jueves, 23 de julio de 2009

Personal Philosophy

My personal philosophy of education has been changing since the first moment I started teaching. However, I don't see this as something that is negative. In fact, I think that a teacher's personal philosophy of education should forever be evolving. Teachers should continually make efforts to inform themselves of new technology or innovations that help to facilitate learning in the classroom. I have only teached for about three years, and they have helped me in molding my teaching style. Each group that I have had, every student as individual even every school has made me grow as a person and human being.
Each teacher has its own personal philosophy of education. Many Methods exist, however we have to choose what we want to use from each one of them depending on our student’s needs and our way of teaching. We have to take in consideration many factors such as teaching and learning styles, multiple intelligences and our environment in order to choose our own personal style. This is going to change every year with each of our groups therefore our teaching philosophy would change year after year. Instructional methods range from free exploration to direct instruction. Models of learning range from transactional to transmission. Synthesizing even a small fraction of the various educational philosophies into a personal philosophy would take years. However, is good to use different foundation theories that have stood the test of time. Therefore, a valid approach to a philosophy of education would be to start with the works of John Dewey. Dewey was an education philosopher whose child-centered philosophy continues to influence modern education; such a philosophy using practical methods of guided discovery represents the best approach to the education of young people.
I believe that each student has the capacity to accomplish any goal that is set for them as long as they feel connected to what they are learning; without a link between the students and material, the interest is lost and the learning is harder and may take more time. According to Jean Piaget's theory of development and learning, a developing child builds cognitive structures, or schemes, that connect previous knowledge and/or experiences to new knowledge. To have students get interested first you have to be their friend and let them know you care about them. They feel more interested in my class when they see me as a person that cares about them. From here we can make the connection that will be pertinent for them and will let them learn and acquire the information.
A teacher must also have positive expectations. This means believing in each student and believing that the student can learn and be successful. Students only learn as much as the teacher expects; teachers who set high expectations for their students will receive higher achievement from their students. It is amazing to see what students can accomplish when they know and sense that someone believes in them. It is my aspiration as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential by establishing an environment where my students feel safe, are comfortable taking risks with new learning, and presents them with opportunities to share their thoughts and ideas.

4 comentarios:

  1. Great Philosophy!! Keep going forward.

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  2. Here is my blog so feel free to leave a comment
    http://whereintelligentmindsmeet.blogspot.com

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  3. Isabel Navarro
    WOW!!!!! You hit it right on the target. I love the way you mold your philosophy with every classroom expirience. In addition, I totally agree with the fact that students would only perform up to our expectations. The highest a teachers expectations are about a student the better he/she will perform. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

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  4. You're so right. We learn with the different groups, because not every school, group or student is the same. I like this very much.

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