TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

My Personal Teaching Philosophy

Natalie S. Russell

Chico State University

EDTE-265-01: Exploring Teaching and Learning in Diverse K-12 Settings

Dr. David Teja

October 1, 2023
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I believe it’s very important in a classroom to realize that no two students, or people in

general, are the same. Students have different strengths, different learning practices,

backgrounds, etc. and it is my job to make sure my classroom is a safe space for all. I want my

students to be comfortable, content, and confident in my classroom. My goal is to be a safe adult

for all of my students, someone they feel comfortable with. I want them to be able to come to

me about anything positive or negative, whether that’s what they did this weekend, why they

missed class the day before, or just anything that comes to their mind. I have dealt with anxiety

in my childhood and still I work on my anxiety to this day. I want to be the teacher I always

wanted to be comfortable talking to and or asking for help.

My experience in classrooms has also taught me that adaptation is incredibly important.

One size does not fit all, and I need to be able to adapt to the needs of each of my students in

order to make them as successful as they can be. I want to apply a multitude of different

teaching styles in order to reach all of my students, including teacher instruction, hands-on

learning experiences, etc. For example, I would lecture, giving the opportunity for students to

write notes and hear my instruction, and if possible, have hands-on experiences in correlation to

what we are learning. I believe constructivism is incredibly important in a classroom, students

should be able to see and understand how what they are learning can apply to their personal

lives. I also believe social cognitive learning theories are incredibly important in a classroom as

well. I want students to be able to work together and not solely depend on myself for learning.

As adults, we have to work together every day of our lives especially in working spaces, so

learning from each other and learning how to work together especially at a young age is

incredibly important. I want to have class discussions where students can respectfully share their

ideas with each other, ask each other questions, and agree and disagree with each other. Some of
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my favorite classroom experiences are engaging discussions and debates. That was one way to

help me understand information, not only did I have to know the topic, I had to be able to discuss

it, argue it, and answer questions about it. When it comes to assessments, assessing a student’s

knowledge on a topic is so much more than them being able to recall information for a multiple

choice test. I want my students to be able to fully understand the information, not just be able to

regurgitate memorized facts. I think it’s important for students to reflect on what they’re

learning, what they like or don’t like, what makes sense or what’s confusing, and how it applies

to them personally. I hope to give my student’s personal journals and ask them to reflect in it

once a day. The reflection can be as short or as long as they like and about anything they would

like. Not only do I think it’s important for students to be able to reflect on their day in the

moment, I think it would be amazing for students to be able to look back on their elementary

school journals as an older kid or even adult.

I want my students to stay engaged. The best way to keep students engaged is if I as the

teacher am engaged. I want to be able to include aspects of my life that make me really happy in

my classroom. It is my goal to become fluent in ASL. I have taken multiple college level ASL

courses but I still have a ways to go in my journey before I consider myself fluent. I want to be

able to include ASL in my classrooms and teach my students useful and common signs

integrated into our typical instruction. Music is another passion of mine. I know I am going to

include music into my future classroom. Whether that’s songs about what we’re learning,

singing songs together, or listening to music while we are working. I can even play the ukulele

and would love to be able to play along with my students while we’re singing. If I learn that

there are topics or ideas that a lot of my students are interested in, I will do my best to include

that into my classroom to keep students engaged and want to keep learning.