Educational Philosophy
Whenever I think of my educational philosophy, I am brought back to a moment in high school while applying for college. I was choosing between which schools to apply to and why. The “why” was always more important to me so for myself this was a choice between engineering and education. I battled back and forth with myself over this decision for weeks. Finally, after much thought, I had my decision and the deciding factor was I wanted to help kids. This realization is what has led me through my career as an educator and continues to drive the decisions I make.
Teaching is a rare profession where success is not based on the leader or the staff but instead, on the students. This paradigm shift from other organizations leads to teachers who earnestly care for the student’s well being. This shared drive to do what is best for the student is what unites the professionals in a school building. Under this premise, teachers are working towards facilitating high student learning and understanding. To assist teachers in reaching this shared goal a principal needs to encourage and support the teachers’ needs and decisions. One of the easiest ways to encourage teachers is through high expectations and being a role model for those expectations.
I strongly believe that all children can learn just sometimes at different rates and through different styles. Children learn by doing and, as such, combining an auditory, kinesthetic, and visual element to the learning process will enhance a student’s understanding and working knowledge. Teachers should act like classroom coaches; guiding students to understanding. I believe the appropriate incorporation of technology into a lesson can cause drastic increases in student understanding. Students need to be instructed on the use, capabilities, and various professional norms surrounding technology.
I believe in regular targeted professional development to facilitate the continued growth of the teachers and support staff. Teaching is an ever-evolving process and, as such, teachers need to evolve along with the circumstances pertaining to learning. Professional development can be a huge asset to teacher growth when it is targeted to the specific needs of the staff and the larger community. I also believe in having teachers turnkey successful strategies to the betterment of the entire staff and to help support a cohesive community. In house teacher run professional development sessions has a two-fold effect. The first is, that it acknowledges and validates the teacher’s efforts in charge of running the PD session. The second is, that it focuses on sharing successful strategies in the least restrictive, less formal setting where teachers can interact with each other to gain a full understanding.
I believe that collaboration is an integral part of successful teaching practices. To support this collaboration teachers need weekly department meetings, grade team meetings, class team meetings, and ICT common planning sessions. These meetings and planning sessions need to be student-centered with a focus on actionable strategies that teachers can incorporate into their classrooms. Schools that have high levels of collaboration and communication have a higher success rate for students as well as a higher satisfaction rate for staff.
The final element of creating an environment for high student achievement is to incorporate the student’s home life into the education process. Family involvement is a key aspect of education and requires a team effort to encourage a student to give their best effort. Constant communication regarding student achievement in school is integral to maintaining the student, family, teacher triangle of learning within a school.