Teaching Philosophy

I have been a teacher for 15 years and my philosophy on teaching has evolved over time. When I first started teaching, I was substituting for the Head Start organization. During this time, I worked with three year old children who came from many cultural and economic backgrounds. Through my experience substituting, I discovered the best way for children to learn is from hands on experiences. Ever since then, I have committed myself to be a teacher who provides numerous opportunities for children to be actively engaged in hands on learning experiences. In order for younger children to be actively involved, they need to be moving and using all of their senses to experience what is going on around them. For example, instead of doing a large group reading where the children and sitting quietly and listening to the teacher, the children could instead be acting out the story or participating in a puppet show. This helps engage many of their senses and helps to eliminate misbehavior.

Another important piece in my philosophy on teaching is the importance of building relationships with the children's families. Parents are the primary educators in their children's lives so teachers need to build a strong, open and respectful relationship with the family in order to ensure the child is getting the best opportunities available to them. The best way to get parents engaged and involved is to have parents volunteering in the classroom. If they are unable to volunteer their time in the classroom, they can do things outside of the classroom such as helping to prepare projects to be done during school hours.

My experience has taught me the two most important pieces to being a successful teacher are to engage the children in the learning experience and to have the families be involved in their children’s education.