REID MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 1

Philosophy Statement

University of Alaska Southeast, Alaska College of Education states that a teacher can

describe the teacher’s philosophy of education and demonstrate its relationship to the teacher’s

practice. During fall 2013, I was assigned to write my philosophy of teaching while taking ED

333 The Learner and the Learning Process. This assignment is used as my artifact for this

philosophy statement. My artifact, discusses major topics regarding my philosophy of teaching

and learning. For this framing statement, I chose four topics from the artifact to demonstrate their

relationship with my past philosophy and what has changed or stayed the same over the last six

years.

Social Development

I have changed my philosophy on giving students behavior rewards. My artifact states,

“Behaviorism rewards students for good behavior. This may motivate students for a time, but I

would be concerned with lowering intrinsic motivations with extrinsic rewards.” On occasion, I

now give toy-like rewards for group incentives. Originally, I also planned not to give candy as a

reward: Then I changed my mind. A piece of candy has the ability to help students (and teachers)

power through a difficult lesson or assignment. However, I do agree with Fields, Meritt and

Fields regarding overdoing the rewards. They state, “We need to be concerned that schools rely

heavily on a system that teaches kids the task (e.g., reading, arithmetic) isn’t the point—the

reward is the focus” (2014, p. 212). I use small candy a couple times a week as motivation.

Getting a bag of candy (or crackers) out of the cabinet causes students to sit up straight, smile,

and focus. My social development philosophy now allows for an occasional behaviorism

extrinsic reward.
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As stated in my artifact, encouraging words and smiles are effective ways to motivate

students. These types of positive interactions have actually been a recent focus in my classroom.

This last semester of school, spring 2019, I started introducing a variety of positive exchanges

with my students along with communicating my expectations as a way to decrease behaviors and

off task students. My reflection notebook showed a positive change in my students’ behavior.

Research has suggested that “…teachers can initiate positive exchanges by clearly

communicating high expectations for student success to all students, and providing frequent

positive feedback to students, which allows them to recognize their behavioral and academic

success” (Sprouls, Mathur, & Upreti, 2015, p. 154). Initiating positive interactions effectively

decreases student disruptive behavior in my classroom, which was a positive effect on my

students’ social development.

Standards

Initially, I understood Alaska Content Standards (2019) as a tool to clarify in terms of

what students should learn at each grade level. In addition, the standards were a guide for

teachers, administrators, parents, publishers, etc. It was not until I attended Alaska RTI/MTSS

Effective Instruction Conference, held January 2018, that I learned the standards should also be

shared with students of all ages, and not just the adults. Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. stressed the

importance of teachers telling students what specific standard they will learning and practicing,

and why (2019). I started reading the standards to my students so that they would know the

objective for each lesson. After a few times of repeated readings of a standard, my 1st graders

could tell me, for example, why we were practicing reading, writing, and saying numbers to 100.

My philosophy of incorporating the standards into my lesson plans also now includes reading the

standards to my students.
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Diversity

In my artifact, I speak of the need for teachers to UNLEARN negative stereotypes that

we have learned as a result of the conditions of discrimination and oppression that exist around

us. This concept challenged me six years ago. Then I took ED 680 Advanced Multicultural

Education. As I read and learned about the challenges and adventures of diversity and even

poverty, I knew this was where I wanted to teach, but I did not think I would ever get the

opportunity because of where I lived. Fortunately, the following year my husband’s job moved

us to Anchorage where the diversity of cultures is significant.

A Title 1, multicultural school was in our new neighborhood in Anchorage. After

volunteering and taking my practicum classes at this school, I was confident this was where I

wanted to teach. Fortunately, the principal of Fairview Elementary hired me. I have taught there

the last two years, and will teach there again this year. Perrone states, “In theory, the

multicultural education movement addresses differences constructively, supporting diverse

students and their families, giving attention to cultural richness, acknowledging that there are

many perspectives on the world, its history, art forms, language, and literature, and encouraging

individuals to be whatever they are with dignity and freedom” (1991, p. 48). Fairview

Elementary had the diverse student population and the rich cultures I was looking for.

With diversity comes the need for differentiation. Each year I have taught (including my

semester of student teaching), I have had one student who came to school speaking very little, or

no, English. However, before the end of the 1st semester, each of these students were ready to

take my differentiated spelling test. While the rest of the class wrote the spelling words, these

students excitedly wrote the first letter sound of each spelling word. I was more excited to grade

their spelling test than the rest of the class.

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Discussion/Conclusion

I state in my artifact that as a teacher I should continually evaluate my practice by asking,

“Are my students getting it? Are they having fun?” Not only did I believe this back then, but I

still ask myself these questions. As a teacher, I can become passionate about “covering all the

material”—maybe more than what my 1st graders are ready for. The following quote by Perrone

has helped me refocus: “As a principle, it is usually more productive within every area of

learning to teach less more deeply than to teach more as a matter of coverage” (1991, p. 16).

Ultimately, I want my student to love coming to school and to love learning as much as I do.

References

Alaska Staff Development Network [Home page]. (2019). Alaska RTI/MTSS Effective

Instruction Conference. Retrieved July 12, 2019 from https://asdn.org/alaska-rti-mtss-

effective-instruction-conference/

Alaska Content Standards- Education and Early Development [Home page]. (2019). Retrieved

July 5, 2019 from https://education.alaska.gov/standards

Fields, M. V., Meritt, P. A., & Fields, D. M. (2014). Constructive guidance and discipline: Birth

to age eight. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Fisher, D. (2019). Fisher and Frey for Life. Retrieved July 10, 2019 from

https://www.fisherandfrey.com/

Perrone, V. (1991). A letter to teachers: Reflecting on schooling and the art of teaching. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sprouls, K., Mathur, S. R., & Upreti, G. (2015). Is positive feedback a forgotten

classroom practice? Preventing School Failure, 59(3), 153–160. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/10.1080/1045988X.2013.876958