Haley
Gibbons
EDBL
603
Dr.
Meesuk Ahn
Philosophy
Statement
Benjamin Franklin once
said, “tell me and ill forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I
learn.” When I hear this quote, I immediately think of how I would like to
build my teaching philosophy.
I believe that every
classroom has its own unique community. Within that community there is a wide
variety of different personalities, motivations, religions, and cultures. That
is what makes it so unique. So, we know that each student in the classroom is
different in many ways, why does that matter?
A culturally responsive
classroom is what makes a classroom whole. However, I believe instead of
looking at the classroom as a whole, looking at each student individually is
where the success happens. As a teacher of bilingual students, we are prone to
diversity. It is my duty to understand each student individually. This means
understanding their background, culture, family, religion etc. By doing this, I
am opening so many doors.
I believe when you pay
attention to each student individually, it gives them a sense of
comfortableness in your classroom. It also gives you, the teacher, the
opportunity to learn their motivations. The benefits that come from this mean a
high level of student engagement, which in turn usually leads to a higher level
of success.
I also believe that
finding out about each students’ culture and background gives myself the
opportunity to include my students into content and curriculum. An example of
this is, including a particular student’s family or favorite sport into a world
problem, or having books that correspond with another student’s culture.
This type of teaching is
useful particularly when teaching English language learners. These types of
learners thrive off relation and engagement. One big rule that I have learned
to stand by when teaching ELL’s is not to abandon their first language. It is
so important to keep that first language current and, in their dialect, every
day. Without the first language, content becomes harder for the student to
learn in both L1 and L2.
Throughout my observation
experience, I have seen this philosophy of teaching firsthand and was able to
view how well it worked for both the teacher, student, and families. The
teacher I observed believed in heavy family involvement. She explained to me
that the more involved the families are, the more motivation the student has, to
excel academically.
One method that I
observed that I want to bring into my classroom one day is “All about me
notebook decorating”. The students in the class were all asked to bring their
writers notebooks home in the beginning of the year to decorate them reflecting
on themselves, their families, their cultures, and backgrounds. They then
brought them back into class and each student presented their notebooks showing
the class all about them. The students got very creative and added pictures of
them playing their favorite sports, pictures of their home countries, their
families, pets etc. They had a blast with this, and it really gave the teacher
and the rest of the class a look into each other’s lives outside of the
classroom.
Connecting to your
students and making the classroom a safe, comfortable place for each and every
one of them is such an important part of being a teacher. I believe going
beyond teaching and becoming a mentor and confidant for my students is what I
have learned through this class that I definitely want to bring with me to my
future students.
References:
Dominguez, H., LópezLeiva, C.
A., & Khisty, L. L. (2013). Relational engagement: Proportional reasoning
with bilingual Latino/a students. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 85(1),
143–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9501-7
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