Revised Philosophy and Action Plan

Revised Philosophy of Education:

I feel that as a Social Studies teacher, it is my responsibility to help my students have an open mind and respect the world’s diversity. I want to make my class as interesting and practical as possible, while still conveying a variety of information. I want my enthusiasm for teaching/learning to rub off on my students and for their progress to inspire me to continue to grow as an educator. I believe in striving to get better and working to make a difference in my students’ lives. When I am teaching class, I want it to make sense to my students and be relevant if at all possible. I want my students to understand how the world operates and leave my classroom with the ability to make informed/reasoned decisions in life. More than anything else, I believe in the potential of my students, and I will do everything I can to help them to succeed.

Action Plan for the Future:
· Since I seem to struggle with creativity, I need to seek out new sources of support (peers, professors, teachers, textbooks, online resources, etc.) when lesson planning.
· I need to plan ahead and be prepared so I can come up with engaging activities.
· I need to learn from my mistakes (keep a record) and not dwell on the things that go wrong.
· I need to seek feedback from my students and get to know them on a personal level. Many students won’t care about the material until they see that I care about them.
· Building rapport with my students will be critical for my student-teaching experience.
· When I have my own classroom, I will set the tone on the first day to address any discipline issues. Disrupting class will not be tolerated.
· I plan to find a balance between the perfection I seek and the realities of the world I live in.
· I plan to interweave pearls of wisdom into my instruction to help my students leave my classroom with a sense of civic competence.
· I need to think outside the box to help students make personal connections to material from class.
· I need to have high expectations for all my students, even if nobody else does.
· I can’t get caught up in trying to save every student, but rather help those that will “save themselves.”

This I Believe

I Believe in Striving to Get Better

What do I believe? I think that’s a very good question. If I had to use a single word to define my educational beliefs, it would be “striving”. This word means a lot to me and has shaped not only how I approach the classroom, but life in general. To understand where this word comes from and why it matters to me requires a trip back in time to my high school orchestra class.

As our conductor, Dr. T always expected excellence and didn’t have time for those not taking orchestra seriously. He was an old school teacher who wasn’t afraid to raise his voice or even toss a chair across the room to make a point. Despite his short temper and low tolerance for goofing off, Dr. T. was also a brilliant musician and a teacher who usually got the best out of his students. At some point during my tenth grade year—probably after a lackluster practice—he developed a saying to help define our goals for his class. In his words, we were to be “striving for the perfection which is unachievable”. In other words, I could always get better as a violist. He didn’t want me—or anyone else in class—to become satisfied or complacent as a musician. Years later I spoke to him about this expectation with some surprising results. I came to realize that I approached most things in life with this same mindset. I could always be a better student, friend, boyfriend, electrician, teacher, you name it. Some would call me a perfectionist…guilty as charged. I don’t have a 4.0 after three and a half years of college by mistake. The key for me is translating this mindset to my cooperating classroom, which is shaping up to be a greater challenge than any day in orchestra.

As a student, I only have to worry about my performance in class. I am responsible for my grades and nobody else’s. However, a teacher is responsible for every student that sets foot in their classroom. Although I don’t have absolute control over whether my students pass or fail, I do have a great deal of influence. I don’t believe in lost causes yet, although many people seem to think I should. If I can always get better as a teacher, why can’t I reach any given student? Maybe I’m setting my sights too high. After all, I am really new at this whole teaching thing. Maybe cynicism will set in over time and I’ll be just another teacher who has lost faith in their students. It just doesn’t seem right to be satisfied with any number of failing students except zero. Even if I can’t save them all, it certainly won’t hurt to try. I guess that’s my philosophy of education. Although I’ll never reach perfection, I hope to always be striving to be the best teacher I can be. That’s what I believe.