Week 2: Teaching Philosophy

Becoming a teacher is an important responsibility that I do not take lightly. It is important to have clear educational goals and meaningful ways to achieve them. I believe learning should be enjoyable for the students, the material should be remembered by them, and teachers should be knowledgeable about what they teach.

Learning should be an exciting activity for students. Students should look forward to learning new things. Through following the learning theory of constructivism, learning can become a more engaging experience. Constructivism is a learning theory that “equates learning with creating meaning from experiences”. This translates into creating interactive lessons. Students should be involved, not just listening to a boring lecture. A teacher’s job is to gently lead students along to reach their own conclusions. Technology is a great tool to apply this in the classroom. A good example of technology helping with the use of constructivism in the classroom is the lemonade game. In this online game, students run their own lemonade stand and through playing the game learn all different economics lessons like supply and demand. After they play this game the teacher's explanations don’t seem abstract at all. The students understand the concepts through experiencing them on their own and can meaningfully add to the lesson. This method of hands-on learning helps all kinds of students. Students who have a hard time comprehending difficult concepts through lecture-style only will benefit greatly from experiencing the concepts

Once the students have learned through exciting delivery of lessons, it is of equal importance to make sure that students retain this information. Without proper retention, learning is of no purpose. When students learn by themselves they remember the information better. The teacher must gently guide the students to come to conclusions on their own and form their own opinion. This can be done by generating discussions in the classroom. It is also important to encourage students to ask questions. This helps students think independently. When students do ask questions, other students can be called upon to answer them. This can help students think, form opinions, and thereby remember their learning. Review is also essential to ensure that students remember what they learned. Projects that have students work in groups on hands-on activities based on what they learned are a good form of assessment that supports the idea of interactive learning.

Another goal a teacher should have is being educated in his/her field. The only way one can give something over is by completely understanding it on his/her own. Teachers need to constantly refresh themselves. For example, if one teaches English Language Arts, it is important to constantly learn the new standards that are expected of students in that state.  I recall having a teacher who taught us biology. She herself had a degree in science. She would constantly keep updated on new scientific advancements. This made her a much greater teacher as she knew exactly what she was teaching. Any questions we students posed to her got an answer.

All in all, proper teachers should have goals that have their students in mind. Through making learning exciting, teachers can ensure that all students are learning well. Discussions, the encouragement of questions, and thorough review with group projects are important if teachers want their students to retain information. Students should not be the only ones learning. A good teacher must constantly be learning and updating their material. With all this in mind, we can hope to truly impact our students in a positive way.