�The love of nurturing and observing growth in others is essential to sustaining a life of teaching. This implies that no matter what you teach or how you present yourself to your students, you have to be on the learner�s side and to believe that they can and will grow during the time that you are together.�
-Herbert Kohl (emphasis added)
This quote has become an integral part of my personal teaching philosophy. I strongly believe that a teacher needs to exhibit a passion for fostering student learning in combination with keeping each student�s best interest at the forefront of his/her curriculum. My teaching approach embraces the language-as-expression philosophy, which is a viewpoint that places students� interests, needs and strengths first. By focusing on students� individual growth, teachers can develop the appropriate curriculum to promote learning. This approach also allows students the flexibility to exert some control over course content, thus enabling students with the ability to monitor their own learning.
My specific goals as a Language Arts/English teacher are to help students obtain and communicate information, develop literary response and expression, facilitate learning and reflection, in addition to problem solving and application of these skills in all aspects of the English curricula. I will also strive to assist students in utilizing language and reading skills to aid them in communicating clearly, critically, creatively as well as strategically. In addition, I will ensure that my course objectives comply with current national, state and local academic standards for Language Arts/English education, whilst concentrating on the quality, not quantity, of learning.
I believe that each student possesses their own unique way of learning and as their teacher, I need to understand and implement strategies that work best for my students in order to fulfill each student�s potential. In order for my students to achieve rewarding learning experiences, I plan to vary my teaching strategies between teacher-centered and student-centered approaches in order to �tap into� each student�s individual way of learning, as well as their multiple intelligences. I intend to employ an eclectic pedagogical model, i.e. I will select the best approaches from various teaching models for the lesson or activity at hand. Some learning experiences I plan to incorporate into my teaching methodologies are small-groups, cooperative learning groups, think-pair-share, teacher talk, student reports, learning centers, demonstrations, mini-lessons, field trips, educational media, teacher questioning, whole-class discussions, discovery learning, project-centered learning, educational games, and at-home activities.
I am inspired to become a teacher because I want to encourage and witness the world�s youth embrace learning. By the medium of education, I want my students to recognize and support societal, socioeconomic, cultural and lifestyle differences in conjunction with discovering the value of respect and acceptance. I desire to teach students the power of ambition and help them realize that they can make their dreams come true through hard work and dedication. I aspire to teach adolescents that success is ideal, but failures are advantageous too�they build character and breed integrity. Most of all, I wholeheartedly believe that cultivating and monitoring each student�s individual educational and personal growth will ensure that every student �can and will grow� during the time we are together. |
