Sasha Sproge

Philosophy of Education
SED 322
4/22/2015
Philosophy of Education
My personal teaching philosophy has been dramatically shaped by my life, my culture,
and my observational experiences at Arizona State University. As a bilingual student for over 15
years at various high schools and colleges across the country, I believe I have been able to view
examples of good and bad teaching. I believe that good teaching is supported by a teacher's
personality, their style of teaching, and their amount of content knowledge. Students know when
a teacher is unprepared. If they feel as though you do not care about coming to class prepared,
they will not care about your lesson or school. Therefore, a teacher should walk into class with a
strong plan of action, an engaging lesson, and prepared materials. Over this past semester, I have
come to understand what exactly a foreign language classroom should look like. When walking
into a foreign language classroom, students should be creating, learning, and discussing in that
foreign language on their own while the teacher is walking around the classroom facilitating. We
all learn differently. Therefore, it is vital that teachers utilize differentiated instruction and
assessments in their classes so that all their students have the opportunity to succeed.
As a future professional educator, I have grown to understand that in order to be equitable
for my students, parents, and colleagues, I need to take charge of the classroom. I need to
manage my students behavior and take pride in my subject area. I need to model what respect
looks like in my classroom in order to gain respect from my students. I need to be passionate,
positive, and enthusiastic when teaching to my students or talking to my colleagues. I will use
what I have learned about asset based thinking when communicating with my colleagues or
parents about educational or disciplinary processes.
Throughout the courses I have taken at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, I have
grown my understanding of what professionalism looks like. I now know how to react to certain

situations professionally in order to keep myself equitable to my students and stakeholders. If a

student is disruptive in class, I know now that I should talk to them after class, not during class,
and ask them what went wrong. Creating a sense of empathy towards students will allow them to
see how much you, as a teacher, care about them and, in turn, their education. If a student is
continually disruptive, I know that I can reach out to my colleagues or their parents and use them
as educational resources to better assist the needs of my student.