Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Amanda M. Short
Drake University
I believe it is my job as an educator to engage students in meaningful experiences
that add to their prior knowledge and experiences as well as to reinforce the value of
behaviors that add to that learning. Children build knowledge based on their previous
knowledge, understanding and experiences. It seems obvious to me that culture, family
and socio-economics affect these building blocks in many ways. With those concepts in
mind, it is still important to realize that behaviors can be altered with positive, or
negative reinforcements, as well as holding students responsible for their detrimental
behaviors when necessary.
Its critically important to start with what students know as building blocks for what
they can learn. When we view students as able learners, readers, writers and thinkers,
we are then more able to use their schemas to further understanding and application
than when we view students in light of their perceived deficiencies. This approach
requires really getting to know my students.
For this purpose, I spend time at the beginning of the year and throughout the year
having students fill out interest surveys, write about themselves and their
families/cultures and sharing special things about themselves with the class. I can then
use the identified strengths and interests as a place to start with new concepts that
students will learn in my class. I believe that this helps students to have a sense of
ability rather than disability and gives them confidence to continue learning.
Social learning opportunities are critical to my teaching goals. Working together in
groups helps students to share their different interpretations of information and then to
construct knowledge from that joint process. Because social influences on learning are so
strong, its important as a teacher to rotate the partners and small groups that students
work with regularly. Finally, social learning opportunities help me to understand where
my students are on the social-emotional development spectrum. I can use that
information to develop specifically targeted behavior plans to benefit students learning.
When thinking about classroom management overall, its again important to know
my students and to consider carefully the environment of my classroom. I will continue
to design a classroom environment that is welcoming, inclusive and open to new ideas.
Students in my classroom will know they are valued because I will display their work,
provide frequent feedback on behaviors, thinking and products and I will use student
shared ideas to build new information for the whole class. All of these teacher actions
make my classroom a safe place for students to try new ideas and a safe place to fail.
As an educator, I believe it is better for students and the classroom as a whole if I
can focus more on positively reinforcing the behaviors that help us all learn in the
classroom. With that goal in mind, I plan to spend the first few weeks of the school year
heavily focusing on routines, procedures and rules of the classroom. I will readdress
these issues throughout the school year on an as-needed basis after the initial focus
time.

In summary, teaching is a complex endeavor that requires attention to multiple

needs of the learner simultaneously. In order to be the best teacher I can be, I will focus
on the learner as an individual first. Then I will use those individual characteristics and
successes to build more knowledge, understanding and positive learning experiences for
each student and the whole class. Finally, I will help students to work collaboratively by
reinforcing behaviors that benefit the student, the group and the whole class learning
processes.