Personal Philosophy of Education I decided that I wanted to be a teacher my junior year of high school.

I always knew that I enjoyed math and it came easy to me and I wanted to do something that involved math, but I didnt know what to do. I realized that teaching would be a good career for me because I liked helping my fellow classmates when they struggled with math and they told me I was good at teaching them. hen I entered college and took my hen I

first teaching class that really helped me decide that this was what I wanted to do.

decided I wanted to teach I knew I wanted to teach at the high school level because I want to be able to have adult conversations with my students and communicate with them at educated levels. !s a senior in high school I had a math teacher named "r. !nderson and he really inspired me as to what a good teacher was. #e always took his time with students who were struggling and was fun and energetic. Everyone loved having "r. !nderson as a math teacher and I knew that I wanted to be a teacher like him. $ut of the si% philosophies of education there are three of them that I relate to. &he three philosophies that I think should be used in a classroom are e%istentialism, essentialism, and social reconstruction. I think that e%istentialism is very important to education because it teaches children how to be their own person and find their path in life. 'ome of the keys to e%istentialism are teaching the freedom of choice to kids and teaching them to reflect and find their own meaning in life. (oth of these aspects of e%istentialism are crucial to teach children because too many students try to act like everyone else and conform to something that they may not truly want to do. I think e%istentialism is more important to teach at the secondary level because that is when students start to shape their personalities and choose the paths for the rest of their lives.

'ome e%amples of how to teach e%istentialism is to do journaling assignments and have the students write down their thoughts straight off the top of their heads. &his helps students because it shows them the thoughts that really go through their minds, not someone elses thoughts. !nother e%ample of teaching e%istentialism is to give kids choices on what to write about for essays. &his gives children the freedom to write on a topic they are interested in and they will write better papers. !nother crucial philosophy to education is essentialism. &he aspects to this philosophy are to stay with primary tasks and not be diverted into non academic areas and to favor a subject matter curriculum that differentiates and organizes subjects according to students internal logical or chronological principles. &hese two aspects are both very important to growing children because they make sure the kids are focused and learn the crucial subjects that will get them into college and then into the work force. $ne e%ample of how to teach essentialism is to teach students by using knowledge developed and organized by scientists, scholars, and other e%perts. !lthough this doesnt teach students how to come up with their own ideas, it is still important because they need to learn the basic facts about the core subject areas in order to be successful in college and in life. !nother e%ample of essentialism is to study core classes by reading te%tbooks, having class discussions, and doing research assignments. &his is the very standard way of teaching but it also very effective and students learn well when taught like this. &he last philosophy of teaching that I think is important is social reconstruction. 'ome of the aspects to this philosophy are teaching students subjects that would prepare them to be active participants in society and use public schools to make fundamental changes in society. &hese are both good ways to teach students because it teaches them

how to be good members of society after school and after college. Even though both of the other philosophies are important for education I think social reconstruction is the most important for the rest of the students lives. 'ocial reconstruction can be taught at all ages, but it is most effective for high school students who are preparing to enter the real world. $ne e%ample of how to teach social reconstruction is to take a class field trip to a museum. &his would teach kids about history and the arts, which are both important to life. !nother e%ample of this philosophy is to have class discussions on economy and politics of the ).'. &his will make the students socially aware of what is going on in society and make them more educated to the world outside of education. "y personal learning style is visual. I like to take notes when Im in class because it helps me put what I am hearing on paper and that helps me memorize it better. I have tried the other ways of learning but I was not as successful when I tried them. I know that I cannot only teach in one learning style though, so I need to be prepared to teach to students of all learning styles. *or students that learn like me, I would have them take notes however they choose why I teach and write what I say on the board. *or students that learn by listening I would make sure that I speak clearly and repeat things that are important so that they stick with the students. +astly, for students that learn by doing hands on things, I would have the students take turns figuring out problems on the board and possibly even take turns teaching the class on how to do the problems. "y personal philosophy on classroom management is to have fun with learning. &oo many students decide early on in their life that they hate math and that they are bad at it. I want to school kids that everyone can learn math and that learning math is important for life and fun. I want my classroom to be a place where kids can rela% and

have open discussions, but it also needs to be a place of learning so there has to be discipline. "y basic rule in the classroom will be the golden rule. I e%pect my students to respect me and I will show them e,ual respect. If there an understood respect in the classroom than learning can be achieved as well as having fun. If students do misbehave in my class I will first give them two or three warnings depending on how often the student causes problems. If the misbehaving continues then I would warn the student that they can be removed from the class and then send them to in school suspension or the principals office. I will tell the kids my policy on respect and misbehaving on the first day of the class so that we all understand the rules on day one. I will also remind the class of the rules if some misbehaving comes up. I will not demand respect from my students, but I will encourage it. I will praise students for their cooperation and I will discourage them for misbehaving. I want my students to have true respect for me, not fear of me. *or my classroom design I wanted it to be a standard classroom, because it limits distractions and encourages learning. 'ince I am going to be teaching at the high school level I dont find it as necessary to have an over the top classroom. I think that it is important to have white boards and blackboards as a math teacher because it gives the students a change of pace when they are learning. If there is only one kind of board, they might lose focus after a while of looking at the same board. &he only thing that I left out of my classroom design was posters on the wall. I want my class to have inspirational posters on the walls because students always tend to look around the room and that will encourage them to stay focused and be the best students and people they can be. !s I have written this paper I have learned a lot about myself as an individual and as a future teacher. I have also learned a lot about myself as a teacher while being in this

class. I have learned about the different philosophies of teaching and that helped me decide and reform my own teaching philosophy. I have also learned about what it is like to be a multicultural teacher and how to teach to kids of all different races and backgrounds. I was surprised that there are many different ideas of how to teach even within our on class this semester. -ifferent people have good ideas on teaching that I would have never thought of and I learned a lot not only from the assignments, but from the people in the class. I think my strengths as a future teacher will be e%plaining how to do math problems as well as answering individual ,uestions when a student doesnt understand. I also think I will be good at treating everyone in class e,ually and teaching multiculturalism. I still am not sure how good I am going to be at handling all of the papers that teachers get. I know from talking to current teachers that organization is a must and that is something I need to work on before I start my career. $verall though I am e%cited to start my career as a teacher and I look forward to making a difference in students lives.