.: Philosophy of Education :.
All students can learn and achieve success given individualized resources and access to equitable education.
The need to provide equitable access to high quality education for all students regardless of learning styles, academic abilities, preferences, and interests is not only important but also necessary. Each student comes to class with different levels of academic performances and life story. I believe teachers need to remain in the forefront and help unravel the blurred lines to guide students toward a successful academic pathway. I promote and provide equitable access to high quality education to all students. For I believe all students can learn and excel when given the same opportunity to succeed –regardless of their academic setbacks and/or learning preferences. I understand that equality in education is not always equitable. Access to equitable education, in my view, is serving all students according to their individual needs versus catering to the middle crowd. I believe in differentiating instructions to meet the specific and specialized needs of each student. The approaches to modifying instruction serve as a beneficial factor for students’ academic performance and social confidence. When a teacher differentiates instruction, he/she sends a message of compassion and encouragement. The student in turn feels regarded and will develop an increased motivation level to achieve the desired goals and skills. In order to maintain and implement high quality education, I continue to participate in teacher’s education and training programs to apply new and innovative teaching practices into my classroom.
I first teach students, then subjects.
From my viewpoint, regardless of specialized credentials or subject matter competencies, an effective educator teaches students, then subjects. I align my teaching through my observation and understanding of the students. To deliver a meaningful curriculum, I first learn my students’ strengths and needs. Prior to introducing new concepts and skills, I pre-assess and gauge students’ prior knowledge. These pre-assessments serve as baseline data to understand student’s areas of strength and areas for growth. I want to develop a purposeful and engaging curriculum to enhance and extend students’ intellectual and social-emotional wellbeing. My lesson design reflects my understanding of students’ prior knowledge and fill in the gaps when necessary. Following each unit, I conduct post-assessments to identify the acquired skills. Regardless of the subject matters, my curriculum design centers on the continual learning and understanding of my students.
I hold my students accountable for their learning.
I believe the students, themselves – need to learn the skills required to take ownership for their own learning. As key players, holding students accountable for their academic goals strengthen their level of engagement and attention to achieve their goals. In holding such high level of expectations, I first provide guidance to teach, model, and practice accountability. One of the most important lessons that I share with my students is the importance to become an advocator for their areas for growth. Despite of academic performances, I believe teaching students effective study skills and meaningful ways to seek for resources will increase their confidence and overall skill as a learner. I do not always expect my students to know the answers, but I do expect them to be able to find the answers. I want students to take ownership in their learning through goals setting followed by a specific plan to achieve their individual goals. I view accountability as an opportunity for students to develop their confidence. I hope my students will take away the ability to self-assess personal skill level and to continue fine tuning their skills by effectively communicating their areas for growth to transform their areas of growth into strength.
My students are critical thinkers, collaborators, and innovators.
In order to effectively participate in the global community, I provide opportunities for students to develop and enrich their critical thinking, collaborating, and designing skills. The activities and long-term projects in my curriculum allow students to practice these set of skills. I approach project-based teaching as a blend of group work, technology integration, and interactive activities. These areas of focus allow students to achieve learning objectives through their creative vision. I have witnessed incredible and unexpected results when students are in control of their learning and are able to demonstrate their knowledge through independent creativity. I strive to foster a healthy risk-taking classroom environment for students to challenge and grow from their experience. I also stress the importance of individual goal settings. In my class, both students and teacher set goals and a plan of action. I hold my students accountable for their goals and also use their action plan as an approach to uphold accountability and responsibility.
I cultivate a community of collaborative learning and cooperative discovery.
A successful teacher has the ability to gauge interests from multiple learning styles. I oversee my students as a community of diverse learners. For this, I incorporate my student’s learning preference into my instructional design to improve their areas for growth. The exposure and attention to different learning styles also bring forth new ways for students to process and learn. This process keeps the learning experience fresh, innovative, and active. My skill to incorporate new teaching styles shows my flexibility and knowledge in mastering a range of teaching methods. To develop and maintain a collaborative learning environment that allows for cooperative discovery, I teach my students the idea of individual responsibilities and collective responsibilities. I remind each student of his/her individual responsibilities and contribution to the greater community. Only when each student fulfills his/her individual responsibilities will a community be established. For a class community to grow and thrive, students need to uphold their responsibilities to maintain meaningful collaborative learning and unique cooperative discovery.
I believe in a shared culture.
In our growing diverse community, the amount of knowledge shared among individuals can greatly impact and extend students’ learning. I strengthen, promote, and enhance the learning of different cultures to promote global awareness. I learn from my students and my students learn from each other. In developing my curriculum, I strive to integrate multicultural literatures for my students to deeply delve in various world cultures. I reach out to parents to contribute and/or partake in classroom activities or lead activities of their interest. I want my students to become global citizens and have an open mind to new approaches and thinking. I also believe in the incorporation of student’s talents and experience into the curriculum to further bring out the practice of a true classroom community.
I embark on a journey to become a lifelong learner.
In order to stay current with the latest teaching practices, strategies, and approaches, I take on the path to become a lifelong learning teacher. My learning does not stop when I enter the classroom - it marks the start of my learning to become an effective educator. I believe modeling and practicing the process of a learning teacher will inspire students to further engage in their learning process. With new teacher training programs and ongoing professional development, I can apply and incorporate new instructional strategies into my teaching. As a learning teacher, I remind myself the need to be flexible, open, and willing to incorporate new approaches into my classroom. I grow for professional development, but more importantly, I grow to challenge myself for the betterment of my students.
