I believe the goal of education is to give students the tools they will need in the real world once they leave my classroom. These tools include the basics of reading, writing, and math, but more importantly they include a love of learning, the ability to reason, the ability to make decisions, the ability to articulate their ideas, and most importantly, to be ably to apply what they learn to a real life situation where they can put their knowledge to use. The more tools you have, the more options you have in life. I believe that these are the tools that will let our students be successful at anything.
Let me begin by expanding on my philosophy of reading. I believe reading is the most important tool a person can possess. I am a firm believer that if you can read well, and obviously part of that is understanding what you are reading, you can learn to do anything. I believe a child who won’t read is no better off than a child who can’t read. I think the key to becoming a good reader is practice, and that to get that practice, you need to find something each individual student is interested in - something they can learn from or get out of a book, and turn them onto it. I think you need to show them that reading isn’t something to hate - you know, the 20 minutes a day they have to put in - but instead a wonderful time that is really fun - something to love. An example of this is my 2nd grader. She is a great reader, but for a while there it was like pulling teeth to get her to do it. When I figured out that she wasn’t interested in story books like Harry Potter, but couldn’t learn enough about cats - I had found my hook. I think this applies at any age. The most wonderful kindergarten teacher of all my children started the kids coming home with a fairy tale book every night for about a month before Christmas for parents to read to them. When the kids returned after the holiday, she just kept them coming, but now the kids were reading the stories. They got into their heads that reading time was fun, and it didn’t matter if they were the readers or their parents were. The entire class left kindergarten as successful readers. I had a teacher in 1st grade with the same philosophy. She convinced me that reading was a blast. I think kids will believe almost anything you say if they know you love them and they know they can always trust you. To this day I’m one of those Barnes and Nobel freaks who just can’t find enough time to learn all the things I’m interested in. I want to turn my students into lovers of learning as well.
That brings me to my second essential tool for life and that is a love of learning. When I think of all the really genuinely happy and successful people I know, the thread that runs through them all is a love for learning about and trying new things. I want to give my students options about how to learn, and about what to learn. I think the key is to really know your students and have a specific goal in mind of what you really want them to get out of an assignment. If you step out of the box, you can come up with a gazillion ways to learn that information. I want to let my students and their parents be involved in that process.
The next thing I really hope I can instill in my students is the ability to reason and make logical decisions. Problem solving is a skill that will make or break you in the real world. I think too often we are so concerned with students doing everything the "right" way, that all they learn is to regurgitate what we tell them. In the real world, you have to work things out on your own. You won’t always have someone telling you exactly what to do and why. I think that teaching the ability to reason helps people become independent and self sufficient. We only have 12 years to turn children into productive members of society that can go out on their own, and hopefully make their way in the world.
This is exactly why I believe that you can measure knowledge by a person’s ability to put that information to use in a real life situation. What good is knowing how to add, if you have no idea when adding will come in handy? I hear so many people say what a waste of time algebra was. They believe that it was just a little mind exercise in manipulating numbers. Obviously no one ever took the time to explain to them how to use it in the real world. That brings me to how I believe students learn.
I believe students learn by learning things they are interested in and will be able to put to use in their life. I think that knowing why they are learning something, and being a part of the decision making process gets them more invested in the learning process itself. I plan on letting my students know what I want them to get out of an activity before we start, and then having them share what they actually got out of the activity when it is finished. I think that every student brings something different to the table because we have all had different experiences to draw on. As a teacher I believe it is our job to find our what that student brings, what their strengths are, and let them share those things with the rest of us. An ability to articulate your ideas gives you the ability to be a leader rather than a follower. The ability to teach what you know shows that you really understand that material. By reinforcing a student’s strengths, we build self-esteem and let them be successful. I believe one of the most important parts of a student’s desire to learn is for them to succeed at learning and to feel a sense of accomplishment when a project is finished. I also believe that we learn as much from failure as we do from our successes. I think we need to teach our children that trial and error is a very effective was to learn about something. I want them to know that it is ok to fail, as long as you learn from the error and keep moving forward. I would much rather have a student try and fail, than never push themselves and always succeed.
Some of the ways I believe I can reach my goals as an educator are to guide my students into asking questions that will promote the learning objective I have set. I think that if they are asking their own questions, they will care more about the answers. The more they learn, the more they will wonder, and the more they wonder, the more they will learn. I think that all students learn through hands on physical manipulation of their world, and by watching and analyzing what they see. I realize that there are people who can learn through reading a book, or listening to a lecture because I am one of them, but I know that it is much more enjoyable to be actively involved in the learning process.
Finally, I’m sure I’m not alone, and I hope I’m not being naive, but I want to include parents in this process. I want a classroom where parents are always welcome. I plan on designing a web site where they can log on in their day and view our class from work or from home. I would like to incorporate home activities that correlate with what we are learning at school for student’s, their siblings, and their parents to do for fun. I want to make the student’s every event at school available for the parents access. I realize that every student doesn’t have access to a computer, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea for those who do. I really want to take advantage of my background in technology - it has so much to offer our children.
The bottom line in my philosophy of educating our young people is that I really believe that you can reach every single student through love and a genuine interest in them as people. That is my goal as a teacher.