Teaching Philosophy My Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy

Why do we need to know this teacher?' Ideally, no student should leave my classroom asking this question. Civic education is important for every student of social studies. Studying history should teach us about life in the present. History is a narrative. It should inform, intrigue, and educate students while they learn necessary facts and concepts about the past, present, and future of our society and other societies.

Of course not all students enter the classroom with the same degree of enthusiasm, or the same preparation to become critically engaged learners. It is the teacher's duty to convey the concepts of a particular curriculum. Still, when he or she is able to do so, based upon the class size and demands of the school system, he or she should to tailor day-to-day lesson plans to suit the collective and individual development and learning needs of the specific students who make up the classroom. No student is the same, and no class is the same. Every student and classroom has and will have a different character.

Resource room aid can help meet student's special needs. Even if the teacher is not a specialist in special needs education, the teacher should try whenever possible to take an active interest in learning differences and difficulties in curriculum and activity planning. Learning should use all of the senses, and deploy all of a student's multiple intelligences. A student should walk into a classroom filled with resources for learning in a variety of ways. The decorations of the class should reinforce key concepts. Teaching social studies should spark debate and raise questions, not simply preach facts. Students should be assigned creative art as well as written projects, and work collectively as well as individually on projects like Webquests, role plays, and research papers to learn. Employing a buddy system or pairing more and less fluent English speakers to help one another can be a positive coping strategy for a class with many ESL students when dealing with these challenging but enjoyable learning projects.

The teacher must use effective discipline to ensure students do not interrupt one another, know to raise their hands, not get out of their seats during class, or engage in disturbing activities. This is disrespectful to the learning of others as well as simply against the rules. Drawing up a list of rules to obey for the students is one way to help students understand how the U.S. Constitution, for example, was negotiated and formulated.