Teaching+Philosophy



This quote resonates deeply with me and truly embodies my teaching philosophy - it is why I so strongly desired to become a teacher. I believe that nurturing the next generation of leaders, politicians, parents, businessmen and businesswomen, and every other calling and career on this earth is truly both a science and an art. It's true that I have a passion for history, geography, psychology and all of the other social sciences - to me they are stories that relay messages about our past that can help positively shape our future. I believe that through the study of these subjects we can approach the world with an enlightened view and brace ourselves for future challenges by analyzing the methods and results of past endeavors. However, that passion towards my subject area alone is not enough reason to say I want to teach. I love children and I believe that motivating them to learn is just as, if not more, important than an understanding of content.

Education is about the students - if you can't get them to understand and grasp the material then it doesn't matter how well you understand it. I believe that teaching is about positive outputs, putting in the effort to ensure that lesson plans are engaging and interactive. The best way to get students motivated to learn is to actively immerse them in the material, keep them engaged through movement and activity. It is my aspiration to have my students want to come to class because they enjoy it. If you make the material fun and the format of the class active and interesting then they will be able to grasp the material. I always put my students first; I think that student centered classrooms are places that buzz with activity and alight with enjoyment. Learning is a process, but it can be fun and dynamic. It should incorporate a number of different learning styles, cater to the needs of individual students, and be easily adapted for individuals. I believe that it is a teacher's duty to ensure that instruction is interesting and varied - the students won't learn if you present them with the material, but they will learn if they are discovering, interpreting, reinventing, manipulating, and questioning the material. I believe that if learning is an active process, that teaching should be an active process focused on allowing students to flourish through active lessons.