Credo
..."what I believe in"...
As I progress toward my
teaching career, there are many beliefs I hold to how teaching should be done
and how I will teach. To me, teaching is an ongoing process from kindergarten to
the last year of college, in which teachers teach the students the knowledge
they need to know to be successful down the road as they progress through school
and into their future professions. Teaching should be a welcomed environment in
which all learners are invited to come and actively engage their minds in
activities that will enlighten them and force them to think, problem solve,
while increasing their knowledge and intelligence. Upon entering the teaching
profession, one is asked why they have chosen to teach. So after thinking about
the question, I have asked myself, "Why have I chosen to teach?" I know teaching
is not easy and it is a challenging profession. As a child, I always had a
positive experience with my past teachers. I see teaching as a way of making a
significant contribution to the world and experiencing the joy of helping
students grow and develop. Most importantly, the reason I have chosen the
teaching profession is my desire to work with children and young people.
Building bonds with students and having a daily interaction with them, is
satisfaction to me in the teaching profession and also knowing that I "made a
difference" in the student's life. Another reason that I believe I chose this
profession, was my passion for teaching. To my knowledge, I believe that if you
want to be a good teacher and want to help young adults learn, you need to be
passionate towards your work and you have to enjoy it. I do not feel that I
chose teaching as a desire to serve, because that makes it seem that you are
forced into this profession and I do not believe that at all.
I believe that a teacher
needs to be the student's parent away from home. They need to be able to help
shape these young children or young adults and give them the tools and knowledge
they need to progress from grade to grade and after high school into college.
Teachers have to always be on their feet and ready for anything. Teaching is a
creative endeavor in which teachers are continually shaping and reshaping
lessons, events, and the experiences of their students. You have to be flexible
in your plans as a teacher, because there can be many unpredicted outcomes and
changes in a schedule. I finnly bclieve that if a teacher is to be successful in
their classroom environment, they should always be prepared and have a back up
plan just in case the schedule is tweaked a little bit or there is a change in
plans. The teacher needs to set the tone in the classroom. If your class is loud
and obnoxious and you "the teacher", just stand back and let your class act and
behave like that, and let them walk all over you, then you are failing as a
teacher. The teacher is the authority figure in the classroom, if you make your
class respect you and listen, then you will get the most out of your class and
they will learn better. The teacher has to set the tone of the classroom from
the beginning of the year. I also believe that a teacher needs to always have a
positive attitude and be cheerful in the classroom. If you walk into the
classroom and display negative behavior and show that you do not care about
being there, then your class is going to feed off your negative attitude and
display the same type of behavior and not be interested in being there or
learning that day. Teachers have the potential to inspire students' emulation
and establish the classroom tone by modeling expected attitudes and behaviors.
As a teacher you need to be accountable for your actions, gain public trust and
be a competent and effective teacher. I believe that the biggest need for a
teacher is to be able to assess the students' learning. The ultimate purpose of
teaching is to lead the student to a greater understanding of what the students
actually learn, and they must continuously work to become aware of the latest
approaches to assessing student's learning.
As a
teacher, the knowledge that you give your students in the future is very
important. This knowledge will help shape the student and develop the student’s
intelligence, that they will use through the course of their lifetime. I believe
as a teacher, self-knowledge is crucial for you as the teacher to help your
students learn. You also need to know the knowledge of your students, and how
they learn. All students learn differently, some learn faster and some learn
slower. The faster you can figure this out, the better you can provide that
student with the knowledge they need to learn and grow. I also believe that the
knowledge of the subject is important as well. However, knowledge of subject
matter does not translate into an understanding of how to share that knowledge
with students. Teachers need to possess pedagogical content knowledge. This is
the joint product of wisdom about teaching, learning, students and content.
It includes knowledge of
the most appropriate ways to present the subject matter to students through
analogies, metaphors, experiments, demonstrations and illustrations. I believe
it is important for teachers to have knowledge of their subject, but they need
to have a broad and deep understanding of the subjects they teach, as well as an
understanding ofhow to teach those subjects to their students. Reflection and
problem solving are important tools of knowledge that you can provide to your
students as a teacher. Learning should be an interactive, challenging,
progressive and fun experience in the classroom. Learning should actively
involve the whole class, in which different minds are helping themselves and
each others learn. The teacher should be helping the students learn everyday,
and vice versa where the students should be helping the teacher learn about them
and what they have difficulty learning. The teacher has to understand that all
students learn differently, once the teacher understands this, then the best
learning can occur,
that is what I believe.
The students and teachers help each other learn everyday in the classroom. The
learner’s need to be
actively involved in the classroom and put their best effort forth into
developing their learning techniques and developing their education. Learners
need to ask questions
everyday about problems that they have. Learners need to be prepared for class
everyday and have their homework ready as well. If the learner actively engages
him/herself into the daily work then they will get the best possible results
from their education and learning that hey can get.
As an educator, I have a
specific education philosophy. This philosophy consists of what I believe about
education, the set of principles that guides your professional action. Of all of
the philosophies, I tend to lean to essentialism the most in my teaching
beliefs. I feel that the emphasis is to be on intellectual and moral standards
that should be transmitted by the schools. The core of our curriculum that we
should teach to our students should be essential knowledge and skills. Its also
very important that they are taught discipline, hard work, and respect for
authority. All of these skills they will be taught will help them succeed in
their future, and the discipline will lay a foundation for them to be
successful.
The final philosophy I
follow is perennialism, in which I too do believe that the aim of education is
to ensure that students acquire knowledge about the great ideas of Western
Culture. We need to teach them of our history, and the great ideas or ancestors
had before us. Our students need to learn about what happened in the past and
how things came about. Our students will take their knowledge they have
developed from our past Western Culture events and they will know what they
should not be doing to have that event happen again. Our students will also
learn about our culture and know how this country came to be.
Many teachers hold many different beliefs on how they should teach. Every belief that I have mentioned in this paper, I will incorporate it into my curriculum as a future educator. I believe this beliefs are good tools to teach our students and to help them develop intellectually and physically.