Teaching Philosophy
Learning and Teaching
Learning is a lifelong practice. One never stops learning new things and new ways to do things. Sometimes learning something can even change your whole outlook on the world, but none of this is possible unless the person learning feels safe and respected. If they must worry about their safety and health, it is very hard to focus on learning. Creating a safe space for all my students is my main priority. After this, teaching for me is being a facilitator for my students’ learning. I am there to help them learn, not to assume I know everything they need to learn. Of course, I have expertise in my teaching subjects but students come with different knowledge and experiences that they can share with their peers and myself. I allow my students to experiment and create so that they can learn about themselves, as well as the topics we are exploring. The most learning comes about when students are invested and researching subjects that they want to learn.
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The Role of the Teacher
As a teacher, there are many responsibilities that I have in the classroom. As I said before, creating a safe space has the uttermost importance. This means every student should feel respected, important, and able to discuss any problems with me, as well as able to be themselves around their peers. Additionally, the students’ mental and physical health always comes before their schooling. They must be healthy in every way before they can focus on their learning.
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Another responsibility is to provide equitable opportunities for all students. Some students require more to learn than others and that is okay; everyone is different and learns differently so individualization is needed when it comes to learning. This also means allowing students to pursue their specific passions in a subject, such as looking at artists that they really love, or working in a medium they love, so that they can learn about what they want to learn.
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Another responsibility I have is to incorporate representation for all students so that they see themselves in what we are learning. This means including representation for a variety of races, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, etc. so that every student can see that they can all achieve the same expectations.
An additional obligation as a teacher is to inform students of world issues, especially human rights and environmental issues, and provide them with ways that they can become a global citizen and help with these. Children are going to inherit the world’s problems and they need to be fully aware of them, how they were created, and have ideas for solutions.
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The final responsibility of a teacher, that goes without saying, is to be student-centred. This means helping run the extracurriculars that the students want, as well as giving students opportunities that they may not already have access to. Teachers should offer their extra time (lunch, afterschool, etc.) to help students, as well as to provide a place for them to talk if they need to. Teachers should try to engage every student and to change their ways of teaching if it is not coming across. Schools should also become a showcase for the talent and effort that the students have, whether it is in plays, bands, visual galleries, sports, etc.
The Role of the Student
There are a few responsibilities for students in my classes too. The first is to be open to new ideas. There will be things, ideas, and experiences that they have never heard of before in my class. Some they may agree with and enjoy, some they may not. Even so, they must learn to understand that there are different viewpoints in the world, and one must learn to work with other people who view the world differently.
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The second responsibility is to try their best. This does not mean everyone does not have bad days; they do and that is okay, but overall everyone should be giving it their all. As well, everyone is at a different point in their learning when it comes to anything, so they should not be comparing themselves against others, but more on their own progress and effort. Lastly, this means not giving up after one failure; everyone must learn to ask for help if they need it and persevere, and they will succeed.
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The third is to become active participants in their learning. No one can force someone to learn something, so there needs to be some part of them that wants to learn from within. This means having things they want to learn from a class and putting in the effort to learn them. This should also include asking questions and trying new things. Lastly, they should strive to become self-evaluators, where one is able to reflect on their learning and see where they need to improve.
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The final responsibility is the most important for my class. It is to respect everyone in the vicinity; this means their teacher(s), their peers, and themselves. No one gets to judge others because we do not know what they have been through. We must all learn about each other and learn to work together as a community. They also must not judge themselves too harshly; mistakes are how we learn, so we must learn to embrace them.
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Goals of Teaching
Helping others has always been very important to me. I empathize very easily and I believe everyone deserves to be happy and healthy. This extends to students and how they should always have people around them that care about them and support them. These people, including their teachers, must be able to cheer for them and never give up on them to help them achieve their dreams.
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Change is something that also inspires me to teach. There are many issues in the world that are important to me, including human rights and environmentalism. I want others to be aware of them and concerned about them, and this means they must learn about them. The arts are a perfect place to learn about world issues because artwork has been used as an avenue of change ever since it began.
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Leaving My Class
When students leave my class I want them to take away just two things. The first is appreciation of the arts. Arts are the backbone of all culture; they are in everything we do (i.e. magazines, movies, concerts, fashion, computer games, etc.) and should be very important and cherished by everyone. The second is a sense of community. Classes spend a lot of time together and should become people who you can trust and go to for help, especially the teacher.
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Learning is important and students should want to learn. If I can instill even a tiny love of learning, then I will have fulfilled my goal as a teacher.