My Classroom Philosophy
Every child should be provided the opportunity to succeed.
My goal as a teacher is to positively affect every student that comes through my
classroom. I believe that all students have the right to succeed and that teachers have the
most powerful position for student success. I believe that every student is equal and
brings their personal perspectives, prior knowledge, and experiences to the classroom that
should be supported and encouraged within the classroom. By allowing students to be
individuals it gives them the confidence to be themselves within the classroom. When a
student has confidence they are able to apply themselves to succeeding and becoming a
knowledgeable young adult. I believe it is the teacher’s responsibility to push each
student to succeed. A teacher must get to know each of their students in order for them to
truly connect, influence, and teach each individual child. A teacher who knows their
students allows them to be themselves and teaches to their abilities and needs. The
teacher understands how they learn and understand best. It is important for the teacher to
create relevant, interactive, and meaningful connections to their student’s lives. If the
students are able to connect and relate to the information they are more likely to succeed
and understand the meaning of its relevance to them.
I hope to foster self confidence. Self confidence is a must for every student to
succeed. I will implement multicultural activities that are interactive among the students.
This will allow the students to understand themselves as unique individuals as well as
their peers as unique individuals. I will promote success through confidence. I was use
positive words, actions, and respect at all times to show my students that I care and that I
believe in them. I will make sure every student knows I believe in them and expect the
best from all of them equally. I will do this by expecting the best from my students at all
times. If an assignment is turned in sloppy, I will explain that I know they can do better
work and that I would like to see their best work. It is important to remember however
that every student’s best work is different. As a teacher they must assess the students
individually and know that success is different for each student.
Success is something that every student deserves and the teacher is the person
who influences success within the classroom. I believe that in order for a teacher to truly
have successful students they must enter the experience with a genuine care for each
student to succeed. Teachers must have the disposition that all students can succeed in
order to achieve success within their classroom. A teacher with the disposition for
multicultural education and success of all students will implement the strategies needed
to have a successful classroom. Strategies such as a multicultural framework, critical
literacy strategies to further student’s exploration on subjects, perspectives, and to look
deeper into text, peer mentoring to create a supportive classroom environment among the
students.
All children deserve to be safe.
My goal as a teacher is to create a safe, interactive, and positive environment for
learning. I want to teach so my students can learn and succeed. A safe and positive
environment is essential. When a student feels safe they are able to bring their prior
knowledge and experiences to the classroom, which benefits the entire class. When a
student is safe they participate and interact as a part of the classroom. Every student
deserves to feel that they are an important part of the classroom. I want the students to
learn that they are able to be themselves and that they are important and essential part of
the classroom. I hope to foster in each student that they are safe at school and that all
their peers and I support and encourage them as individuals.
I will implement a safe environment by allowing the students to create rules
collaboratively in the beginning of the year. This will allow the students to take
ownership and acceptance of their classroom environment. All the students will know
what is accepted and support each other because they helped create the environment. I
will display the students work around the classroom and allow them to create bulletin
boards that represent them as a class. By having the students work displayed around the
room the students will be able to feel comfortable and know that it is their classroom
which they are an equal part of. Another way I will create a safe, warm, and welcoming
environment is by creating a Morning Meeting area and having Morning Meeting
everyday. By beginning the day with Morning Meeting the students are able to become a
unified group who supports each other and understands every student is unique and
brings a special part to the classroom.
I will know if I have obtained my goal of creating a safe classroom environment if
my students are interactive and collaboratively one as a class. If my students support
each other, work together, and learn to benefit from each others differences and
similarities I have created a safe environment. When a student is safe within their
environment they are willing to be themselves and open up as individuals. They care for
themselves, which is shown through care to succeed, participate, and interact with their
peers in an environment they have helped create and maintain.
It is extremely important to create a safe environment for your students because
they will not succeed without comfort. Students might come from an environment that is
difficult, unsafe, negative, and distracting for a child’s growth. It is the teacher’s
responsibility to create an environment that allows them to grow and learn with no
interference by a negative environment. A safe environment fosters student success.
When a student helps create their environment it gives them ownership, encouragement,
and safety to grow and succeed as a student.
All children deserve to be part of a student-centered classroom.
I believe that a student centered classroom is more beneficial to the students than
a teacher-centered classroom. A student-centered classroom focuses on the child’s
thinking versus standard procedures. Every student learns differently and at different
rates, it is the teacher’s job to teach to her students as individuals recognizing their
abilities and needs. A student-centered classroom has the teacher as the guide with the
students as the decision maker. When students have responsibility for decisions they take
ownership over their own learning. A student-centered classroom relates information to
the student lives.
When information is interesting and important to the students they are more likely
to understand the concept rather than simply memorizing the facts. A student-centered
classroom allows collaboration among the students which increases classroom unity.
Students learn to work together and are able to learn from each other. Every student will
bring a new idea, concept, and understanding to a subject. If the students work in groups
they are able to collaborate ideas and build their knowledge from interactions with their
peers. Every student will solve a problem differently. When students collaborate on
solutions each concept will build the students understanding and knowledge. A student-
centered classroom promotes interactions between students and increases understanding
of concepts by allowing the students to solve and experiment with solutions.
A student-centered classroom creates a positive, safe, and interactive environment
that is essential for a successful classroom. A student-centered environment allows the
students to take ownership of their classroom and to take responsibility over their
learning. Students have the final decision of how they would like to go about
understanding a concept. When a student has freedom to learn, experiment, and interpret
information themselves and how it best benefits them they are more likely to succeed and
care about their success.