Educational Philosophy... Questions to ask yourself.

To give us inspiration and a way to organize our education philosophy statements,  Julie Mcleod asked us these questions.  I think these are good questions to ask yourself so I thought I would share the questions and for your entertainment my first thought responses:)

1. In your opinion, what are the broad goals of education? How can they best be met?

Broad goals of education: enrichment, greatest educational capacity for each student, social competence, well rounded environment.  Met by evaluation, constantly modifying to the present students, providing a healthy learning environment

2. What is your image of the child? How do you see the child as a learner?

The child: each is different and has a treasure chest of possibilities waiting to be tapped.

3. What are your hopes for each of your (present/future) students? What do you want them to achieve, accomplish, learn, feel, etc.?

That I can push my students to the best of their abilities and help them meet personal goals.  I want them to feel accepted and learn social competence

4. What kinds of knowledge and skills do you believe are most important for students, and how should they gain that knowledge and those skills?

Life skills, reading, problem solving, communication

5. What will be your role as a teacher in the learning process?

Help facilitate learning in every capacity.  Push the children to their best ability.  Give them support and encouragement. Provide a fun environment.

6. What do you believe about the learning process? How does learning take place?

Learning process takes place in an accepting and encouraging, but also challenging environment.

7. How will your beliefs influence your teaching?

My beliefs will affect how I teach because God has shaped who I am as a person and therefore the nature of how I teach.  I am constantly growing and learning and will definitely grow and learn from my students.

8. Will you consciously promote certain values in your classroom? If so, which values will you choose? Why? If not, why not?

I believe kindness is above all in the classroom. If they can learn to be kind and accepting to everyone in the classroom than I think the students will feel confortable taking risks in learning.  I also would value this most because it breaks my heart when kids are bullied or bully.

9. What kind of environment do you hope to create in your classroom? How does this relate to your basic beliefs about students and learning?

Open environment! Safe, happy, supportive, loving, challenging, chatty, learning etc. I need a word cloud!

10. What kind of feedback will you offer your students as they work? How will you use praise, rewards, punishment, etc.? What kinds of assessment will you use to be sure that students have met objectives?

Positive but corrective when needed.  It is important to keep the kids striving for more but also to recognize their good work  and encourage them. I plan to assess my kids in multiple ways to give the students different ways to express their knowledge on the subject.

11. What is your teaching style?

Fun, goofy, challenging. I try to incorporate creativity and a sense of spontaneity, with out overriding the consistency of an organized schedule, so that the students don't get caught in boredom.

12. What strategies do you use when teaching?

I try to have high positive energy and I use that most when I am pushing them towards a goal like in teaching swimming.

13. Why do you teach the way you teach?

I teach the way I do because I want the kids to feel excited and happy about what that have learned and achieved that day.  I teach because I enjoy teaching. I hope my future students enjoy learning as much as I do teaching!

adapted from :
Kilbane, C., & Milman, N. (2003). The Digital Teaching Portfolio Handbook. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.