My Philosophy of Education
Education is a basic cornerstone in the foundations of society. Through my time at North Carolina State University I have learned many valuable lessons about what is "good" in the field of education and the "right" way to teach. Some would respond to that by saying, “There is no right way to teach,” well I say, “Yes, there is.” The best approach to teaching is a student first approach to teaching, not the EOG tests, not the politics that come with teaching, but focusing on the students' need right in the classroom. I have learned that if we can connect with students in the areas in which they need help, learning will come naturally to them. In our society so much emphasis is place on the end result that I sometimes think we forget about the process between the start and finish. Teaching is what is suppose to fill the in-between. Teachers carry a heavy responsibility on their shoulders, as it was once told to me, “We are the keepers of the public knowledge.” Without teachers to guide them young people have a much more difficult time gaining the skills necessary to be successful. Teaching is a difficult job, contrary to popular belief not everyone can do it. It takes skill, training and quite frankly, the ability to connect with your audience. Teachers are not just people who tell others facts about the world, we teach! We guide our students to finding the answers independently.
In this technological age that we live education has taken on so many different appearances. We as teachers are tasked with the goal of helping those in our charge to be come successful, efficient, contributors to society. That requires us to keep pace with the world around us, to equip ourselves with the tools we need to be aware in the world. Literacy was once defined by the way one communicated through speech an writing. Now, in our online, digital world there is a completely new sphere of literacy that we can utilize and take advantage of. Teaching ourselves to use these new technologies is the first step to being able to help our students to also become literate in these areas. The classroom itself takes on a whole new atmosphere because we are not limited by only the information that is in the books on the shelves or by the people we know. Now, the world is at our fingertips and it is important for educators to equip those that they are teaching to sift through and find the information they are looking for, how to judge its validity and then, finally, to understand its meaning.
I will be teaching the middle grades Language Arts and Social Studies. I will need to know how to engage students in learning about the world in the past and how to gain the ability to communicate effectively in their lives. Social studies is the study of the actions of those in the past. I want to teach my students to understand history from several different perspectives the time I spent abroad I learned just how important this is. I want students to leave my classroom being just a little bit more knowledgeable and open-minded in the world that I am teaching them about. I love history with a passion and I want people to feel about just one thing the way I feel about history. I think that middle school is a critical age, it's when students begin to develop their interests. I would like to not only teach my students about Language Arts and Social Studies, but also to help them to find what they really love in life too.
The world needs guides, mentors ... teachers. With all the new technology available, those teachers need to be knowledgeable and dependable. They need to know how to recognize the signals students give them, and know how to appropriately respond. Teaching is so much more that passing along information. It's about making connections and building something that, hopefully students will always keep in their minds. Education is about finding the facts of the world and looking at the through new, innovative and open-minded ways, so to better understand the world we live in.
I will be teaching the middle grades Language Arts and Social Studies. I will need to know how to engage students in learning about the world in the past and how to gain the ability to communicate effectively in their lives. Social studies is the study of the actions of those in the past. I want to teach my students to understand history from several different perspectives the time I spent abroad I learned just how important this is. I want students to leave my classroom being just a little bit more knowledgeable and open-minded in the world that I am teaching them about. I love history with a passion and I want people to feel about just one thing the way I feel about history. I think that middle school is a critical age, it's when students begin to develop their interests. I would like to not only teach my students about Language Arts and Social Studies, but also to help them to find what they really love in life too.
The world needs guides, mentors ... teachers. With all the new technology available, those teachers need to be knowledgeable and dependable. They need to know how to recognize the signals students give them, and know how to appropriately respond. Teaching is so much more that passing along information. It's about making connections and building something that, hopefully students will always keep in their minds. Education is about finding the facts of the world and looking at the through new, innovative and open-minded ways, so to better understand the world we live in.
Looking Back at It All
This portfolio was a lot of work and it helped me to appreciate everything that I have done to get to where I am now. It is a great idea to have an online portfolio, it is very impressive and shows an employer that you are capable of walking into a 21st century classroom. I think my final product is excellent and really shows some of my best skills. I want employers to know that I am an open-minded intellectual, who will be a great addition to their school. I have learned so much over the last year or so any this is a wonderful showcase of the impact it all had on my professional character.
This portfolio took an immense amount of time. I think this is a great idea but if the idea is to impress future employers then it should be a little less in-depth. I think that if I were an administrator, with, no doubt, a million tasks on my schedule, sitting down to look at pages and pages of information about one candidate would turn my mood a bit sour. I believe one of the biggest skills you can take into applying for a job is respect. Handing in an application with the implied expectation that an employer will sit down and read over all this information is not showing respect for their precious and valuable time.
With that said, I think that the same effect could be gained with a much more simple format. I think that you could cut out a some of the information here and make it a more concise. However, from the point of view of our methods educators, I can also appreciate the need to understand just what I gained from all the time I spent in this program. I feel that I could have given a lot more meaningful reflections had there not been so many involved. My reflections began to feel force and not as introspective as they could have been, had they been less voluminous. The fact that this portfolio accompanied a class where I was writing long, overly in-depth reflections about every single activity or topic, was a little overwhelming. It really turned me off of the idea about reflecting yet again on lessons and activities for which I had already reflected when I had completed them. I think for this portfolio it would have been better to give clear, succinct statements answering what the topic was, its purpose and why I chose to include it. This would require a paragraph or two tops. It really comes down to the difference between what I really feel and what I think the program coordinator want to hear, and personally would rather tell you what I really, truly feel.
However, now that I have completed this task, I do feel a large sense of accomplishment. I can't even begin to describe the excitement I have for that moment to come where I have my diploma in my hand. This portfolio was daunting, time-consuming and tedious, but if getting a degree were easy everyone would have one. I can look back on this project and understand how hard I truly worked to accomplish my goal of becoming a teacher, and feel proud of how far I have come.
With that said, I think that the same effect could be gained with a much more simple format. I think that you could cut out a some of the information here and make it a more concise. However, from the point of view of our methods educators, I can also appreciate the need to understand just what I gained from all the time I spent in this program. I feel that I could have given a lot more meaningful reflections had there not been so many involved. My reflections began to feel force and not as introspective as they could have been, had they been less voluminous. The fact that this portfolio accompanied a class where I was writing long, overly in-depth reflections about every single activity or topic, was a little overwhelming. It really turned me off of the idea about reflecting yet again on lessons and activities for which I had already reflected when I had completed them. I think for this portfolio it would have been better to give clear, succinct statements answering what the topic was, its purpose and why I chose to include it. This would require a paragraph or two tops. It really comes down to the difference between what I really feel and what I think the program coordinator want to hear, and personally would rather tell you what I really, truly feel.
However, now that I have completed this task, I do feel a large sense of accomplishment. I can't even begin to describe the excitement I have for that moment to come where I have my diploma in my hand. This portfolio was daunting, time-consuming and tedious, but if getting a degree were easy everyone would have one. I can look back on this project and understand how hard I truly worked to accomplish my goal of becoming a teacher, and feel proud of how far I have come.