Projekt OBOGATENO UČENJE TUJIH JEZIKOV 2013-15
ENRICHED FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING 2013-15 Project
Date of submission:
15.6.2015
Foreign teacher
Language:
School/Schools
Home School/s
Srednja trgovska šola
Ljubljana
Demará Ivanič
English
Partner School/s
Gimnazija Poljane v
Ljubljani
Satellite School/s
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT
- Brainstorm the elements of the following questions:
1. What do you think constitutes good teaching?
2. What knowledge, skills and learning tasks are central to your discipline (FL teaching)?
3. What teaching practices would help students to achieve these learning goals?
- Review and update or write your TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT.
Your view of learning
How do you conceptualize
learning? What do we mean
by learning and how does it
occur? How do you
facilitate this process in the
classroom? How have your
experiences influenced your
view of learning?
Merriam-Webster defines learning as “the activity or process of gaining
knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, being taught or experiencing
something: the activity of someone who learns; knowledge or skill gained
from learning.” 1 This definition provides an accurate conceptualization
of learning and how it occurs and is one with which I undoubtedly agree.
Children learn all the time, everywhere and in every situation.2 They
learn by observing, thinking , listening, imitating, experimenting,
envisioning. They share various learning styles while they hunger and
thirst for knowledge. In fact, I hold to heart and tend to try and base my
teaching style upon the following from Dr. Stephanie Burns:
1. Skills are built in layers over time (Burns, 16).
2. Through reflection, we can see the path we followed in learning
to do what we do well (Burns, 16).
3. Leaning is always an active process. You have to do something to
make a change – [change] doesn’t just happen (Burns, 16).
4. To succeed in any activity is merely a matter of adding choices.
Everything you feel you cannot do is simply the absence of a new choice
(Burns, 17). 3
Currently I teach English as a second (or third or fourth) foreign language
to a variety of students ages 15-19 at several Slovenian vocational high
schools. The main or primary emphasis of these students' studies is their
future vocation - whether it be retailer, sales assistant, visual
merchandiser or tourist guide – which is taught in the official Slovenian
language. Even though less emphasis is given to their acquisition of the
English language, students are made aware of related words and phrases
appropriate to their area of expertise as well as appropriate verbal and
nonverbal codes of behavior. For example, one open curriculum entitled
Operacijo delno financira Evropska unija iz Evropskega socialnega sklada ter Ministrstvo za izobraževanje, znanost in šport. Operacija se izvaja v okviru Operativnega programa razvoja človeških virov v obdobju 2007-2013,
razvojne prioritete: Razvoj človeških virov in vseživljenjsko učenje; prednostne usmeritve: Izboljšanje kakovosti in učinkovitosti sistemov izobraževanja in usposabljanja.
Prodaja v tujem jeziku, or Selling in the Foreign Language), provides
students with a variety of contexts in which the foreign language is
viewed as an applicable added value to a specialized area of study. As a
native speaker teacher of English within the Slovenian educational system
and former foreign language teacher of Spanish in the U.S., my main role
is to assist and guide my students in furthering their English skills via
team teaching and differentiated learning, respectively.
Learning by doing should be increasingly included in foreign language
learning within the Slovenian educational system. This is a process which
takes time. Consistency, motivation and practice are part of that
process. As a native speaker of English, I try to provide that consistency
and motivation via dialogue. I enjoy using current lesson materials
within the classroom, and I try to be innovative when creating original
materials for different lessons while building upon what students’ have
already learned. For example, I often create lessons that compare and
contrast the Slovenian and American cultures. I have believed and still
maintain that every child can learn – no matter what ability, age, gender,
nationality, or race they are or what learning ability they possess or do not
possess. My varied experiences both within and outside the classroom
have proven and continue to prove this statement to be true.
Your view of teaching
What is teaching? What is
the teacher's role in the
classroom? How does
teaching facilitate the
learning process? How do
you challenge students
intellectually while
supporting those with
different learning styles and
abilities? How have your
experiences influenced your
view of teaching?
In order to state the teacher’s role in the classroom, a teacher must also
consider the student’s role in the classroom. Ideally, students should
arrive to class early, prepared and ready to learn. In the same way, the
teacher should arrive to class early, prepared and ready to teach and
energetically spur her/his students on. In the same way that students
should be attentive, knowledgeable, open-minded, responsive and willing,
the teacher should be just as willing to share his/her knowledge and
experiences, open to learning and able to proactively accept criticism.
Both teacher and student – when present in the moment and flexible to
external influences - can use them to either inhibit, retard, or excel
learning at any given moment. Students are inviduals, and each
individual has his or her own needs. In the same manner, teachers each
uniquely possess styles of teaching reflective of themselves and their past
learning experiences. I try to facilitate the learning process by regularly
including each student into a lesson by asking for either oral or written
input. Student partcipation is key in creating an environment where both
teacher and student opinions are valued.
Ultimately, the teacher is a coach, a guide, a leader, a learner and a
collaborator and thus a model of both teaching and learning. She or
he is flexible, able to adapt to various educational settings and situations
and willing to take risks. 4 My experiences within the Slovenian
educational system have served to increase my appreciation for my varied
experiences within the U.S. private and public educational system, where
and when both students and teachers consistently sought after knowledge
(if even reluctantly) and students and teachers respected each other, thus
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making educational experiences and academic opportunities limitless.
