Teaching Philosophy

“The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must
employ all his art in
seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power.” - Alfred Adler

Recognizing one’s own transformation from student to teacher is a jolting,

surreal moment of awareness. While this transition may occur over an extended
period of time through hands-on practice and professional maturity, consciously
acknowledging one’s role of an educator occurs long after these experiences.
Why? Because true developing teachers, unlike most students, are not focused
on themselves in the classroom.
As a young student in middle school, I could only think of how I wanted to
influence adolescents, the personality I could bring to a classroom. As a high
school student, I worked to challenge my potential, taking pride in my
accomplishments. As a college student studying how to become a teacher, I
concentrated on my knowledge of methods, experimenting to discover my
preferred approach to classroom management. As I approach the final weeks of
my student teaching experience, however, I realize that I have not been gauging
my development as a future educator by my progress, but, instead, have been
focused on instilling this same goal of reaching full potential in my students.
Teachers should embody a selfless drive to empower learners, challenge their
boundaries of exploration and, moreover, encourage them to take pride in their
personal and academic growth. I believe my success as a teacher, therefore, will
be measured in how I define and develop their roles as students. Primarily,
personal relationships and high content expectations will work to characterize
this classroom context.

Classroom Community
I believe a dual emphasis on individual personality and maturity will promote a
comfortable, open learning environment. Developing trust and respect with
adolescents directly affects academic and behavioral success. Demonstrating a
genuine interest in personal activities and sharing my own will encourage
students to approach me with any questions, concerns or issues that could
influence their academic or personal growth.

I will treat my students as young adults in my speech, actions and choice of

classroom activities, acknowledging their emerging independence and, in turn,
modeling the respect I expect from them as students and classmates. In
addition, I believe in maintaining communication with parents/guardians to
monitor and support students’ academic success and personal health and
development.

Content Integration
My English classroom will focus on critical thinking, interpretation and making
connections to my students’ immediate and extended learning engagement.
Through individual efforts, group work and class discussions, students will
actively construct knowledge rather than merely accept conventional sources of
information. Students’ prior knowledge, furthermore, will be valued as an
influential tool to build confidence and interest in material. Topic research,
current events and the social aspects of language and literature will be explored
extensively as students work toward an understanding of the subject’s range of
study. This will lead to intra-disciplinary as well as inter-disciplinary connections
to emphasize the content’s extensive application.

Finally, questioning and reflection will serve as approaches to expanding

discovery. In addition to constantly questioning to explore textual possibilities, I
will use this method when responding to written student work in order to create
a private dialogue between the author and myself. Reflection will be used to
monitor both student progress and development, as well as how effective my
teaching methods are in furthering these to reach the students’ full potential.