Section 2 Philosophy of Teaching
Describe your beliefs about teaching and how your philosophy of teaching affects students and colleagues. How are your teaching beliefs demonstrated in your personal teaching style? What are your greatest contributions to or accomplishments in education?
I believe the role of public education is to provide equal access to resources and provide opportunities for students’ best success in educational and personal development. If access and opportunity are provided, every student has a better chance for equality both in school and after graduation. Through my experience, I have realized that even more than my love for English literature, I desire to help other people gain confidence in their general knowledge, creativity and individuality. This belief is clearly communicated to all of my students and colleagues, so that people know I am an open and safe person to talk to and learn from.
My job permits me to work with people from diverse backgrounds. I use differentiated teaching instruction in my lessons for students with a variety of learning needs. My hope is that I provide the kind of education that causes students to draw from their talents and personal style so they may have the necessary tools to understand not only their schoolwork but also the importance of their uniqueness and worth of their character. It is important to be open and honest with students so they will extend the same courtesy to us. I employ my leadership and charisma in order to help students discover the value and fun in learning. My ability to communicate with people at various levels of understanding and comfort helps me recognize the needs of each student. I want them to realize that they are playing as important a role in my life and educational experience as I am in theirs.
Because I am familiar with the curriculum and subject matter of Language Arts, I am able to settle easily into the environment and began building relationships. I work well with other people—especially young people. This is the most important teaching tool I have. Students identify with my teaching practices and are willing to do quite a lot of work because it’s usually somehow fun or entertaining, as well as challenging. I also set very high expectations, which are clearly conveyed and explained. In order to stay organized and keep my students informed, I make a syllabus for each course, fit each lesson into our standards and make clear grading rubrics. This has also proven to be very helpful for accountability and in communicating with parents.
I keep all of my work in electronic files, so that I have access to them anywhere. This allows for ease in altering lessons to make them more accessible to students as times change. I have given entire electronic folders for semester classes to my colleagues. These folders contain all of my lessons, PowerPoints, worksheets, tests, etc. In addition, I currently post all of my work on my webpage. This way, I am able to share my intellectual property with my colleagues. If we are willing to share our work, we can learn from and build from each other. I know that many educators feel isolated—as though they work in a vacuum. I want to work in an open and positive environment. I have built a reputation for being funny and friendly at my school. I try to say positive things to my colleagues, even if it’s as simple as telling them they look nice on a particular day. I work hard to communicate with my staff, listening to their stories and providing feedback when it is asked for.
I am currently working in a professional leaning community where members of separate departments are working together to bring current and changing technology into our classrooms. My building technology staff asked me to pilot a hybrid class. This class is comprised of face-to-face and online instructionrich with resources, high standards, relevant curriculum and interesting content. In order to do this, I finished my Masters of Education with a research project that studied the use of weblogs. I implemented lessons through which students were able to blog about their understanding of the texts we were studying. I shared this information with colleagues both at Jefferson and with teaching consultants at the Minnesota Writing Project. I began to use wikis for collaborative writing. I work with Dr. Rick Beach, who researches the use of digital writing and has included my work in several books. We have presented our findings at the Minnesota Council for Teachers of English convention last spring, and more recently with the National Council for Teachers of English convention this past fall. I am currently using and researching more kinds of tools and lessons in digital writing, as well as making presentations where I share these ideas and lessons with teachers.
My greatest contribution to education is taking the resources I have available to me and creating dynamic, relevant lessons. I teach the students the material they need to know, as well as the technological skills they need in the 21st century. I use free Internet tools so my students can use them, no matter what their socio-economic status. My students can access my lessons from any location at any time of the day. I model and share my teaching practices as a staff member at Jefferson High School, as a teaching consultant at the Minnesota Writing Project, as a presenter at both state and national conventions, and as an ever-growing online resource for anyone interested in the materials I have to share.