Amber Parker

Professor Grant
EDU 201 – 1003
8 December 2018
Philosophy of Education

I learned many things about myself as well as teaching from my experience from taking

this course. Throughout the last semester I had the opportunity to learn from my peers through

the weekly discussions and my professor through her feedback and the content she prepared for

the class. I also had the amazing opportunity to observe Mrs. Sandy Hathaway’s first-grade class

at Fay Galloway Elementary School. This short paper will include insight of my personal

philosophy of teaching and education.

Before this semester, my plan was to major in veterinarian medicine to hopefully become

a veterinarian technician. However, I encountered a class that involved lots of chemistry and

soon learned that I was not at all good at chemistry. Looking down the road, I found that all the

necessary classes I would have to take to graduate as a vet tech included some sort of chemistry.

That being said, I decided to switch majors instead of putting myself through four years of

struggling to get passing grade. As a result, I had to figure out what else interested me and other

professions that I wanted to pursue.

After months of trying to decide what to major in but not coming top any conclusions, I

decided to take this education class in hopes of ruling out the teaching option. Much to my

surprise, I found this class to be interesting and eye-opening. I never thought that I would want to

be a teacher. However, after having the opportunity to observe in a classroom inspired me and

allowed me to be sure teaching was my calling. It felt right to be in that elementary classroom

even though I was only observing.

 Currently I don’t know a lot about the profession other than what I observed while in the

classroom. My mom was a teacher and has helped me several times throughout this semester,

and I was able to learn a little bit from her. I know that a good teacher needs to love kids, be

patient, kind, caring, and able to quickly adapt to an ever-changing environment. I have always

love kids, being around them, and throughout my life I have been pretty good at handling

whatever they throw at me. I plan on using these experiences to help me in a teaching career

moving forward.

I have many opinions and beliefs about teaching, many of which were influenced because

of good teachers I had growing up. My mom as well as a few of my relatives are teachers, and

they have been able to help answer all my questions about teaching. I believe that a teacher needs

to be patient and understanding with every student, especially those who do not understand the

material they are being taught the first time. I believe that a good teacher is the result of being

able to adapt to changing environments, as well as being attentive to the needs of each one of

their students. I forget what the proper name for it is, but I think that the best teaching method is

to make it both teacher and student-centered depending on what the situation calls for. I believe

that there is a proper time and place when the teaching should be teacher-centered and when it

should be student-centered.

A few chapters from the textbook used in this course reviewed the history of education

and how it has changed throughout time. Growing up and before learning about the history of

education, I always viewed school as more of a glorified daycare, where the kids learned about

the basics of different subjects. After learning about the history, I now have a better

understanding of why education is important. Through reading the textbook, I was able to learn

that teaching is about making sure children are able to not only survive, but to also one day
become independent and help improve their society. The information from the textbook also

reinforced to me that education is meant to help a person grow in more areas of life including

math, English, reading, science, etc. I now see schools as the foundation of future. In other

words, without schools and education the humanity will never evolve, but rather devolve.

There are several strategies I plan to use when teaching. Most of which I learned from

watching my mom teach and what I observed from watching Mrs. Hathaway teaching her first-

grade class. Some of the strategies I plan on using include hand signals or phrases to gain the

attention of my students or as another way of instructing them, using a reward system of some

type to help motivate them to continue their learning, and sitting down with them and their

parents to figure out the best way to teach them. I hope to be able to get to know each student

individually so that I may be able to teach them in a way that they understand, so they may

succeed on assignments and assessments. When I am a teacher, I would like to have diversity in

my class (different races / languages). Growing up I had many classes with people who were

from different races and who spoke a variety of languages. That being said, I think diversity will

help the students learn that everyone is the same and should be treated equally, despite the way

someone looks or what language they speak.

There are certain qualities that I need to possess in order to move forward with this

career. Some of the qualities needed include patience, understanding, confidence, being able to

manage the classroom effectively, being prepared, setting high expectations that are attainable,

constantly practicing self-reflection, and finding the best teaching strategies to use. In order to

achieve my goals of becoming a successful teacher, I plan on graduating college with a

bachelor’s degree in education and looking for a job within four to six months of graduating so

that I can hopefully have a job lined up when I graduate.