My philosophy of education is to develop each child’s potential while recognizing its individual strengths and weaknesses. One of the most important factors to consider is diversity of family and cultural backgrounds in our school population today. Children are unique in learning and have different educational and developmental needs. A child’s learning is an ongoing process and differs amongst each and every child. My responsibility as an educator is to provide children with a safe and caring environment where positive learning can take place. My classroom should be a laboratory, which sparks my student’s creativity, as well as their enthusiasm for learning. This environment should be one of which assists children to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically and socially. In order for a child to learn, an educator is responsible for structuring and organizing a classroom by establishing procedures and routines. These should include the 3 R’s – Rubrics, Responsibility and Respect.

Classroom discipline is another main component of my philosophy of education. My belief is that I will model the behavior I want in my students. My goal as an effective educator is the ability to be a combination of the Interventionist, Non-Interventionist and the Internationalist teacher. The combination of all three of these is important to meet the needs of all learners. A teacher’s role in classroom discipline is of great importance. I need to be flexible in my teaching style to be able to change my techniques and thinking to adapt to my various learning styles of my students. Harry Wong is an expert in the field of education whom I hope to follow: He believes there are three characteristics of an effective teacher: good classroom management skills, teaches for mastery and has positive expectations for student success.

My personal philosophy of education is most closely related to progressivism. John Dewey is the person responsible for the success of progressivism. This movement moved schools to extend their curriculum making education more significant to the needs and interests of students. Progressivism courses have a strong influence on problem solving and are student-centered based. Students will learn through real life experiences and are encouraged to learn by doing and interacting with one another.

I am aware that to be an effective educator, I will need to continue to learn and grow in order to further cultivate the skills necessary to educate the new students I meet each year. I will be on the look out for college courses, symposiums, and seminars that are offered which can fulfill these goals. My motivating factor for teaching is the essential concept that children are our future; therefore, my teaching expertise should be directed to this ideal.

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