My Philosophy of Teaching

The truth is that up until now I cant believe that I am a teacher. It was my parents who pushed

me to be a teacher as they were sure it was going to be my job; they told me that as a teacher I will have

good benefits and the best benefit of all is that I will have my summers off. They also told me that a major

advantage of being a teacher is when I decide to have a family of my own, I will be able to raise my

children instead of having a daycare raise them for me. I was young, nave, and indecisive, so a teacher

is what I was going to be.

Growing up, I was a competitive goal keeper. My dream as a little boy was obviously to go to the

gymnastics academy, along with every other little boy in Morocco, but more importantly I wanted to be a

gymnastics coach. My parents told me that a coach was not a real career, but I figured out that if I

became a language teacher I could also coach high school gymnastics students. This is when becoming

a teacher started to appeal to me, but not for the right reasons just yet.

The philosopher, David Perkins once stated The metaphor (coaching) with sports is meant quite

seriously...the coach stands back, observes the performance, and provides guidance. The coach

applauds strengths, identifies weaknesses, points up principles, offers guiding and often inspiring

imagery, and decides what kind of practice to emphasize. I have been a gymnastics team coach with

another superior coach at a club gym for the past five years; this is actually where I realized the real

reason I should become a teacher. For each person that I coach I make goals for the upcoming season

and daily practice assignments. But the main goal for every person is to qualify for the city championship.

Recently I have realized how much this relates to writing teacher lesson plans even though I do not write

my gymnastics lesson plans down on paper.

My favorite part of coaching gymnastics is watching a child learn a new skill or receive a good

score in a competition. When I realized this, I realized that teaching is exactly what I am made for. When

a student is able to grasp a new linguistic concept, or receives a good grade on a big test, the amount of

excitement that a student has is the main reason I want to become a teacher. In gymnastics, when a

child does not understand the concept of a skill you must change the language you are using, figure out a

different way to explain it, or demonstrate it so the child can visualize and comprehend it. The same goes

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My Philosophy of Teaching

for teaching, when a child does not understand a new word, you must change the teaching appraoch that

you are using, try to explain it to them in an alternate way, or use some visuals in order for the student to

grasp it.

Building a relationship with each one of my gymnasts is very important to me. I know how they

learn, how they work, and their family background. This will also carry over when I teach. I will take into

account Gardners Multiple Intelligences of how each student learns differently. I will also be aware of

how they work and their family background; do they work the best in groups or individually, do they have

a good work ethic or a bad one, and how much support they are getting at home.

I also love learning, and as a teacher I know I will still get to be a student. I will learn from my

experiences, I will learn from my colleagues, and most importantly I will learn from my students. I will also

continue to learn so I am able to teach my students English in a modern way instead of an ancient one. I

want to get my students excited about learning and excited about English so I will always be looking for

new and improved ways to teach.

I believe in writing lesson plans that coincide with the Content and Language Integrated Learning

(CLIL), which also motivate students to want to learn language if they are science students by showing

them how it relates to the real world. The term CLIL was coined by David Marsh, University of Jyvskyl,

Finland (1994): "CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign

language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content and the simultaneous learning of a

foreign language. I do not want students to learn English just because they are going to be tested on it,

but because they like it and want to learn. If there are students who are having trouble, I will do

everything possible in order for them to grasp the concept. I will make it a point to develop a relationship

with each and every one of my students. But my main goal is for my students to view English as fun. This

year, I am following the same philosophy at Wake Forest University with my graduate and undergraduate

students, and it works really well.

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My Philosophy of Teaching

I first became interested in primary teaching through working with a local Elementary School,

something I have done since I was 17, training to become a leader in the process. This made me realise I

enjoyed working with this age range, and school experience confirmed teaching as a career choice. My

subsequent three-year BA Applied Linguistics course at Hassan II University has served further to fire my

enthusiasm and prepared me effectively to take responsibility for my own class.

My degree has trained me to cover all National Curriculum subjects, and my subject specialisms

are Business and Technology and English, with an elective in Drama. I have also studied Management

and Modern Fiction & Poetry, and am going to be jointly presenting an INSET session for teachers on

Integrating ICT in Education; I would eventually like to be the coordinator for this subject in the school in

which I work.

During my degree, I have undertaken two practices in Key Stage 1 (Years 1/2 and 2) and a

further two in Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6), my preferred phase. These included schools in inner city

deprived areas and a school in a former mining town. These practices have given me a good

understanding of the primary curriculum and of what makes effective teaching.

My time in school has developed my philosophy of valuing each child as an individual, as well as

part of a community. I aim to give children as many learning opportunities and experiences as possible in

order to engage, motivate and prepare them for future life. An appropriate, balanced, challenging and

creative curriculum is essential in developing childrens skills, knowledge and understanding. These all

underpin personalised learning.

