Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
parent is the most consistent teacher that a child will ever have
because their role extends beyond the classroom and does not end
with the school year. Consequently, the teacher should always treat
the parent with respect and as they would an ally. By establishing a
strong relationship with the parent, the parent can be an extension of
the classroom. Also, though, the parent should be invited to be part of
the classroom. This is a way of honoring the knowledge that the
parent brings and showing the student that their parent is part of their
education.
Likewise, the role of the administrator is very important. I
believe that the administrator has many roles. Their position directs
the work of teachers and the culture of the school. The administrator is
a coach that works to get the best instruction out of their teachers. The
administrator can also make curricular decisions that may instruct a
certain pedagogical change. For example, the administrator may
choose to change the mathematics program to cognitively guided
instruction (CGI) or decide that spelling time be replaced by time doing
word work. Similarly, the administrator may decide that an emphasis
needs to be placed on arts integration within a school. The
administrator also handles behavioral issues that exceed the decisionmaking that a teacher is capable of. The role of the administrator is
large.
Next, I will describe the types of knowledge that students obtain
students must learn the difference between right and wrong. This
means that, as the world changes, these students are able to make a
decision about what they believe is ethical regardless of whether that
belief is popular opinion. Possessing these ethical opinions is part of
being civically engaged. Arguably, then, having social, emotional, and
moral knowledge is more important than content knowledge.
Having described the types of knowledge that students should
receive through education, I will now describe what methods I believe
in. This is a critical part of my philosophy of education. I argue that a
teacher should use whatever method works best for the given
classroom and content. One method is not ideal for every content area.
Whereas direct instruction is suitable for reading instruction, inquiry
learning should be used when teaching science. Also, which method
used depends on the teachers goal. Also, teachers can certainly use
more than one method to achieve a single goal. For example, if I am
teaching story problems in math, I could model my thought process
through a think aloud and then let students solve the problems
independently using whatever strategy works for them. Then, after
students have had an opportunity to solve independently, I would let
certain students model their thinking to guide the whole class. I
learned during my math methods course that allowing students to
solve problems using the strategy that they naturally gravitate towards
facilitates their problem-solving ability more than direct modeling. Also,