My teaching philosophy is based on the experiences that I have had as a student, tutor orientation leader, and new employee trainer, since I have not had the opportunity to teach a class before. My undergraduate rehabilitation discipline was often defined by the most common answer we gave to questions, “it depends.” That’s what teaching is also defined by in my opinion. It has to be formed to fit the current audience, not the majority or the average. I believe that teaching cannot remain stagnant each semester and year. Teaching is a field that is always expanding and developing. So when asked what kind of teacher I am and how I will teach, well “it depends” on so many things, but mostly the students or my audience. However there are three major characteristics that describe my teaching philosophy: resourceful, adjustable, and focused on the student’s future.
A teacher is a resource to the student. They provide the expertise that the student needs to gain their own knowledge and skills. As a new employee trainer at multiple jobs, I often taught students the basics of what they needed to know to be a good employee and trusted them to come to me when they needed me. I was a resource that they could use, just like books and videos in a classroom, to learn something new when they were ready and interested. Since this was a style that I liked and worked well for me, my teaching style would most likely revolve around the idea of a flipped classroom. Students are responsible for watching videos and reading about the topic in the next day’s lesson and the following class is focused on student led discussion. So, in my classroom I will be there to provide guidance when students struggle to start a discussion or with a certain topic and the students learn from each other.
This aspect of my teaching philosophy is heavily based upon my most memorable teacher, my high school math teacher, Ms. Schrier. I was and still am inspired by her passion to teaching and her dedication to her students. She often taught our class as a flipped classroom, giving us the responsibility of learning. We were responsible for how we learned the topics, based on our understanding of the previous lessons we watched. I will implement this same type of responsibility and freedom in my classrooms. She also stayed up to date on the best technology and always making sure her students were benefiting from that technology. I strive to have that same devotion to my students and their success in the classroom that Ms. Schrier had with her classes. I believe that I will hold the same enthusiasm that she did about the social and humanities classes that I will teach. I strive on positive energy and will constantly be creating that in my classroom, by using technology like Ms. Schrier did. Learning should be exciting and I will make sure it is in my classroom.
With each new class, there is a new set of students and each set of students comes with new experiences and personalities. With this ever changing audience, a teacher must be prepared for how they could affect the classroom. Different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, religions, abilities, prior knowledge, class level, age, and other identity factors can all contribute to the environment in the classroom. As a teacher I would make sure that my lessons were adjustable to this variety of students I could be working with. I would make sure to set boundaries for discussions and assignments at the start of the semester, while also allowing students to share if they wanted to change the boundaries. Another part of being adjustable is recognizing the different learning styles that students may benefit best from. As a learner, I know that I understood material much better when applying it to real life, then when just listening to a lecture or reading a book. In my classroom, lessons will vary from videos to case studies to group work to outside the classroom activities to student teaching opportunities. I would be open to adjusting any lesson plans to the way that students think best fits their situation. I especially classes that require outside of the class learning, like attending group meetings, participating in community service, internships, and related activities; so I those types of assignments will be present in my classroom.
A teacher must also adjust the way they give feedback to students. As a teacher I would give students feedback as promptly as possible, however the manner in which would give the feedback would vary. Some students might best benefit from receiving feedback in person during a sit down discussion, while others were just prefer an email or marked up document. I think that prompt feedback is especially when giving feedback on case studies or out of the classroom experience, when students actions are most related to real life experience and are often needed right away so they can improve their behavior or understanding.
The students are going to be the main focus of my classroom. They are the reason the teacher has the opportunity to stand in front of the classroom, so why not provide them with exactly what they need. As a teacher, I wouldn’t prepare students for the next exam. I would prepare them for the next step in their academic career, whether that’s the next class in the sequence, graduation, or a job. In an “it depends” type of classroom, such as psychology, sociology, or human services, I want the students to be prepared for their future occupations.
An excellent professor that I had the opportunity to learn from was Dr. Silver, a sociology professor at Penn State University. I took Sociology of Deviance with Dr. Silver and while I learned about the different deviant behaviors that cultures all around the world participate in, that was not the objective of the course. Dr. Silver was focused on teaching students how to think, not what to think. He showed us how to look at things we see every day with a different naturalistic viewpoint. I enjoyed this type of atmosphere in the classroom and the freedom this gave me as a student. In my classroom I would evaluate assignments just as they were evaluated in Dr. Silver’s class, to evaluate if students understood the thinking process I was teaching and not to evaluate for correctness. There often isn’t a correct answer or outcome in an “it depends’ classroom.
