My Philosphy of Teaching

My Objectives as a Teacher
As a teacher there are many objectives that I hope to accomplish with my students. First and most importantly I plan to provide a positive learning environment where children feel safe and secure to express themselves and actively engage in the learning process, as well as learn how to socially interact with other children. Within this environment, the below listed objectives are ones that I intend to meet with my students throughout the academic school year:

 Instill the skill of critical thinking and problem solving

 Teach the students the fundamental content of the curriculum for that academic year

 Develop the students’ learning skills and social skills that they will have to use in everyday life, the rest of their life

 Encourage and promote self-discipline in and out of the classroom
While this list is not all inclusive, it highlights the areas I feel are important to a child’s success in the classroom.

Meeting My Objectives
In order to achieve these objectives that I have listed in the above paragraph I will implement several different teaching styles to reach students with a variety of learning styles. All students do not learn the same way, so all lessons should not be taught the same way every time. Of course all lessons will follow the curriculum plan set by the school district. I will teach lessons in the following ways: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic; this is so that students will hear the information, see the information, and will do hands on exercises to learn the concepts of a lesson. In order to promote critical thinking, problem solving, and self-discipline I will assign group and individual projects within the class time and to be done away from the class as well. Group work or collaborative working environments will also develop social skills that the students will need for everyday life.

How I Will Assess My Effectiveness
In order to assess my effectiveness in the classroom I will periodically test my students. I plan to use testing my students as a means to determine what my students are grasping and what we need to work on more. Testing in my classroom will not be used to “divide” the students who get it from the ones who do not. It will be used as a pace guideline for me in determining whether we can move on to a new topic or decide if we need to spend more time on a topic to ensure that my students retain the knowledge I am trying to teach to them. I will also use the school systems CRTs or Criterion Referenced Testing scores assess my effectiveness as a teacher.

Why I Want to Be a Teacher
Why I want to be a teacher, gosh there are several reasons. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. Somewhere along the way the “real world” came along and several years of working full time and only taking classes that were convenient led me to stray away from that dream, and I obtained a business degree. After I graduated with my business degree I found myself working at the University of South Alabama and used my “free” tuition to pursue my teaching degree.
I want to teach because I am very good with kids and love knowing that I can make a difference in someone’s life. I believe that teachers, aside from parents, are the most influential people in a child’s life. For this reason I believe that it is essential that teachers provide a positive learning environment where children feel safe and secure to express themselves and actively engage in the learning process, as well as learn how to socially interact with other children. Some children are not privileged to have involved, positive authority figures in their lives. For this reason, I believe that one of the most essential roles the teacher should be to students is a positive role model. As a teacher we should represent this and continually to positively encourage our students to strive to reach their potential, even if the child cannot see what that is. It is our duty as teachers to set our expectations high and provide the resources and means to help students meet those expectations. When this happens the child’s self efficacy grows and they are more willing to accept and rise to challenges in the future.
Another reason that I want to teach is that teaching is a career that will allow me to begin a family and have a career at the same time. It is important to me to have a career, but at the same time be able to spend quality time with my family. Being a teacher will allow me to have time off to spend with family while living out my dreams as an individual as well.