Erin Venus

Teaching Philosophy

March 25th, 2024

I believe that teachers hold a great responsibility for fostering an environment that is

student-centered. I desire my classroom to be a place where students are supported to meet their

full potential as students. I want to foster a learning environment that builds lifelong learning.

Each year of school is an opportunity to produce confident students who know their worth and

capacity as learners.

To produce lifelong learning, I will work to incorporate a variety of strategies and

practices to expose students to different ways of learning such as group work, independent work,

circle time, etc. This is in hopes that somewhere along the way, this desire to learn can be

sparked and nurtured. Since I desire to keep my teaching student-centered, I will be sure to

incorporate my students in each lesson through participation and active engagement. My

teaching is not for myself but for my students. This will drive the way I teach each lesson.

To assess that my students understand the content, I will incorporate a lot of informal

assessments through creative endeavors. Since this is essential to determining students’ needs, I

am sure this will look different each year. As for now, I will prioritize walking around and asking

critical questions during independent and group work to assess students' understanding. This is

also a great opportunity to teach and sharpen skills they already possess as well as those that are

lacking. Additionally, these interactions grow teacher-student relationships. Through this

practice, the benefits are great.

 Since my teaching is aimed to be student-centered, my efforts to improve my teaching

will be endless. As years go by teaching evolves and new students with new needs are placed in

classrooms with different teachers. To learn what my students need, I will pursue mentorship

relationships. I will also make the effort to gain peer support from the other teachers in my grade

and surrounding staff. I will ask them for accountability to make sure my teaching is effective

considering the group of students I have. Additionally, I will never stop learning myself as I will

continue to research effective practices and advocate for my students.

Teaching is important to me because the impact it can have on a child’s life is weighty. I

consider this to be a privilege and a joy. Teaching is a calling that must start with recognizing

that those who are receiving the content we deliver are people with intrinsic value. My job is to

ultimately instill confidence and provide support, doing everything in my power to help my

students succeed. The classroom is a place to build students up. The job of a teacher is

irreplaceable and an incredible opportunity to grow any student that comes along the way.