A teacher is a resource to the student. They provide the expertise that the student needs to gain their own knowledge and skills. As a new employee trainer at multiple jobs, I often taught students the basics of what they needed to know to be a good employee and trusted them to come to me when they needed me. I was a resource that they could use, just like books and videos in a classroom, to learn something new when they were ready and interested. Since this was a style that I liked and worked well for me, my teaching style would most likely revolve around the idea of a flipped classroom. Students are responsible for watching videos and reading about the topic in the next day’s lesson and the following class is focused on student led discussion. So, in my classroom I will be there to provide guidance when students struggle to start a discussion or with a certain topic and the students learn from each other.
This aspect of my teaching philosophy is heavily based upon my most memorable teacher, my high school math teacher, Ms. Schrier. I was and still am inspired by her passion to teaching and her dedication to her students. She often taught our class as a flipped classroom, giving us the responsibility of learning. We were responsible for how we learned the topics, based on our understanding of the previous lessons we watched. I will implement this same type of responsibility and freedom in my classrooms. She also stayed up to date on the best technology and always making sure her students were benefiting from that technology. I strive to have that same devotion to my students and their success in the classroom that Ms. Schrier had with her classes. I believe that I will hold the same enthusiasm that she did about the social and humanities classes that I will teach. I strive on positive energy and will constantly be creating that in my classroom, by using technology like Ms. Schrier did. Learning should be exciting and I will make sure it is in my classroom.
With each new class, there is a new set of students and each set of students comes with new experiences and personalities. With this ever changing audience, a teacher must be prepared for how they could affect the classroom. Different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, religions, abilities, prior knowledge, class level, age, and other identity factors can all contribute to the environment in the classroom. As a teacher I would make sure that my lessons were adjustable to this variety of students I could be working with. I would make sure to set boundaries for discussions and assignments at the start of the semester, while also allowing students to share if they wanted to change the boundaries. Another part of being adjustable is recognizing the different learning styles that students may benefit best from. As a learner, I know that I understood material much better when applying it to real life, then when just listening to a lecture or reading a book. In my classroom, lessons will vary from videos to case studies to group work to outside the classroom activities to student teaching opportunities. I would be open to adjusting any lesson plans to the way that students think best fits their situation. I especially classes that require outside of the class learning, like attending group meetings, participating in community service, internships, and related activities; so I those types of assignments will be present in my classroom.
A teacher must also adjust the way they give feedback to students. As a teacher I would give students feedback as promptly as possible, however the manner in which would give the feedback would vary. Some students might best benefit from receiving feedback in person during a sit down discussion, while others were just prefer an email or marked up document. I think that prompt feedback is especially when giving feedback on case studies or out of the classroom experience, when students actions are most related to real life experience and are often needed right away so they can improve their behavior or understanding.
The students are going to be the main focus of my classroom. They are the reason the teacher has the opportunity to stand in front of the classroom, so why not provide them with exactly what they need. As a teacher, I wouldn’t prepare students for the next exam. I would prepare them for the next step in their academic career, whether that’s the next class in the sequence, graduation, or a job. In an “it depends” type of classroom, such as psychology, sociology, or human services, I want the students to be prepared for their future occupations.
An excellent professor that I had the opportunity to learn from was Dr. Silver, a sociology professor at Penn State University. I took Sociology of Deviance with Dr. Silver and while I learned about the different deviant behaviors that cultures all around the world participate in, that was not the objective of the course. Dr. Silver was focused on teaching students how to think, not what to think. He showed us how to look at things we see every day with a different naturalistic viewpoint. I enjoyed this type of atmosphere in the classroom and the freedom this gave me as a student. In my classroom I would evaluate assignments just as they were evaluated in Dr. Silver’s class, to evaluate if students understood the thinking process I was teaching and not to evaluate for correctness. There often isn’t a correct answer or outcome in an “it depends’ classroom.