Learner Autobiography and Philosophy of Education Baltes 1

Danielle Baltes

National University

Professor Hartig
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Every teacher has a different teaching philosophy and what they emphasis in their

classroom. What so great about that is it leads to more creativity in the classroom, which leads to

children being more engage therefore learning and absorbing the information more.

There have been so many teachers over the years that have made a great impact on my

life. More specifically there were two teachers in my elementary school that completely changed

my life around. The first educator was my first-grade teacher Mrs. Cope. Like many students, I

had a hard time concentrating in class all the time. Unlike most students, it was hard to redirect

my thoughts back onto the task at hand, I was constantly fidgeting in my seat and would rarely

stay still, and homework would take hours upon hours to complete. Mrs. Cope was the first

teacher to recognize my struggles and looked for solutions on how to make my schooling easier

for me. Mrs. Cope let me sit on the ground to do school work because it seemed to help me

concentrate, she let me chew gum (which like most elementary schools, was not allowed) to help

give me something to concentrate on, she let me do my homework with chalk on the sidewalk

because it made learning fun. She came out with out of the box ideas to help me succeed in

school. I could tell that she truly cared about my well-being and that I was actually learning the

material. Mrs. Cope was instrumental in me being diagnosed with ADHD two years later. The

second teacher that comes to mind was my third-grade teacher, Mr. Parker, who also played a

big role in my diagnoses. He too realized that my distractions were not normal for the average

third graders and this was the year that I was diagnosed with ADHD. He was so willing to help

me succeed and worked with my parents and doctors to help get me on the right path so I could

get the most out of school. He allowed me to sit where I needed to sit in order to concentrate the
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best, he gave me options for my homework, and he would work with me one on one when he

saw that I was struggling.

These two teachers and two of the biggest reasons why I decided on becoming a teacher.

I want to be a shining light in some child’s life when they are struggling. I want to be that teacher

that doesn’t give up on a student just because they aren’t like the other students or are struggling

a little bit more and create a little bit more work for myself.

In Moore’s article (2015), one of the things he lists as his philosophy is flexibility. I

believe that this is one of the most important things that a teacher can have. We write lesson

plans as a guide, but I think a lot of us try to stick to it word for word. When we are inflexible,

we don’t allow the children to help guide the lesson. When children guide the lesson, they are

more willing to learn the information that is being presented in front of them.

When taking the survey by Sadker and Sadker (1997), my results came out as

progressivism having the highest point total. When reading the little description that came with

the survey, I do agree with what a lot of what it says and what I believe as my own teaching

philosophy. I want the students succeeding to be the number one goal, even if that means that

their test scores are the absolute best. There are more things to school than test scores and while

they are important for gaging what a child knows, some individuals, including myself, struggle

with taking test but excel in every other aspect in school.

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Reference:

Association of American Educators. (2018). Code of Ethics for Educators. Retrieved

from https://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/about-us/aae-code-of-ethics.

More, E.T. (2015, August 7). My Educational Philosophy. Retrieved

from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/philosophy-of-teaching/my-educational-

philosophy/

Sadker, M.P. & Sadker, D. S. (1997). Teachers, schools and society (4th ed., pp. 403-405.) NY:

McGraw Hill.