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Kia Rodriguez

Philosophy Statement

I like to test myself. I enjoy pushing myself to achieve greater success and I

have found that a lot of people enjoy it too but often get stuck when trying

to accomplish it by themselves or with someone who may not completely grasp the

task at hand. Students learning ESL face this obstacle quite often not because they are

not motivated but because they do not know where to start or the material they are

learning is from a non-native speaker and does not make sense to them. What many

non-native speakers fail to instruct their students are the social and physical cues that

many English speakers use when talking. I assist students in learning the language,

problem solving, how to be successful when learning a new language, and how to

truly unlock their unlimited educational potential in my class. I will teach these key

educational tools through the philosophies of Humanism, which focuses on human

kindness, understanding through multiple senses, and that education is an unrushed

process that must be taken in small steps to ensure

thorough comprehension and familiarity of the subject. I will know that a student is

successful when they can understand the tone of a sentence in English with the use of

another person's body language or tone as native-English speakers use them a lot more

than many countries.

I will begin with the idea that most of my students have had little interaction with the

English language. I will survey my students so that I can understand where each
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student excels and where each student may struggle. I will then encourage

my students to build on the knowledge and strengths they have already learned. To do

this I want to create a fun environment where I will have the students practice with

one another and with myself recognizing the physical and social cues that many

native-English speakers add to conversations.

As an educator, I believe that teaching students basic English skills will help me

understand how other countries might differ from my own and will allow me to grow

and learn with my students. When I am teaching, I plan to have my students write an

exit ticket at the end of every week where they address what they liked about

the week's lessons, what they did not like, what they want to learn, and a question they

would like to learn about in a future lesson. I believe that I can always look at

students' grades to understand if the lesson I taught made sense to them, but I will

never know why or how I could have made it better. These exit tickets will help me

build a better way of learning for myself and for my students.