Teaching Philosophy Additions
[My original teaching/educational philosophy draft from EDHD 5300 can be found here.]
Within the above document we can see the beginnings of my educational philosophy take place. This assignment largely had me extrapolate some aspects of my K-12 academic career for my own analysis with my current lens and perspective. As I move forward in my teacher prep program I have come to the understanding that my teaching philosophy absolutely has to be grounded in theory. Period. It is one thing for me to have these grandiose ideas of being a fun, engaging, and inclusive teacher, but if these ideas are not clearly grounded in theory then the points may as well be moot. It is the theory that is the foundation of our desires to be the optimal teacher(s). Keeping this in mind, I realize that my teaching philosophy must include this in order to articulate my opinions regarding classroom assessment, technology integration, lesson differentiation, and classroom ecology.
Of course, with assessment in mind we must not ignore the fact that state standardized testing exists and that we will need to teach our students certain technical aspects of the English language in order to prepare them to get by those exams. This concept was brought up at a recent teacher panel in our CI 5451 class: one of the participating teachers said that in his classrooms he decided it would be highly beneficial for him to focus on grammar and test taking strategies in addition to his normal literary curriculum. This way he would be able to cater to his students that take interest in and respond well to these more "practical" applications of an English classroom, while also allowing room to focus on the more fun literary analysis and critical reading. Once again, here I think about my previous thoughts on my educational philosophy, where it certainly seems idyllic to think that I will have the freedom to teach students critical literacy and other similar skills that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. However, I must also accommodate for a broad range of learners, so in this sense I will have to be able to articulate both aspects of this kind of class.
Moving forward, I have learned through our Technology in the Classrooms and CI 5451 classes that technology inclusion and differentiation go hand in hand. In a world that is continually moving forward, it is of the utmost importance that we as prospective future educators integrate various forms of technology into our daily lesson planning. As we learned from Ryan McCallum, it is not even supremely difficult to integrate this technology into lesson plans; it requires minimal effort to so much as set up a Padlet for a lesson introduction, a Nearpod presentation instead of a PowerPoint, or even just a Google survey for an exit ticket - and this is just the beginning. At its base level, the inclusion of this technology can be a different method of participation for all the students in the classroom, especially if the ratio is 1:1. This creates an atmosphere where each of the students can participate in the lesson in a variety of manners, as there are many different aspects of this technology that facilitate differentiated instructional activities. Inclusion is a must, as it pertains to both technology and differentiation.
Without differentiation there would be no change in the classroom. For too long we have watched, as Freire noted, a certain pedagogy of oppression be the norm in our schools. This conventional banking method of education that so many schools have enacted over the course of history certainly panders to the interests of the patriarchy, leaving behind a vast majority of students and creating what is known by many as the education gap. Knowing that these oppressive teaching measures are pervasive in many schools, I want to work as hard as I can to not only ensure that it does not happen in my classroom, but that this pedagogy is culturally relevant and inclusive within all classrooms in the school. In the right setting and district, this is certainly possible with the appropriate amount of vigilance.
Paying close attention to all of the above aspects would serve to create, in theory, a healthy classroom ecology. However, at its core, a healthy classroom ecology is going to be fostered by the teachers being personable and approachable to ALL students without being a pushover. I say this last part largely in part because I feel it can be easy to get lost in being "nice" to the students in order to keep them happy - I think at this point of our intersession experience, where on the last day of our unit the 7-8th grade group, which was normally our most well-behaved, seemed to go off the rails a little bit as they were only willing to do what they wanted to do. I wonder if this was because we were perhaps a little too willing to overhaul all of our plans in order to cater to the students' interests. It is also fair to keep in mind that intersession will always have the asterisk above it of being an optional week of fake class, though regardless many of the lessons learned during that week have already carried over into our practicum work. There is a delicate tightrope to be walked in regards to catering to student interests, though with the proper execution a healthy and willing classroom ecology aught to be created.
Within the above document we can see the beginnings of my educational philosophy take place. This assignment largely had me extrapolate some aspects of my K-12 academic career for my own analysis with my current lens and perspective. As I move forward in my teacher prep program I have come to the understanding that my teaching philosophy absolutely has to be grounded in theory. Period. It is one thing for me to have these grandiose ideas of being a fun, engaging, and inclusive teacher, but if these ideas are not clearly grounded in theory then the points may as well be moot. It is the theory that is the foundation of our desires to be the optimal teacher(s). Keeping this in mind, I realize that my teaching philosophy must include this in order to articulate my opinions regarding classroom assessment, technology integration, lesson differentiation, and classroom ecology.
Of course, with assessment in mind we must not ignore the fact that state standardized testing exists and that we will need to teach our students certain technical aspects of the English language in order to prepare them to get by those exams. This concept was brought up at a recent teacher panel in our CI 5451 class: one of the participating teachers said that in his classrooms he decided it would be highly beneficial for him to focus on grammar and test taking strategies in addition to his normal literary curriculum. This way he would be able to cater to his students that take interest in and respond well to these more "practical" applications of an English classroom, while also allowing room to focus on the more fun literary analysis and critical reading. Once again, here I think about my previous thoughts on my educational philosophy, where it certainly seems idyllic to think that I will have the freedom to teach students critical literacy and other similar skills that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. However, I must also accommodate for a broad range of learners, so in this sense I will have to be able to articulate both aspects of this kind of class.
Moving forward, I have learned through our Technology in the Classrooms and CI 5451 classes that technology inclusion and differentiation go hand in hand. In a world that is continually moving forward, it is of the utmost importance that we as prospective future educators integrate various forms of technology into our daily lesson planning. As we learned from Ryan McCallum, it is not even supremely difficult to integrate this technology into lesson plans; it requires minimal effort to so much as set up a Padlet for a lesson introduction, a Nearpod presentation instead of a PowerPoint, or even just a Google survey for an exit ticket - and this is just the beginning. At its base level, the inclusion of this technology can be a different method of participation for all the students in the classroom, especially if the ratio is 1:1. This creates an atmosphere where each of the students can participate in the lesson in a variety of manners, as there are many different aspects of this technology that facilitate differentiated instructional activities. Inclusion is a must, as it pertains to both technology and differentiation.
Without differentiation there would be no change in the classroom. For too long we have watched, as Freire noted, a certain pedagogy of oppression be the norm in our schools. This conventional banking method of education that so many schools have enacted over the course of history certainly panders to the interests of the patriarchy, leaving behind a vast majority of students and creating what is known by many as the education gap. Knowing that these oppressive teaching measures are pervasive in many schools, I want to work as hard as I can to not only ensure that it does not happen in my classroom, but that this pedagogy is culturally relevant and inclusive within all classrooms in the school. In the right setting and district, this is certainly possible with the appropriate amount of vigilance.
Paying close attention to all of the above aspects would serve to create, in theory, a healthy classroom ecology. However, at its core, a healthy classroom ecology is going to be fostered by the teachers being personable and approachable to ALL students without being a pushover. I say this last part largely in part because I feel it can be easy to get lost in being "nice" to the students in order to keep them happy - I think at this point of our intersession experience, where on the last day of our unit the 7-8th grade group, which was normally our most well-behaved, seemed to go off the rails a little bit as they were only willing to do what they wanted to do. I wonder if this was because we were perhaps a little too willing to overhaul all of our plans in order to cater to the students' interests. It is also fair to keep in mind that intersession will always have the asterisk above it of being an optional week of fake class, though regardless many of the lessons learned during that week have already carried over into our practicum work. There is a delicate tightrope to be walked in regards to catering to student interests, though with the proper execution a healthy and willing classroom ecology aught to be created.
Comments
Post a Comment