I have in particular come to understand the value of sharing learning objectives and success

criteria with children. Knowing exactly what is expected and how they can achieve allows children to

focus more clearly on tasks. This also facilitates effective self and peer assessments, as there are clear

criteria and objectives to assess against, encouraging children to take more responsibility for their own

learning.

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My Philosophy of Teaching

Progression needs to be planned for, so that as children work and explore at their own pace,

there is always something else ready to move them on and take them further in their learning. I also

believe that differentiation and meeting varied learning styles are key to effective teaching and learning.

Work should be set at an appropriate, but challenging, level. When I prepare lessons, I make a conscious

effort to ensure I am not just catering for musical and intrapersonal learners like myself, but try to see

lessons through other learners eyes. For example, to introduce Year 2 children to pictograms, I got the

children to create human pictograms arranged by name length, pets, eye colour, etc. and then

transferred that information as pictograms to the board. Kinaesthetic learners were thereby catered for in

the physical movement and manipulation, visual learners in the pictograms created on the board, and

audio learners as we discussed and interpreted the graphs.

My views on learning styles have been influenced by the work of Howard Gardner. He believes

that we have multiple intelligences and that every child has the potential to be gifted, but that this can

present itself in many different ways. Therefore, all children have their own preferred learning style, which

best suits their intelligence. As a teacher, I feel I can best meet childrens learning needs if I am aware of

the learning style suited to them.

I feel it is important to make learning interesting and creative, and one way to achieve this is

through the use of drama; this allows children to explore and understand situations, and express feelings,

thoughts and emotions. An example of how I have successfully used drama was with a Year 6 class

learning about Victorian railways. I set up a debate with the children taking the roles of people affected by

the building of the railways. They were incredibly enthusiastic and threw themselves into the task. They

found this a fun, enjoyable and worthwhile learning experience, which enabled them to better understand

the situation and empathise with those concerned.

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My Philosophy of Teaching

Whilst on my school placements I have been able to try various assessment techniques. The

most successful were noting comments about how well children have met the learning objectives, using a

traffic light system, and recording those who achieved above and below expectations. I have also set and

levelled some literacy work, undertaken formative marking and carried out language tests. Additionally, I

have allowed children to self-assess and carry out verbal peer assessment. As part of my final placement

I was required to write an exemplar report on a child, which was highly commended by my mentor. I

would like to expand and further develop my expertise in assessment during my induction year, with more

focus on self and peer assessment.

During all of my placements I have taught ICT and used it to enhance my lessons with interactive

white boards, the internet, videos, voice and sound clips, digital cameras, interactive games and work

sheets. I have worked with other teachers to plan the curriculum; planned and organised the work of TAs;

delivered an assembly to two year groups; attended a parents evening, staff meetings and INSET days;

been on school visits, including helping to organise two and writing the risk assessments; observed and

helped run after school clubs; and contributed to the classroom environments through interactive

displays. During my third year at university I studied a module called Integrating the Curriculum, looking

at global issues such as sustainability and how these could be taught across the curriculum. This made

me appreciate how this approach can be useful, particularly when addressing important social, ethical

and global issues.

A second and third year module on Inclusion has also really affected the way I think about

children and addressing their needs in the classroom. Within this module, I have focused on including all

children, regardless of ability, learning needs, language, ethnic origin or any other factor. I have learnt

how to identify and find ways to effectively aid the learning and meet their needs in ways which appeal to

and best help them develop, gain a beneficial experience from their education and achieve their full

potential. I have incorporated some of my learning in my final practice, as there was an autistic child in

the class. I ensured that his learning needs were planned for and his TA was fully aware of what was

expected.

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My Philosophy of Teaching

As well as preparing me for school life, my university course has enabled me to take part in

various experiences for my professional development. During my first year, I undertook a weeks

residential camping holiday at YIT. With other students, I cared for a group of six Year 5 children,

preparing and organising a range of outdoor learning activities and games, such as building shelters on

the beach, orienteering and visits to sites of interest. It was an incredibly challenging week, but was also

one of the best experiences I have had. It has made me aware of the value of such trips in extending

childrens education beyond the classroom.

I am currently working at the British Council as it is close to my home, but also because its NQT

programme appears to be one that is tailored to support me in my first year of teaching when have so

many new challenges to face. Your county is also appealing as it has an on-going school building

programme, unlike many other areas of the country. As a Muslim, I would be very interested in working in

a Muslim school. I have been through the Muslim school system myself, and have also spent a lot of time

helping out at my local Muslim primary school since the age of 16. However, none of my placement

schools have been of religious denomination and I have thoroughly enjoyed each experience; therefore, a

Muslim school, whilst it would be appealing, is not essential.

My university course, especially my teaching practice, has confirmed my belief that teaching is

one of the most challenging, demanding, exhausting but varied and exciting careers there are. I really

look forward to working in a job that is so efl managerial, being privileged to be such avital part of so

many young lives and making a real difference.