Teaching Philosophy

As a person I believe that I am thoughtful, patient, and empathetic. I think that all of
these qualities are important for a teacher to have. I believe in the value of relationships and
this is what my teaching philosophy is based around. As a teacher, I believe that it is critical to
keep an open mind to allow for continuous growth and development. Throughout my journey
to becoming a teacher and carrying onto my career as a teacher I am committed to keeping an
open mind and continuing to show my thoughtfulness, patience, and empathy to all of my
future students and colleagues.
At the core, the role of a teacher is to teach the curriculum. However, this is not the only
thing that teachers do and teaching the curriculum is not as straight forward as it may seem. In
order to teach, a teacher has to create an environment where students are able to learn. To be
a good teacher, the curriculum needs to be taught in a way that ensures students are learning
it. In other words, teachers need to be able and willing to recognize different learning styles and
adapt their teaching to meet them. Making connections with students and communicating with
them often are important parts of making sure that each student’s learning needs are being
met.
Beginning with relationships, I believe that they are essential to teaching. All of my
favourite teachers have been my favourite because they were able to build strong and trusting
relationships with me and with their other students. Once there is a foundation of a positive
trusting relationship, then learning will happen easier. Part of creating these strong and trusting
relationships is expressing genuine interest in students and in the content of the course. I
believe that students can tell the difference between teachers who teach with passion and
teachers who teach without. I want to be the kind who shares my love and passion for teaching
and learning with my future classes.
Being genuine, connecting with students, and building trusting relationships are all part
of creating an inclusive and welcoming learning environment. It is important that all students
feel equal and valued in the classroom. Giving students opportunities to be classroom leaders
or take part in daily classroom procedures will help create a good community where each
student can feel that that have an important role to play. Working on and mastering my teacher
presence will help with this. Knowing when to use high, medium, or low presence in the right
situations will be beneficial in maintaining good relationships and good classroom
management. I believe in a restorative approach to conflict resolution where all parties
involved get a chance to tell their side and discuss their feelings. This includes talking to
everyone involved to understand what they need in order to move on. Focusing on restoring
relationships and solving conflicts rather than applying temporary or quick solutions teaches
students the important skills of working with others, compromising, and resolving issues in a
way that allows all parties to move forward.
Continuing to keep an open mind throughout my teaching career is crucial in being able
to develop my skills as a teacher. There will never be a point in my career where I know
everything. New knowledge, strategies, and ideas are always being produced and I think that it
is important to be open and willing to learn and practice them. Keeping an open mind allows
for both professional learning and professional development. These two things go hand in
hand, and it is important to have a good balance of both. Having professional learning without
professional development, or vice versa, will create unbalanced teaching practices. Putting
equal emphasis on learning and development will allow me to grow as an individual as well as
grow, develop, and collaborate with my colleagues.
My major is social studies education, but I believe that all subjects are important. Social
studies is a great subject to start making connections to other core subjects. I can ensure that I
meet the learning outcomes in social studies while using and developing skills from other
subject areas. For example, examining contemporary texts, news, or other media forms and
looking for biases or messages to citizens can help develop visual or media literacy, which
would connect social studies to language arts. I think that it is important and valuable to share
learning outcomes with students to make sure that we are all working towards the same goals.
To keep track of these goals throughout a unit or a lesson it is important that I use formative
assessment techniques. These should be present in every lesson to make sure that each
student has a firm understanding of the concepts or ideas that are being taught. These
techniques can include asking general questions to the class, exit slips at the end of lessons, or
general class discussions about the topics being taught.
Social studies is also a great subject for incorporating FNMI knowledge and concepts.
Learning about the land and the history of it is not possible without discussing FNMI history. In
this time of reconciliation, it is so important that FNMI culture is taught from a young age.
Incorporating indigenous ways of knowing into the classroom is a way to create a respectful
and understanding knowledge of our country’s history. Incorporating indigenous music,
storytelling, or art is one way to add indigenous knowledge into the program of study. Inviting
indigenous community members into the classroom is another way to do this that also fosters
positive relationships with the community outside of the school. Taking advantage of the
community around and the place that we are in connects content to students lives and
everyday experiences.
By focusing on relationship building with students and with the community, I will be
able to create an inclusive environment where each of my students can feel safe and ready to
learn. Checking in on each student in the form of formative assessment will make sure that I am
staying on track and working towards the learning objectives that I am teaching. By bringing in
community members, incorporating FNMI knowledge, and focusing on empowering students I
will be able to maintain good relationships with the community and with my students. Finally,
keeping an open mind and continually working on professional learning and development will
allow me to continue to grow and expand my teaching knowledge throughout my entire
teaching career.