Teaching Philosophy

I teach writing like it’s a sport. Compared to basketball, football, baseball, soccer, or even
golf; writing has the following skills; effort, time, patience, practice, and collaboration. With
each skill, I’m required to help my student sharpen them like a fine point. Without effort, nothing
good could ever come from a student’s work. Without time, papers are unorganized, slow, or
rushed. Without patience, teachers are quick to temper, and that temper will burn bridges to
student – teacher relationships. Without practice, writing looks sloppy and unrefined. And
without teamwork, there’s no collaboration. No extension or sharing of ideas. When teaching
writing in a class for 10th graders, it’s always important to keep these skills on hand so that the
flow of the class is consistent and that relationships with students
My primary goal, for every student who walk in my classroom, is to teach my students
how to write critically, creatively, and informationally. Following the units that’s required for
teaching are important, but as I divulge into each unit with my students my goal to have them
become independent writers holds the upmost importance. The way I see it, my students are
going to have varying strengths and weaknesses. But if I can give them the ability and the
confidence to just ‘write’, then they’ll be able to write anything.
If I could describe myself as a teacher, I’m someone with a huge abundance of energy. I
move around the move, I’m excited throughout the lesson and that energy will hopefully pulsate
through my own students forward. I am a teacher who tries to get to know every student in my
classroom, so that I can build a relationship with them inside or even outside of class once they
graduate. I am one of those teachers who will think about everything that I will say/do in any
situation. From speeding up or slowing down to raising or lowering my voice, I will do whatever
it takes for my students to comprehend what I’m trying to get them to understand.
In a way my teaching philosophy is very reminiscent to the plotlines of any story. Each
point of the story; Background, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, all represent a
point of time within the classroom and it’s the lesson that I am trying to teach within the unit.
There will be high moments of achievement, fond memories, fun activities, and highs of success.
But at the same time, there will be downs; students falling behind, the bad days (for both
students and myself), disputes and verbal confrontations, trials or tribulation will spring to life,
or even life might create chaos inside my space for learning. But my students are the protagonists
and I’m their mentor. And whatever way or shape possible, I will always be there to assist and
support my students so that they can leave my classroom with confidence for the future.
 Annotated Bibliography

Beare, Kenneth. “Teach Essay Writing Skills with This Complete Guide.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo,

www.thoughtco.com/how-to-teach-essay-writing-1212375.

Though it’s a simple article teaching possible future teachers how to teach essay writing,

it’s perfect for that specific purpose. “How to Teach Essay Writing” is written in a way that

teacher’s educators on how to step by step teach their students how to write essays. With each

step there’s a detailed instruction guide explaining exactly what to teach the students in the

writing classroom. I highly recommend this website, for any beginner when it comes to writing

classrooms, because it gives anyone who’s willing to learn a place to learn. And for seasoned

educators, it’s a perfect place to freshen up on skillsets.

Lewis, Beth. “How to Write a Lesson Plan in Less Than an Hour.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo,

www.thoughtco.com/how-to-write-a-lesson-plan-2081858.

In this Thought Co article, “How to Write a Lesson Plan” Beth Lewis teaches readers

how to write and establish a lesson plan for the classroom. It provides a How-To, tips for when

making a lesson plan, what’s needed, and even a blank template at the bottom to provide

practicing. Overall, this article is perfect for writing classrooms, or just any class in general,

because it’s a place where beginners can learn to get their feet wet. As a primary starting point, it

provides all of the ins and outs required to making a lesson plan. It even has a chance to allow

writers to become creative and create their own lesson plan with the blank template provided at

the bottom. I highly recommend this article to any educator in training/seasoned educator to use

in the classroom.
O'Shaughnessy, Kathleen. “Everything I Know About Teaching Language Arts I Learned at the

Office Supply Store.” National Writing Project , National Writing Project, 2001, Spring,

www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/quarterly/2001no2/oshaughnessy.html.

Everything I Know About Teaching Language Arts I Learned at the Office Supply Store,

is a article about Kathleen O’Shaughnessy’s experiences working in Office Depot/the tools that

she picked up over time that she can’t quote ‘live without’. The article mixes her countless

experiences as well as her retrospective insight to create something for seasoned teachers to draw

from. Overall, I recommend this article because it’s a detailed, article deeply diving into her

techniques and the tools that she picked up overtime in education. This article also includes

stories, possible tools, and focuses on certain aspects of the classroom that she learned certain

tricks from.

file:///C:/Users/keybl/Downloads/Joining%20the%20Debate.pdf

In this PDF by Tim Gillespe, he gives his personal input about whether or not writing

teachers should or should not teach in writing schools. At first, he explains the problem, talking

about the famous “Why High School Writing Teachers Should Not Write” and how it had suck

an impact on the community. From that point, he put his own two cents in from there and

explained his own reasoning. From his point of view, I learned his argument about how teachers,

whenever they write, show their validity to their students. And for other educators out there, it

perfectly clarifies his words for them or even students to understand.

