My Teaching Philosophy

Hailey DeWitt
Southeast Community College
 My philosophy of teaching includes making sure that my students have a positive

environment to express their feelings, beliefs, and questions in. I want my students to be able to

ask the hard questions and learn things that cannot be learned alone. I want to create positive

relationships that will impact their life in a positive manner so that they can go out and be world-

changers in our ever-changing society.

My personal goal would be to help my students to learn about themselves and grow while

they are in my classroom. I want my students to be self-sufficient and be able to learn and grow

on their own because our society changes every day, and they will not always have the

opportunity to have someone to help them grow and learn. Providing them with group projects

will help them to learn how to interact with other people and successfully contribute to the

classroom and then eventually to society. I also believe in an individualized experience so that

students can cater to their needs in the classroom, in hopes that are able to take something away

from the classroom that is specific to them.

Students goals for my classroom should be to be able to be self-sufficient in their

learning. They should be able to guide their own learning and be able to guide and pace

themselves through aspects of their work. They should be willing to discover and uncover

different learning opportunities and be willing to work to learn. Students should not be afraid to

ask questions because questions can help to guide their learning and eventually lead to the

learning of something new and unexpected.

I think the student's role in the classroom is to be able to seek information themselves and

then ask questions or seek help if needed. They should be able to take in the information and

then if a question arises from the information, then they should seek an answer, which could lead

to new findings. Students should also help classmates learn and grow and keep each other
accountable in the classroom. Students should not judge a person for an answer they give,

because everyone learns and grows at different paces. Instead, their role should be encouraging

other classmates to voice their opinion because that opinion could lead to a new discovery and

learning.

As a teacher, my role would be to present the rules of the school in my classroom as well

as the code of ethics and make certain my classroom reflects those rules. Also, I think that a huge

part of teaching is creating relationships with students. Students are not likely to learn as much

from a teacher that does not try to initiate a relationship. I plan to use experiences in my life to

relate to my students and help them learn and grow. I hope that by sharing my experiences

students see that I have been in the same shoes and can seek me out for wisdom and guidance as

they journey through their own life. I do think that teachers are supposed to teach in the

classroom, but teachers also are responsible for students grow relating to outside the classroom

as well.

My teaching style is more child-centered rather than subject centered. I have both aspects

of Romanticism, being that learning should be self-guided and self-paced and curriculum is led

by child’s curiosity, rather than set by teachers, and progressivism, where what needs to be

learned is ever changing and purpose of education is to learn to solve problems and discover

knowledge. Learning and education should be centered around the students and their growth as a

person, not just a student.

Being a teacher is not always the easiest job, but if you establish a positive classroom

environment and encourage questioning, you can help to create world changers. I will end with

this quote
 “The greatest use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”

-William James

Teaching is about more than just the content, it’s about the people. Good teachers will

long outlast their life because their legacy will live on in another.