Roster #19

Jennyfer Lopez

Education 201

Philosophical Portrait

Education is something every human in this world comes across with. It can be from

being in a classroom to a simple lesson learned from life. As it is said, we learn something new

every day, or at least use prior knowledge of something every day of our lives. These days

education is “dumb”, “unnecessary”, or “not important as a job.” I think education should be

taken very seriously, after all everyone needs it. Through my experiences in classrooms, I have

developed my own personal teaching philosophy that I want to implement in my future

classroom. First let me start by saying a little bit more about who I am.

If I were to draw a bubble map, the words quiet, smart, somewhat funny, outstanding,

family, Supernatural, loving, teaching, kind, and outstanding would surround my name. I’m

currently the second female in my family to go to college. My older sister took the “first one

ever” title. Sometimes I feel like her major in nursing seems like gold to my parents. Even

though my parents always tell me they are glad with any career that I choose, I’m sure they

cherish my sister’s choice more. I remember one day our family was sitting together eating

dinner and for the past half hour my sister had been talking about her experiences at Sunrise

Hospital. My boyfriend suddenly interrupts her, looks at me, and shouts “So you’re going to be a

teacher!” I think a major in education is just as important as any other career. As long as I feel

proud of myself and I’m enjoying what I’m doing, I feel like I don’t have to prove anything to

anyone. Only we know ourselves and what we’re going through.

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In five years I see myself in a colorful classroom surrounded by little kids, happiness,

health, and love. I wouldn’t want to be remembered by them as “mean” and “strict.” Teaching

the young is actually very important. In elementary school is where they’re beginning the rest of

their twelve years of education. At an early age the line between “ this is good” and “this is bad”

is blurry to them. I want to be making a difference in their lives. I want to able to motivate them

to always try their best. As they get older, it gets so much easier for them to lose interest in

school. That leads to drop outs. If they are motivated as little kids to keep working hard, they

know what is expected of them as they get older and move through grades. Elementary teachers

have a big role in their early lives. I see myself pushing them to work hard, believe in

themselves, have fun, making them laugh, making school enjoyable, helping them with

problems, and helping them be someone intelligent in this cruel world. This leads into my

teaching preferences.

If I were to pick one of the portraits for teaching styles I would pick a progressive portrait

of teaching. Not every teacher is going to agree on a way to teach. In some cases, the teacher is

the boss so everything must be done with perfection or the kids are in trouble. In some cases it’s

the complete opposite. First, I believe in making teaching fun in a cooperating way instead of

plainly presenting the information. I remember being in a class and fighting to stay awake as I

copied the notes directly to my paper while my teacher was admiring his shoes. Then in my next

class my teacher was asking us to share anything we did over the weekend and played her Ed

Sheeran station on Pandora as we wrote on our journals. See the difference? I want to keep my

kids engaged and interested in even the most boring topic. I don’t think anyone would want to

pay attention to a monotone robot.

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Second I think that respect is something very important for a successful classroom. Not

just from kids to kids but also kids to teacher and teacher to kids. At a young age is when some

develop manners. At home it’s the parents job to be respected or not. When they come to school

I want them to actually display what respect means not just say it. If the teacher doesn’t respect

the kids, it’s just a hypocrite move from them. The kids look up to grown-ups ,whether it’s a

superhero or a parent, so they should set an example.

Another thing that’s important to me is classroom management. When I walked into my

first field observation class, I expected loudness and fooling around. I was completely wrong. I

walked in and all the little first graders were sitting down, talking quietly, eating their breakfast,

and staring at me. The teacher had done an excellent job in establishing classroom management

throughout her year. I also believe that yelling at them is not the way to go. I understand there

has to be limit to the fun if they’re not behaving. After all they come to school to learn and it is

my job to teach. They come to learn not play around.

Lastly, I think it’s important to understand not everyone learns the same way. Some kids

enjoy working alone than with a group, others by doing something hands on, others by listening,

and others simply by paying close attention. It’s important as a teacher to observe which way

works best for the class. There is no point in teaching a lesson if the kids aren’t even

understanding what is being presented. That’s when the teacher would have to figure out a way

to make the material understandable to each of her kids.

In conclusion, everything that was happened to me these last past years in school actually

helped me make a difference in my teaching career. I used to dislike going to school so much. I

disliked my teachers and my classes so much. I never thought I would end up doing something I

used to dislike so much. Now I can’t wait to teach the little children and see them laugh, learn,
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and grow. I know I’m always going to try my best to not be the teacher that sucks and never

wants to be seen again. I enjoy the innocence and brightness in little kids. It motivates myself to

not let them down because I never know what’s going on when they leave home from school.