The need to provide equitable access to high quality education for all students regardless of learning styles, academic abilities, preferences, and interests is not only important but also necessary. Each student comes to class with different levels of academic performances and life story. I believe teachers need to remain in the forefront and help unravel the blurred lines to guide students toward a successful academic pathway. I promote and provide equitable access to high quality education to all students. For I believe all students can learn and excel when given the same opportunity to succeed –regardless of their academic setbacks and/or learning preferences. I understand that equality in education is not always equitable. Access to equitable education, in my view, is serving all students according to their individual needs versus catering to the middle crowd. I believe in differentiating instructions to meet the specific and specialized needs of each student. The approaches to modifying instruction serve as a beneficial factor for students’ academic performance and social confidence. When a teacher differentiates instruction, he/she sends a message of compassion and encouragement. The student in turn feels regarded and will develop an increased motivation level to achieve the desired goals and skills. In order to maintain and implement high quality education, I continue to participate in teacher’s education and training programs to apply new and innovative teaching practices into my classroom.
I first teach students, then subjects.
From my viewpoint, regardless of specialized credentials or subject matter competencies, an effective educator teaches students, then subjects. I align my teaching through my observation and understanding of the students. To deliver a meaningful curriculum, I first learn my students’ strengths and needs. Prior to introducing new concepts and skills, I pre-assess and gauge students’ prior knowledge. These pre-assessments serve as baseline data to understand student’s areas of strength and areas for growth. I want to develop a purposeful and engaging curriculum to enhance and extend students’ intellectual and social-emotional wellbeing. My lesson design reflects my understanding of students’ prior knowledge and fill in the gaps when necessary. Following each unit, I conduct post-assessments to identify the acquired skills. Regardless of the subject matters, my curriculum design centers on the continual learning and understanding of my students.
I hold my students accountable for their learning.
I believe the students, themselves – need to learn the skills required to take ownership for their own learning. As key players, holding students accountable for their academic goals strengthen their level of engagement and attention to achieve their goals. In holding such high level of expectations, I first provide guidance to teach, model, and practice accountability. One of the most important lessons that I share with my students is the importance to become an advocator for their areas for growth. Despite of academic performances, I believe teaching students effective study skills and meaningful ways to seek for resources will increase their confidence and overall skill as a learner. I do not always expect my students to know the answers, but I do expect them to be able to find the answers. I want students to take ownership in their learning through goals setting followed by a specific plan to achieve their individual goals. I view accountability as an opportunity for students to develop their confidence. I hope my students will take away the ability to self-assess personal skill level and to continue fine tuning their skills by effectively communicating their areas for growth to transform their areas of growth into strength.
My students are critical thinkers, collaborators, and innovators.
In order to effectively participate in the global community, I provide opportunities for students to develop and enrich their critical thinking, collaborating, and designing skills. The activities and long-term projects in my curriculum allow students to practice these set of skills. I approach project-based teaching as a blend of group work, technology integration, and interactive activities. These areas of focus allow students to achieve learning objectives through their creative vision. I have witnessed incredible and unexpected results when students are in control of their learning and are able to demonstrate their knowledge through independent creativity. I strive to foster a healthy risk-taking classroom environment for students to challenge and grow from their experience. I also stress the importance of individual goal settings. In my class, both students and teacher set goals and a plan of action. I hold my students accountable for their goals and also use their action plan as an approach to uphold accountability and responsibility.
I cultivate a community of collaborative learning and cooperative discovery.
A successful teacher has the ability to gauge interests from multiple learning styles. I oversee my students as a community of diverse learners. For this, I incorporate my student’s learning preference into my instructional design to improve their areas for growth. The exposure and attention to different learning styles also bring forth new ways for students to process and learn. This process keeps the learning experience fresh, innovative, and active. My skill to incorporate new teaching styles shows my flexibility and knowledge in mastering a range of teaching methods. To develop and maintain a collaborative learning environment that allows for cooperative discovery, I teach my students the idea of individual responsibilities and collective responsibilities. I remind each student of his/her individual responsibilities and contribution to the greater community. Only when each student fulfills his/her individual responsibilities will a community be established. For a class community to grow and thrive, students need to uphold their responsibilities to maintain meaningful collaborative learning and unique cooperative discovery.
I believe in a shared culture.
In our growing diverse community, the amount of knowledge shared among individuals can greatly impact and extend students’ learning. I strengthen, promote, and enhance the learning of different cultures to promote global awareness. I learn from my students and my students learn from each other. In developing my curriculum, I strive to integrate multicultural literatures for my students to deeply delve in various world cultures. I reach out to parents to contribute and/or partake in classroom activities or lead activities of their interest. I want my students to become global citizens and have an open mind to new approaches and thinking. I also believe in the incorporation of student’s talents and experience into the curriculum to further bring out the practice of a true classroom community.
I embark on a journey to become a lifelong learner.
In order to stay current with the latest teaching practices, strategies, and approaches, I take on the path to become a lifelong learning teacher. My learning does not stop when I enter the classroom - it marks the start of my learning to become an effective educator. I believe modeling and practicing the process of a learning teacher will inspire students to further engage in their learning process. With new teacher training programs and ongoing professional development, I can apply and incorporate new instructional strategies into my teaching. As a learning teacher, I remind myself the need to be flexible, open, and willing to incorporate new approaches into my classroom. I grow for professional development, but more importantly, I grow to challenge myself for the betterment of my students.