My philosophy of education is that a teachers’ role is to create an environment that has clear learning targets that motivate a student to learn along with developing their own practice, perseverance, and effort to ensure they reach their potential to learn and grow.
When thinking about what my current philosophy of education it certainly comes from where I am in my career and what aspects of the learning experience that I now value and I may not have in the past. The best classroom is led by motivated teachers that foster motivated students. This is done beautifully in classrooms by helping students understand why the content is critical to their growth. When the classroom community has a feel that each student is driven to achieve the learning target for the lesson, students are on their way to reaching their potential.
Students’ learning experiences are affected by the way in which they are taught and how it is modeled by their teacher. When learning is active, connected, and purposeful students can be motivated. A teacher that models these attributes and stresses perseverance and effort in their teaching and their own learning is easily observed by students, parents, and other staff members.
Instruction and assessment help the teacher and the students evaluate their learning. Traditional forms such as formative assessments help the teacher rate the student’s status on each learning target and how to plan for the next attempt on that standard. Summative assessment helps us know how we as the educator did overall and if our students are prepared for future learning. Other measures such as student engagement, participating in multiple response questioning, and on-task behaviors also provide data on if our students are learning and if they are ready to learn.
This philosophy is inspired to not only create young learners but young leaders. I see this as a key role in what I do as building principal with my staff. I often use the phrase leader of leaders with my teachers. Being the lead learner is very critical for the school and students to meet our learning goals.
Lastly, technology can be a vehicle to make my philosophy a reality. Technology allows students to make connections with the learning targets in a way that is differentiated for their own learning style. For many, it connects with their own growth mindset of never giving up on themselves. Technology allows students to create performance tasks that demonstrate their learning and allow us to assess their learning.