Teaching Philosophy
I believe ALL children can learn.
I believe children learn best when they get to choose what they want to study.
For example, if the children in my classroom are really interested in bugs,
I will develop lesson plans to meet their interests. I think this will
increase the children's attention span if they are discovering something
they enjoy. I believe children learn the best by "doing." Therefore, I will
provide experiences and activities that are "hands-on", which means these
are activities that the children are doing. As a teacher, I think it is important
to have the learning experiences "close" to the children's cognitive level
such as discovering the habitats of the animals the children see in their
backyard instead of looking at animal's habitats in the ocean. The children
would not be able to actually experience or look at habitats of animals in
the ocean unless they live next to the ocean. For example, when children
are learning about the parts of bug/insects, I will provide actual insects
for the children to look at instead of looking at a picture of an insect in
a textbook. I think it is important to integrate the subjects areas
within each other. For example, I would incorporate math with a science lesson
by having the students measure the bugs with a ruler. I would also
integrate writing by having the children write a story pretending they were
a bug. I believe integrating subjects is important because children learn
better if concepts on related to one another. I also think children
learn the best when they get opportunities to socialize with each other such
as how to communicate ideas, how to share, how to explain their ideas, how
to listen, and much more.
As a teacher, I have specific roles and
the children also have certain roles. First, I believe it is my job to guide
the children's learning instead of telling them the information. I think
it is important that any teacher lets the students the construct their own
knowledge, but to provide an environment that lets children do this. Second,
I believe it is my role to act on the student's interests. As student
is my classroom would have roles also. For example,