One of the requirements for all high school teachers before they begin to teach is to create their own teaching philosophy. The one I created fourteen years ago was filled with educationalese, jargon I never actually used in the classroom. Two years ago, I found I had to write my philosophy again. This time, I knew what I believed and understood about teaching. What follows (with a few modifications because I'm always learning) is what I wrote then. It still holds true for me today.
My philosophy of teaching is that the student has to learn. No matter how great the lesson looks on paper, if no one learns anything, it is worthless. I want to take my students to the next level, both in Bloom’s taxonomy and as human beings. I have learned that that no one has all the answers, and that there are some questions that have more than one right answer. Sometimes, students think that a teacher should always be right and never make a mistake. I disabuse them of this notion pretty quickly. I want them to know that teachers are humans and can be wrong. The most important thing they learn is to see an adult acknowledge his or her mistakes and deal with them.
As an English teacher, I have two loves, literature and writing. Literature is interpretive. Sometimes what one student sees, another does not. I want them to start examining what they know and see how that applies to their life. One of my principle goals is to expose them to literature that describes different worlds, ideas, feelings and beliefs, to broaden their perspective and to give them a sense of what life has to offer. When we explore writing, I want them to see the importance of clear, concise communication. They should understand how writing is a tool that they can use to improve their lives and their minds.
Some of the skills I have that I think help me put this into practice are a sense of humor, strong content area knowledge, the ability to adapt to the moment, and the use of innovative techniques. Students appreciate a teacher who tries to be funny once in a while, even if she is not. It helps build relationships to the students, especially if the humor is self-deprecating and not sarcastic toward them. Since I’ve read so much, I have strong content knowledge and students know if a teacher knows her stuff or not and respect it when she does. Adapting to the moment and using innovative techniques in the classrooms means that I won’t let a lesson just bomb because I’m committed to a plan that isn’t working. If I have a good idea on how to change a lesson for the better, I go for it, even if it means taking extra time or giving up a beloved activity.
My organizational skills have sharpened over the years as well as those of problem solving. I have found that I love to think on my feet, helping this student with a documentation problem, that one with finding a tutor, and another just convincing him or her that she can succeed with this project. I like to work with others and love to see how different teachers present material in many different ways with virtually the same results. I have high standards for my students, and the people I work with and I am almost never disappointed.
I don’t think I’d stay in teaching if it weren’t for the rewards. I love to see the light bulb turning on above a student’s head--that moment when he or she gets the concept, sees the character in a different way, or finds the perfect word. I want to reach every student. They may not all pass, but I want them all to learn. Sometimes that’s just the life lesson---that if you don’t do the work, you don’t get the reward.
I have learned that I want them to see how what I teach relates to their lives, and I work to make them open the file drawers in their minds and figure out what they already know about the subject and what they need to know. I’m still working on how to find out what they know and to go from there. I want to become more of a mentor than a professor. I want to know what they think, not if they can guess what I think. I’ve never had a student who couldn’t learn, only ones I couldn’t reach. The reward is in the reaching.
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3 comments:
"I want them to know that teachers are humans and can be wrong. The most important thing they learn is to see an adult acknowledge his or her mistakes and deal with them."
I think this is something I will incorporate into my own teaching philosophy. I think it's important to show students that teachers are indeed humans, that this person in the front of their classroom, a professional, is not some ultimate priest of knowledge. I think this lesson is something they can carry on toward their own profession goals. Students often walk on a tightrope of confidence, they turn in assignments that they spent a ton of time on and when they realize there are mistakes and ways they could do better, it sends a wave through that tightrope. I think our job as teachers is to not break students confidence intentionally, but rather send those waves through and give the students the tools to stay confident. If that makes any sense whatsoever.
I like your idea of helping students understand why they're missing or seeing certain things in literature. I remember in English a lot of time my teacher would just say, "This is what this symbol represents," and I would sit there, annoyed, thinking, "I don't see it. You just made that up." It would have been more helpful to hear, "Can you see how this might be true?" I wish I'd had you as an English teacher...
I admire your notion of imparting the romanticism of literature to your students. I guess discovery is part of the journey that we, both classroom teachers and students, take. The human element is something that will transfer to your students, whether it is admitting your mistake as an adult or aiding them in their own discovery of human relationships in literature, your students will carry that human element with them.
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