My Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy is integrating the familial and cultural aspects of a child’s life into his or her educational career by becoming an advocate not only for each child, but for each child’s family as well. Ensuring that a student’s success is not limited to the resources only available in the classroom. I will not lower expectations for my students; only modify lessons when necessary to help each child reach academic success to their own fullest potential. I believe in helping build up every student as an individual and member of the community, bringing in every aspect of the child into the classroom to help them grow not only as students, but as people also. Every student has a right to an education and the right to a teacher that will ensure them that they will be receiving the best education possible. I also believe in having students be an active participant in their education. In order to receive the best education possible, students need to be the best version of themselves possible. I will create a classroom environment that makes students feel welcomed and safe with their only concern being to focus on learning. I hope to learn just as much from my students as they will be learning from me. I will build a classroom community that will extend outside of my classroom and onto the campus and hopefully outside of the campus and into the community.

It is our job as teachers to help students reach their fullest academic potential, and to give students the tools necessary to be lifelong learners. Creating lifelong learners will ensure that students’ success will reach beyond the classroom and beyond the school and reach every classroom, school, workplace or community that that student encounters. 

 My experiences using technology are very limited. Other than social media, I do not use technology very often. I still play music at home from a record player! I am quickly learning that I need to catch up with the times and make sure I am technology literate. Although I am an "old fashioned" type of person, I do understand that technology is all around us and utilizing technology in the classroom will be extremely beneficial for my students and open up doors that otherwise would not be available to us. 

            I hope to use technology in my classroom in several ways, from utilizing the Smart Board (if available) in daily lessons, to hopefully giving students access to pen pals on the other side of the world! In a class I took a few semesters ago, I remember there was a teacher who during her Anne Frank and World War II unit spoke to the students about the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. As part of an assignment, the students had to write letters to the staff at the museum asking them any questions that they still had after learning all about the Holocaust and Anne Frank and her family. That in itself became a lesson in proper letter headings, greetings, correct paragraph structures and even penmanship. The students each put their final drafts into envelopes and they mailed the letters off. The students didn’t know that their teacher had been in contact with the head of the museum and once the letters were received they would set up a video chat from there in New York, all the way to Amsterdam and they would hear their questions answered first hand! I fell in love with this idea and cannot wait to set something like this up for my future students.