Robbins, Sarah. “Writing to Build Community In A Time of Stress.” Writing to Build Community in a

Time of Stress, 2002,

www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/1296/Writing_to_Build_Community.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d.
 “Writing to Build Community in a Time of Stress” was an article that was written after

the devastation of September 9th, 2011. Essentially a group called Keeping and Creating

American Communities (KCAC) led projects in different schools that taught educators, how to

actually teach, their students research their community life and social practices. One school,

Tapp Middle School in Powder Springs, got the review the true meaning of the pledge of

allegiance. As an article I completely recommend to all forms of educators because of its

content. Even though it only has two pages, the article itself gives ideas to educators on how to

‘write in a time stress’. Especially when teaching on a day like during September 11th.

Eastburn, Meredith. “National Writing Project.” We All Have "Lots of Yesterdays": How Creative Nonfiction

Enlivens the Secondary Writing Classroom - National Writing Project, National Writing Project , 2001,

Summer, www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/195.

We All Have “Lots of Yesterdays”: How Creative Nonfiction Enlivens the Secondary

Writing Classroom is a different type of article. Combining his previous experiences in the

classroom as a student, with his experiences as a teacher Dave Winter shows the innate benefits

and the possibilities that comes with having a Nonfiction Workshop. This article is especially

wonderful, for beginner’s and seasoned teachers alike, and it’s perfect for trying to do something

different in the Creative Unit when your class needs experimentation. I completely recommend

this article as a respectable reference source.

Fleischer , Cathy. “Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone: Helping Students Navigate Unfamiliar

Genres - National Writing Project.” National Writing Project, National Writing Project, 13 Jan. 2011,

www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3451
 This article, ‘Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone” Helping Students Navigate

Unfamiliar Genres, is essentially a guide. Step by step, Cathy Fleischer and Sarah Andrew-

Vaughan step by step give a teacher’s a guide on how to help different students, in different

genres, write out of their comfort zones. There’s strategies, guides, activities, and throughout

they have written personal notes and examples on how the activities should go. As a source I

completely recommend this to any educator. It’s insightful and full of so much useful

information any teacher would be crazy for skipping this out.

Hochman, Judith C., and Natalie Wexler. One Step at a Time. Dean & Son, 11, Ludgate Hill, 1857,

files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1145709.pdf.

“One Sentence at a Time the Need for Explicit In Teaching Students to Writing Well”

does exactly what the title implies. It’s an article that explains exactly why she wrote this article

‘to help educate teachers on how to teach writing’ and explains the Writing Revolution. There’s

a small history lesson at the beginning, then it takes its time to give all the necessary tips

designed to help teachers teach writing. As a source I highly recommend to younger educators.

Especially for someone whose switching different subjects.

file:///C:/Users/keybl/Downloads/Catching%20Ourselves%20in%20the%20Act%20Writing%20

about%20Teaching%20Writing.pdf

“Catching Our Selves In the Act: Writing About Teaching Writing” is an extensively

long collage of different articles that specifically focuses on the teacher’s input when it comes to

teaching writing. All articles include; Introduction, Talking Through an Essay: Organizing What
Your Students Want to Say, Bumps and Potholes: An Essay on Teaching Writing, Writing an

Essay: A Frustrating Experience for Bilingual Students, Finding Ways “Not to Teach”, Women’s

History Month: Studying Women Throughout Biography, Bridging the “Information Group”:

The Information Gap, Organizing Inspiration, Our Piece of Town, and What the Writer Brings to

the Teaching of Writing: Teaching English to Adult ESOL Learners in Boston's Chinatown.

Each article is written with a specialty towards what the writer is proficient for, and it gives so

much knowledge about trying to teach through certain genres/situations. I completely

recommend this kind of article to any English teacher. It’s dense, full of content, and full of ways

to help future students teach in classrooms.

Mor, Pamela. “Linda Christensen: Social Justice, Teaching Writing, and Teaching Teachers -

National Writing Project.” National Writing Project, National Writing Project, 17 Feb. 2010,

www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3076.

This online article, “Linda Christensen: Social Justice, Teaching Writing, and Teaching

Teachers” was an article that’s designed to showcase Lind Christensen, ‘site director, educator,

and author’. Through the sections Writing from a Personal Stance, Honoring Home Languages,

Teaching Teachers, and Disseminating Knowledge; we as readers learn who Christensen is as a

person, her educational views, her skills as a professional writer, and her ideals and morals that

come with being someone uses Social Justice in their classroom. As a future educator, I

recommend this source, but as a starting point. At the bottom, the author of the article Pamela

Morgan introduces Christensen’s published book Teaching for Joy and Justice. And I believe

that after reading this kind of article, someone must then take the next step, the initiative, and

buy the book to read, learn, and experiment within their classroom.