Teaching Philosophy

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Teaching Philosophy

What is a teacher? According to dictionary.com, a teacher is defined as a person whose occupation is teaching. In my opinion, there is more to being a teacher than just teaching. A teacher should look at there job as a chance to make a difference in a child’s life. A teacher must be a friend, mentor, and sometimes be a parent figure. Teachers should challenge students to their fullest potential. A teacher should expect more out of a student than just memorizing ideas then forget about them in the future. It is a teacher’s responsibility to educate students so they will be prosperous in the future. The idea of helping a child succeed in life gives me the motivation to want to become a teacher.

The first question a teacher must ask him or herself is, how do I help these students learn? There are a couple ways to go about educating students, but in my opinion, students must be challenged. The idea of a student using their problem solving skills and going through critical thinking processes is based on the idea of progressivism. Progressivism has some very important concepts. One is the idea of a teacher being reflective. A reflective teacher has the characteristics of being thoughtful and inventive. A teacher who has the quality of being reflective looks back at the past and tries to figure out what helps their students to be successful. Another important part of progressivism deals with the teaching method. In my opinion, cooperative learning, critical thinking, and problem solving are the most important teaching methods of progressivism. Let us look at the idea of cooperative learning first.

When a teacher uses cooperative learning activities in their teaching methods, they are allowing students to participate in group work. Group work is very important for students. Group activities allow students to learn how to deal with problems that will face them down the road; for instance how to work with others. Some students may be shy or not be a “people-person”. The idea of group based activities gives these students the chance to work with their classmates.

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