuck with me, was my sophomore year in the
T.E.A.C.H Academy, Mrs. Henderson, her walls were filled with encouraging words. The sayings really

spoke out to me and she had so many that I was able to pick a quote from her room that really helped me
get through the day. As a teacher it is important to know that everyone has their own problems and going
through their own things. No matter what as a teacher I want to be able to help the students through

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anything and guide them the right way. Overall in my classroom Id put encouraging words on the wall, I
would also put the students work on the wall. As Fritz Redl said, teachers should show interest in the
student's work.
In my classroom Id have everything setup for each student to have a job in the class. Jerome
Freiberg is a professor of Education at the University of Houston accomplishing many efforts. He was
received awards such as: Universitys Teaching Excellence Award, College of Education Award for
Teaching Excellence and College of Senior Research Excellence Award. He insisted on integrating one
minute managers in the classroom that received no extra rewards. If possible all students should have
some type of leadership roles. I think leadership roles give the students better view on what is expected
from them and they can get use to having a leadership role. Often kids try to not have a leadership role
because either they don't know what being a leader means or do, or they are not comfortable being a
leader. Having jobs in the class will prepare them to get use to being told what to do and doing the job or
work done efficiency and in time. Jerome Freiberg emphasises in the no extra rewards because it means
the student shouldnt be rewarded for doing their job. A reward is given to people that go out of their way to
do things for no reason.
In a classroom diversity has to be something that is issued, every student should feel accepted and
not feel less because of their race or gender. In my classroom I would have the students set-up to sit next
to new people, and teaching history it would be great to start off the class with learning the different
cultures. Understanding the culture leads to respecting the person because we get more insight where they
come from. I wouldnt allow the students to call another student any racial names or something to be
stereotypical. Diversity means a lot to me and a topic that I would deeply hold importance to me. I want
everyone to come in my class and feel welcomed without hesitation.
Accommodations

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Becoming a teacher it is only expected to be ready to have students that will have disabilities. The
students that have hearing impairments, blind, learning disabilities or any other sort such as needing more
time, need to have accommodations. For every lesson plan I will have accommodations for the students
with disabilities. The people that are blind or have some type of visual impairment they will sit in the class
where they can see everything fine. Also for the kids that are blind and rely on their touch and hearing for
guidance I would make sure they have everything they need. I would go out of my way to make things with
texture in order for their touch to help them and to provide very clear descriptive details of the pictures that
will be shown throughout the course. For the kids that have hearing impairments they will rely on their
eyesight, so I would make sure that everything is visible. What I would do is for videos I would provide
captions or a transcript, I think being able to read what is being said is important. Learning disabilities have
become more and more common throughout the years. The graph Children on Disability shows that
throughout the years disability happens to increase. The graph shows the kids that are poor and disables,
imagined if we included kids in the upper and middle class as well; it would be increased by a lot more.

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Knowing that there are kids with disability it helps me be comfortable that I may have a kid on disability.
Kids that are disabled can be disabled by psychological, brain injury, mental, deaf-blindness, vision, autism
and many more. I think one disability everyone doesnt mention is those with wheelchairs. For my
classroom I would make sure that everything is put away and that stations is easily accessible. I would also
make sure there is enough room to maneuver around the class. For the kids with learning disabilities, I
would make sure that we have conferences to make sure they are going through the right path and making
sure they are doing the work they need to do. I would also provide after school services for the students
that need to come after class and finish or just need that extra help everyone looks for. I wouldnt
necessarily give them easier work to do but instead guide through the work instead of giving them the
easy route because I believe they should be pushed to do things that are difficult and uncomfortable.

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Whatever the case may be for the students with disabilities I would make sure I would know my
students and see what services they need and provide them with that service. I would also make sure that
the other students know the disabilities that are in the classroom so they can make sure what they say.
Hopefully no one will make fun of someone with a specific disability but I would make sure to educate the
kids on what the disability is all about and I would let the students share a story about their disability to let
the students understand that this has been something they have been fighting their whole life. Experiences
change people and when people hear experiences they cant imagine of themselves going through they
happen to be more compassionate.
Homework
There has been many debated on the idea of homework and the true effects it has on a childs
achievements. In my classroom I would still assign homework to the students just not everyday and only if it
is necessary. I think homework is good to give because it gives the extra practice for the students when
they get home and they can review on what they learned in class and see what they need to study more
upon on. Also homework can help the students to maintain their management skills, they need to learn
responsibility and time management. The days that I assign homework will be for specific reasons, like they
need to review on it or need to practice on the concept. I would not give out homework just for something
they can do that happens to relate to the topic. If the average amount of students understand the topic that
we go over there will be no homework to take home just classwork. At times there will be homework to see
what the child can do on their own but that will be in rare cases. Also giving them homework can help them
a receive a paper that they can use as resource later on. They can use that homework paper for help and
an extra study guide for future test and exams.

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The graph is a survey on what students, parents and teachers think about homework. In all three
they believe that yes homework has helped students learn more in school. Which is a reason why I would
implement it in my class instead of taking it out completely.
Giving homework depends on the students as well,, teaching in behavior school I would barely give
out homework because I feel like it wont be complete. The students already spend an average six hours at
school, giving them homework at home can bring stress to the students. Overloading students in behavior
school with work will make them want to shut down and feel like it is too much. In order for this to not
happen in my class I would make sure that the workload is slowly put in their daily lives. I would still give
the students homework because they need to learn that responsibility and time management skills.
Once the students come back and done their homework, I would go over the homework as a class.
I would also take in any questions on the homework and allow them to collaborate and see that other

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people did or how they got they answer. The students communicating to each other and finding how they
got the answer will help them work better in teams and give them that communication and team building
skill they need later on in life.
Teaching Schedule
Every teacher has a different teaching schedule and what they include or do not include in their
lesson plans. For an example some teachers have warms ups, review, vocabulary word or not, it just
depends. For my class I would start with a journal entry as a warm up, everyday I would put a topic of what
we are learning and relate it to the students life somehow in some way. I think connecting the topic of what
will be learning to the students life will make them want to pay more attention and realize this has some
affect on them. After the journal entry I would allow the students to share what they wrote, of course they
would have the option to share or not. From their I would go into lecture, lecture is a very difficult task
because most students will fall asleep or not pay attention. In this case I would keep the lecturing short and
straight to the point and along the way to ask questions. Also if I see a lot of students not paying attention I
would give them snacks so they can pay attention or have everyone stand up and get moving. No matter
what I will never lecture the whole class, because that can be a very hard task for students. In order to not
go on with lectures I will stop at a good point and have the students work on a group activity. In more cases
I would rather have students do group activities because they can talk, which most people like to do, but
they can talk about the assignment and help each other out. Once again talking to each other will lead them
to work on team building. In other cases I will give individual work to see what they got from the lecture and
see if they are paying attention. From there we will go over the assignment and that will be the end of the
class.

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Recourses
Glasser, W. (n.d.). Choice Theory.
Nelson, J. (n.d.). Positive Discipline. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
Redl, F., & Wattenberg, W. (n.d.). Group Life. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
Freiberg, J. (n.d.). Teacher Effectiveness Training. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
Kounin, J. (n.d.). Ripple Effect. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
Joffe-Walt, C. (n.d.). Unfit for Work. Retrieved November 25, 2016.

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@. (2015). The Great Homework Debate: What's Getting Lost in the Hype - NEA Today. Retrieved
November 25, 2016