ETEC 524

My Teaching Philosophy – the 1^st draft

By Kristine Mitchell

The previous activities were very necessary on my part in order to begin to develop a teaching philosophy.  Since I have no practical experience to draw from, I’m going to have to use my years as a student as well the experiences of my 5 kids and their years as students.  With that in mind, my first draft of my teaching philosophy may seem very grandiose and idealistic, even though the Idealism philosophy was not something to which I could relate very well.

I best identified with portions of the Realism, Pragmatism and Constructivism philosophies.  While I didn’t agree with them entirely, they most fit where I want to go as a teacher.  Everyone has heard this and Theodore Roosevelt said it, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”  This is so true in all areas of life, especially the classroom.  My philosophy would begin with the fact that I must always remember to see my students as people.  Even high school age children, for the most part, are idealist individuals.  They are not yet tainted by the world and while some may have experienced great disappointment, others will have not.  The point is that they are all going to be in different stages of the learning process, from very interested and college bound to just wanting to get through the next hour.   

The next part of my philosophy is that I make my class dynamic enough through multi-media presentations, the use of technologies such as Skype, and anything else that is available to me so that they will drop their latest text message, forget about what’s in the hallway, and what’s happening on the weekend, and pay attention to the presentation that’s before them.   

Finally, I hope to engage them in such a way to not just tell them what they need to know to pass the next test, but to also tell them why they need to know this and how it pertains to them as people.  The realism has a practical side to education.  The pragmatism helps to keep us from re-inventing the wheel over and over again.  They need to know why things are done, or happen a certain way.  Constructivism speaks to the fact that there are many avenues to reach the desired outcome, which will be best for them?