Stanley Koslowski

October 22, 2018

Philosophical Portrait

Roster #14

EDU 202

Philosophical Portrait of Myself

During this class you really get a look at what the classroom is going to be like when you

are in it. From the videos shown in class, to the field observation, you get to get a glimpse into

the everyday life of a teacher. It really makes you reflect and think about what teacher you want

to be, and how you would want to run your classroom. From your personal learning style and

your preferred teaching style you can gain a mental image of what it’s going to be like. This

class has opened my eyes about the teaching profession and it makes me excited that I chose this

career path. From learning styles to teaching philosophies, these two things will help my create a

classroom culture and make my lessons tailored to what I do and in return will make it easier for

me to teach my class in my way. It will make it easier for me and make me more comfortable

inside my classroom because the main goal in my life right now is to be a teacher in my own

classroom and molding the youth of America.

My personal learning styles which is a majority kinesthetic and some visual learning. I

learn the best by being hands-on and doing something so as I teacher being hands-on is

something that is incredibly easy to do. Students will always need help and as a teacher being

hands-on is one of the best things you can do. In my class I plan to have my students be
interactive in my classroom and encourage them to learn by doing. I also am a visual learner. I

enjoy learning from things that are visually engaging and in my class I plan to make my lesson

plans exactly that. Showing my students charts and graphics that show relationships between

various subject matter is something I plan to do in my classroom. My two learning styles are

both very easy to integrate into my classroom and I believe they will help me be successful in my

classroom. It makes me more excited thinking about it because using what I do best inside the

classroom as a learner can really translate into being a teacher trying to teach knowledge to my

students that I care about. These learning styles will prove to be a huge help in my class because

I’ll be able to cater my lesson plans to these styles and make them visually appealing and make

the lesson hands-on which will tie into my teaching philosophies.

In Chapter 6 of the book it discusses the philosophies of education. After reading the

chapter, doing the philosophy quiz, and taking a deeper thought of all of it I came to the

conclusion that I have two philosophies. As a teacher I would be an essentialist and a

progressivist. I believe these both would be suit me because essentialism is a teacher-based

philosophy and progressivism is student-based. These both in unison can be a great combo in my

classroom because of the balance it could create. As an essentialist I want to focus on the

essential information in the traditional academic topics that way they can be educated to compete

in the world. As a progressivist I want to focus on learning by doing as I guide them through the

learning activities and make them become intelligent problem solvers which prepares them to

live comfortably in the world. These two styles can play off each other and really make a

classroom a great place to teach and to learn. Teaching them what they need to know but

allowing them to expand on that themselves is one of the best ways to learn for me, so I would
like to be able to do the same for my students. Using these philosophies is going to be my main

focus while I teach my students the material. Utilizing these philosophies can prove to be the

best friend of mine in a class and will allow me to make sure my students learn what they need to

learn but also allow them to expand their knowledge on their own and become better problem

solvers by making them critically think how they can apply that knowledge to real world

scenarios.

Five years from now I see myself teaching an 11th grade U.S. History class at a high

school here in Las Vegas. I would be entering my second or third year of teaching and still

developing my classroom but would be settling in as a teacher. I would also like to be working

on my master’s degree in something outside of history to expand my knowledge and also into

another subject of interest to further be able to teach another class and teach students about it. I

would like to also be teaching at 2 classes of Honors and being in the process of teaching an AP

class. Being able to have students of all different intelligence levels would be the best for a

teacher because you know how to teach everyone. Being in my own classroom is the main goal

for the next five years and everything after that is mini goals compared to the main one. Five

years is not that far away and thinking about where I’ll be in five years is exhilarating. Being a

teacher is something I’m looking forward to and being able to teach students and impact their

lives in a positive way inside my classroom is what I’m looking forward to most. Spreading

knowledge is going to my main focus inside my class and I hope to make it the main goal of my

students as well. Using my learning styles and teaching philosophy to mold the minds of the

future is the dream and I can’t wait to an achieve it.