Kerri Koch

CEE 588

Professor Dunn

Teaching Philosophy

October 7, 2004

 

A good English teacher is one who knows his or her students, student’s individual needs, and how to accommodate such needs.  As well, they need to be able to effectively balance the educational system and all its requirements along with their own perception of how a class should function.  A good English teacher breaks the rules and is a bit unconventional.  When thinking of what makes a good English teacher I always think of my high school English teacher, Mr. Kuhn.  He constructed his class in such a way that everyone enjoyed being there.  He was intelligent and well spoken and never made us feel uncomfortable.  We were encouraged to speak our minds, and he wanted to share his knowledge with us and wanted us to learn.  He really cared about his students and the subject matter.  He taught me how to be enthusiastic about reading and writing.  He was passionate about what he taught and was always excited to be in school.  In turn his students became passionate about literature and their own personal writing.  He made me believe in the profession of teaching.  Mr. Kuhn connected with his students and in turn they learned.   Teaching is learning, and students must have an excellent teacher to excel in the process of learning. 

In Making the Journey Leila Christenbury suggested that there is a difference in being a teacher and becoming one.  Mr. Kuhn became a teacher over the course of many years in the profession.  He allowed his students to be independent thinkers.  In class, no student was alienated because nothing a student said was ever wrong.  All of my personal motivations of becoming a teacher begin with Mr. Kuhn.  There are so many strategies and approaches that I have in regards to teaching that Mr. Kuhn instilled in me.  For example at the beginning of every class he would have both feet on the desk and be grinning from ear to ear.  He started class with a joke or funny story and then got to business.  He was tough and expected a lot from us, but we loved him and wanted to give him 110% all the time.  The first fifteen minutes of every class was free writing.  Free in the sense that grammar did not matter, but he gave us the subject.  He would say a word, such as object, and we would write about an object until the time he allotted us was up.  He allowed us to be creative.  I had always loved to read but never imagined writing could be so much fun.  He also had his classroom set up in such a way that I certainly will duplicate as a teacher.  We always sat in a circle, and he sat in a student’s desk with us during discussions.  There were posters of authors, books, and quotes hung all over the walls.  More so than anything else in the room there were hundreds of books on bookshelves.  The room looked more like a personal library than a classroom.  His class was fun, disciplined, and an open forum for students to talk about books they both loved and hated.  Mr. Kuhn taught me a lot about the process of becoming a teacher and not just being one when I was one of his students in high school.

I tutored in two Writing Centers during my undergraduate career and also took up substitute teaching at my elementary school, and during this time I learned many different techniques of teaching, the wide variety of students I would be teaching, and ultimately why I wanted to teach.  My experiences in the field were the reason I decided to teach English.  I was touched when students, of all ages, learned something about reading and writing from me.  It was exhilarating when the light bulb went off in their head.  It is interesting that the facial expression of a student changes when they finally realize something you have been trying to tell them about their writing or a novel.  Those are the moments, few and far between, that really make tutoring and hopefully teaching a wonderful experience.  I also experienced the difficult situations that arise in teaching.  Teaching can be tough and every student is different and has different needs, and to add coals to the fire the curriculum demands made by the state, standardized tests, and the community in which you teach, including parents and the school board all have to be addressed as well.  One of the main reasons I enjoyed tutoring and substitute teaching so much was that the students felt comfortable with me, similar to the way I felt with Mr. Kuhn.  Teaching has so much to do with human nature.  First and foremost, I want to be a person that students can look up to and come to for help not only with English but life as well, while secondly being a teacher of the English language arts. 

  My ultimate goal is to be the teacher that leaves an imprint of English literature and rhetoric in student’s minds and hearts, as Mr. Kuhn did for me.  Everyone has that one teacher that really touches their life.  I hope to be that teacher for some of my students.  It is hard to answer the question of what goals I will have for my students of English language arts, and this may sound idealistic but ultimately I want my students to enjoy reading and writing.  If they enjoy what they are doing, they will learn.  Of course there are the many local, state, and national standards within the profession of teaching, and I believe that there is a way to incorporate all of those ideals with the idea in my mind of students really enjoying themselves in the classroom.  The teachers that adhere to the curriculum of solely passing a test are not inspiring their students.  There has to be a healthy balance of the student, the teacher, and the system.  Although, I would not say that these three things should be equally distributed.  The student should take up the majority, leaving the teacher and the educational system to wade the battle fields.  I truly believe that what will guide my decisions as a teacher will be my students.  Students are our future and without them we would not have a profession.  English is not just about literature and the interpretation of literature, it is about life, rhetoric, and the articulation of independent ideas from students.