My+Teaching+Philosophy

**__Philosophy of Teaching Paper__**
My philosophy of teaching emerged from a distinctive blend of culturally-rich educational experiences growing up in a medley of east and west upbringing both in the Philippines and America. As I reflect on my beliefs regarding teaching and learning, I find that my goal as a teacher is threefold: · Promote a constructive learning environment; · Model to students the respect of all things and people; · Foster the love of education to aid acquisition of life-long learning skills.

I believe children learn best when teachers alternately practice direct and indirect instruction to create interesting combinations of educational quality for our students. First, I will promote a constructive learning environment where my lessons are designed to encourage learners to use their own experiences to actively construct meaning that makes sense to them. This includes tailoring strategies to student responses and encouraging them to predict, analyze, and interpret, information. Constructivists also practice open-ended questions and create an interactive environment. Teachers welcome inquiries and encourage students to take ownership of their learning.

In using direct instruction or ‘active teaching’ (Rosenshine 1986, 1971; Good 1979), I will use graphic organizers to teach facts, rules and action sequences. My lesson presentation will be fast paced with highly-organized set of interchanges and will focus on a limited set of predetermined factual concepts. Other strategies I esteem in this category include, daily review, guided student practice using prompts, modeling, giving feedback, and independent practice. This type of instruction will help my students achieve content mastery.

With regards indirect instruction, my classroom activities will be less teacher-centered. I will use probing for deeper understanding and use student ideas to encourage retention by them relating to their own sphere of interests and concerns. I will give examples and non-examples, facilitate small-group discussions, and teach student self-evaluation. A particular strategy I especially like is think, pair, share; where students learn from one another and try to get out their ideas in a non-threatening context before presenting their ideas to the class. This strategy increases time-on-task and greater quality of students’ contributions to class discussions. My second goal to model respect of all things and people come from growing up in the Philippines where respect of parents, teachers, principals, government officials etc. is prominent in situations not just within the school but every place in society. We put elders in high regard and honor them because of their experience and expertise in life. We address them properly, we honor their accomplishments and we acknowledge that they have prepared the way for us. We also respect our nature and uphold cleanliness. We value things given to us whether tangible or not. I believe our students today need special emphasis on respect. They need to be explicitly taught how to be courteous and how to act properly in any type of situation. The best way to teach respect is to show respect. One of my lifelong guiding principle is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This has helped me how to act in different instances. Respect is an attitude. Being respectful helps a child succeed in life. If children do not have respect for peers, authority, or themselves, it’s almost impossible for them to succeed. Having a constructive environment and fostering respect will lead students in their love of knowledge, thus making them successful life-long learners.

As a special educator, I will work relentlessly, alongside my IEP team to provide the best educational, social, and vocational environment to students with disabilities.