Running head: MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
My Teaching Philosophy
Susannah M. Maxwell
Georgia Gwinnett College
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As Randy Pausch said in The Last Lecture
, “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” I believe that we never know our true potential until we fail. If we always succeed, we probably aren’t trying the hard stuff. My philosophy of teaching has two main objectives – to ensure a solid foundation to lifelong learning and to address the brick walls and teach children how to accept failure and move beyond it. Meeting each student’s needs to achieve these goals is the key to my teaching philosophy.
My foremost belief about education is that every child can learn. There is a way for every child to learn; as a teacher, I will find a way to teach that meets every child’s needs and excites them about learning. Realizing that each student learns in their own way and at their own pace, I will work to meet that challenge by presenting materials in a variety of ways so that every student has the opportunity to learn. Many times in my own school experience, low teacher expectations limited my exposure to material the teacher thought I couldn’t handle.
Michelangelo once said, “The danger is not that we set our aim too high and miss it, but rather that we set our aim too low and reach it.” I want to be a teacher that opens doors and encourages students to learn beyond my expectations. While I believe that I have a responsibility to convey information to my students, there are many ways to accomplish this beyond lecturing. I will provide a variety of activities to stimulate learning and exploration and to encourage lifelong active learning. I truly believe that teachers need to listen more and talk less and take a more constructivist approach. The teacher as facilitator is the model I will follow.
Just as there are many ways a student learns, there are also many paths to achievement. I believe that achievement can come from talent or effort. Some students are just naturally gifted and are good students without much effort. Learning is easy for them and teaching them is easy.

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Others aren’t born with as much talent, but they work really hard. That effort can make up for the lack of talent, and as a teacher, I will respect the effort as much or more than the talent. As a teacher, I will be committed to helping achieve the goals of my students, no matter what talent they possess and no matter what effort on my part is needed.
As a teacher, discipline is a daily challenge. I believe that the most important thing about discipline is to be consistent and communicate expectations clearly for classroom behavior starting on day one. Expectations will be frequently reinforced in my classroom. I believe that rewards work better than punishment, so I will look for excellent behavior and reward it. As a teacher, I will remember that a child wants to be important and get attention and this is the main reason why students misbehave.
There are two reasons why I want to be a teacher. My first reason is that I enjoy working with children, especially elementary school age children. During my senior year of high school,
I took a class to explore teaching as a profession. Twice a week, I went to the local elementary school and worked with students in a first grade classroom during their reading lesson. While the teacher led reading groups, I worked one on one with students using reading software on the computer. Also I have worked at a day care in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina and volunteer with 4 th grade students at a youth program at my church. All of these experiences taught me that teaching was the career for me. I really enjoy helping children learn in all environments.
The second reason I want to teach derives from my experience as a student. Many times in the public schools, teachers underestimated my abilities and limited my learning opportunities.
I want to be a teacher who helps my students reach their potential. I also struggled with many concepts, particularly in reading and math, but thanks to some very dedicated teachers, was able to overcome that struggle. This gives me empathy toward students who struggle.

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The obvious role of schools in society is to include basic skills in their curriculum, like reading, writing, and math. Students need these life skills for further education and employment.
If schools do not fill that role, it will fall to parents. If parents lack these skills, we perpetuate a society based on illiteracy. One of my main goals will be to ensure that students get this important foundation in learning.
In my opinion, teaching values like kindness, patriotism, honesty, and obedience is a role that schools should play in society. This is an important part of school curriculum because respect for these values will create good citizens. Following rules in school carries over to adults who obey the law. I will be the example for my students by exhibiting these values and rewarding students who embrace these values. I will encourage these values by creating activities where they can practice their values.
In the same manner, a student does not develop into an interesting and complex adult just by knowing how to read and how to add and subtract. While these are surely foundational to success and the basis of a sound curriculum, a rounded individual needs exposure to a broader variety of experiences. I believe that schools should teach more than just the 3 R’s. When budgets are tight, the first thing to cut is the arts. Yet, this is one of the areas where schools can enhance the school experience. I believe that even when specific arts classes aren’t available at a school, the classroom teacher can add enrichment activities to their day to expose students to art, music and literature. As a teacher, I will include these types of activities in my curriculum to enhance learning.
Children don’t leave home and its problems behind when they come to school, they bring their brick walls with them. While problems that exist outside of the school do not on the surface appear to be something the school should be concerned with, they result in lost learning

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Understanding the home life of a child and its challenges will help me to better address educational issues at school, so I believe this is a role that schools should play in a child’s life. I want to be a teacher who cares about the whole child. That means if I can help with issues outside of school, I will be happy to.
Diversity is one of the brick walls in the classroom that presents a dilemma for the classroom teacher, but it must be addressed. I believe that my job as a teacher is to help students respect each others’ cultures and backgrounds. My way to achieve that is to educate them on the cultural difference. If we celebrate the difference instead of ignoring it and hoping it will go away, we attack the problem head on. Most of the time, differences are a problem because students don’t understand the other environment and react with fear and ridicule instead of curiosity. I believe my job is to encourage the curiosity and limit the fear and ridicule with information.
In conclusion, education is a desire to equip a student for life. Life lived well is a continual learning process with its share of obstacles. Education provides the skills to support continuous learning while teaching students how to deal with failure gracefully. As a teacher, I will strive to look at each individual student, believe they can learn, assess the way they learn best, and focus my efforts on using that learning style to build the foundation for a well rounded, resilient adult.