Consistency, respect, collaboration and open communication were
key; and it was within this type of environment that the academic system
was most successful, making unattainable goals attainable, and the ability
to achieve the impossible a reality.
Your teaching goals for
students
What do you expect your
students to learn? What
goals do you set for your
classes and why? How do
you work to help your
students achieve your goals?
What do you value in terms
of student learning (e.g.,
writing, problem solving,
critical thinking, content
knowlege)?
In retrospect, my most successful lessons are those lessons where I
allowed for student thinking time. Additionally, these learning modules
have proven to be even more meaningful and unified when thinking time
and tracking student development/thinking processes are built into the
lesson plans. In spite of limited class time, varying class schedules and
other interruptions at the school level, I try to remain flexible, objective
and positive. During my earlier years when teaching Spanish in the
U.S.A., I often referred to an original picture file kept on hand in order to
tap into the visual learning side of a student. I use the see-think-wonder
technique and try to engage students in verbalizing their thinking: What
does it make you wonder and What makes you say that? in order to extend
not only students' prior and present knowledge as well as my own.
Since I am new at teaching English to speakers of other languages, I often
engage my students with the KWL (or KWLH) (What I know, What I
want to know, What I learned, How can I find out more) graphic
organizer or the 4W's and H (Why? What? When? Where? How?) when
presenting a new topic. In addition, team-taught lessons pushed my coteachers and I to take student thinking a step further. I always had
believed that if one could teach someone else, then he or she truly
demonstrated mastery of content. I used to think that it was enough to
ask What are the facts? or What are the good things? or What are the
problems?. Now I think more about how: How do you want to think
about this? How do you want to learn this? How does this way of learning
differ from the previous way in which you were learning? How do you
want to learn?
My beginning students often doubt their own abilities in English, talk
themselves down, and are greatly influenced by their peers because they
are "outsiders" (just as I am) in a new country, new school system, and
new way of life. While taking into account their differences, I try to
use these differences and transform them into learning opportunities for
my students and teaching opportunities for own professional and personal
development. I used to think that I did not need to know much about the
student to teach the student. As I reflected on my own positive learning
experiences, I realized that my teachers did, in fact, know quite a bit about
me, especially since I school was like my second home. So would it not
follow that, I too, in order to be a more successful teacher, need to be
well-aware of the prior knowledge my student brings into the
classroom? I now challenge myself to think: How can I better help the
student to extract that prior knowledge and use it to build new
knowledge? How am I checking for misconceptions and when is the best
time to do so? Am I using appropriate methods to communicate my
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teaching content? In short, am I offering my students the absolute best
deal?
Putting your teaching
philosophy to practice
The most important
component of your
education philosophy
statement is your
elaboration of the different
activities that you will
implement to enable your
students to achieve their
goals. You have to illustrate
how your perceptions of
teaching and learning will
be translated into real time
class assignments.
Since I believe that the purpose of education is to empower the learner
and believe that students learn best by consciously taking the time it
takes to know an object, subject, task, principle, etc., I am open to using
different tools for learning and teaching, such as the KWL chart
mentioned above or a specific type of interactive team teaching. I try to
keep my students up-to-date on various methods or tools available for
learning. I enjoy building on students’ previous knowledge, encouraging
them to find new knowledge and make new connections and challenging
them to apply this information to new situations. When I am teaching
English, my main goal for my students is for them to master learning
and to master the concepts which are being taught. Thus I believe that the
most effective methods for teaching are attention, repetition, relevance,
and meaning. I know this because it has worked for me (and still does
work for me) for my own language learning.
Your growth as a
teacher
How I grow as a teacher is perhaps best viewed via the classroom routines
that I wish to improve.
In order to continue growing
professionally, teachers
need to set goals for
themselves and also outline
their ways to achieve these
goals. What personal goals
have you have set for
yourself as a teacher?
There are many recurring routines in my classroom which often consists
of a handful of students each semester to full classes. At the same time
that I would like to teach my students English, I would also like teach
them lifelong skills for learning in any language. In doing so, I wish to
continue improving my class management skills by addressing behaviors
(which typically show up at the beginning of the school year) which have
proven inconsistent with my expectations: interrupting class when
arriving late; addressing other students and interrupting the teacher;
peering out the window; coming unprepared or without books, pen, and
paper; or using a mobile phone in the classroom when it has been
prohibited. I believe such behaviors are detrimental to building up
students’ work ethic with which the teachers ultimately want to
empower their future shop assistants: an excellent sales assistant arrives
to work early, prepared to use his/her acquired knowledge and skills while
exhibiting a positive attitude, read to go above and beyond to consistently
and accurately perform the tasks at hand. With that said, my most
difficult challenge will be inserting creativity into my lesson plans so that
I am better able to maintain student interest throughout the school year
while simultaneously allowing for sufficient thinking time at each lesson.
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Cited Sources
1
Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learning>.
2
"What Do We Learn in School That Couldn't Be Learned Eslewhere?" FifthEstate.org. N.p., Dec.
2013. Web. 16 May 2014. <http://www.fifthestate.org/archive/388-winter-2013/what-do-we-learn-inschool-that-couldnt- be-learned-elsewhere/>.
3
Burns, Dr. Stephanie (2000). Great Lies We Live By. NWS: Navybridge Pty Limited.
4
"21st Century Teacher." Educational-origami -. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.
<https://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+Century+Teacher>.
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