Philogging Assignment #6

My POE rough draft:
This is a definitely a "rough"  draft. I plan to include Dewey's creed, Gay's article on culturally responsive teaching, as well as few others.

    The motivational author William Arthur Ward once said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” This statement begs the question, what separates the mediocre teachers from the superior or great teachers? I would argue that most people do not aim to only be mediocre in whatever profession they pursue, especially not one so time consuming as teaching. That is not to say, however, that there is no shortage of less than inspiring teachers working throughout the nation’s schools. While there may be several factors that contribute to a teacher being labeled as only “mediocre” versus “great”, I think that one factor which has the potential to prevent myself from falling into the mediocre zone is having a thoroughly examined, critically reflective, and well articulated philosophy of education with which I can reference throughout my teaching career. At the root of any personal philosophy are one’s core beliefs and values. These beliefs and values which I have come to hold as true, are a direct result of my own experiences in education both as a student and as a teacher. While developed through careful reflection of my own experiences, this philosophy is largely based on ideals. This is not to say that I will be working in a ideal setting with ample support from administration and parents or that every child in my class will be a model student. However, without some level of idealism in my personal philosophy of education, how could I strive to be a great teacher?           
    In an effort to articulate my educational philosophy in an approachable manner I have developed a set of belief statements. These statements will not only guide me as I explore the depths and complexities that shape my philosophy but are also a direct reflection of the values I hold with regards to my role as a teacher. I feel that by organizing my philosophy of education in this manner I will be able to easily reference these statements once I am working in the classroom and assess whether my everyday teaching adheres to my philosophy. Thus, my statement of beliefs and the subsequent reasoning behind those beliefs are as follows:

I believe in empowering students, that every student has a desire to acquire knowledge and that it is my duty to facilitate them on their educational journey.

I believe that learning is a life long endeavor and that the roles of “student” and “teacher” are never set in stone.  
          
I believe that a learner cannot simply be defined by their race, gender, ethnicity or any other social/cultural differences but that those differences can be an asset to their fellow students and community.

I believe that the school, it’s teachers and students are part of a larger community and therefore must draw from that community’s resources of knowledge and also contribute to the betterment of that community.

I believe that in order to become well rounded, critically thinking, productive members of society, students curriculum needs to be rich in both traditional subjects, such as math and literacy, but also in subjects that affect their everyday life and that will ultimately help them navigate the world in which they live.

I believe in being accountable to my students, their families, the community and myself. This means continuously being guided by my core values and never giving up on or dismissing a student because they struggle to connect with other students or myself. 

I believe in empowering students, that every student has a desire to acquire knowledge and that it is my duty to facilitate them on their educational journey.
    I believe in every student, this is why I have a desire to teach. It is a simple statement but when it comes down to it, this is what motivates me to work with children. I believe that every student has the ability to set goals and achieve academically. I believe, like every other aspect in life, they are in complete control of their educational achievement. With this belief in mind, it is my job to guide them and teach them how to navigate through the environment of school.      
    I do not agree with people who say that some children simply do not have a desire to learn and acquire knowledge. That is not to say that I feel every student is interested in learning about long division, or the planets of the solar system. I think it is too easy to write off a student who shows lack of interest towards their school subjects as one who cannot or has no desire to learn. I believe that everyone wants to learn something but that often times students face obstacles that either impede their abilities to learn or the school system in place does not foster a broad enough curriculum to include their interests. Students from low socioeconomic status are often times not only distracted by stresses from their home life but also may find that their textbooks and perhaps curriculum does not relate directly to their life, as it is geared towards students from a different, more mainstreamed background. I do not believe that a student’s disinterest in math or reading means that they have no desire to learn. I think that enabling our students to be successful in school means that as teachers we need to meet them where they are at. Whether that means helping to provide the services they need if they have a learning disability or developing lessons which engage them and relate to the world around them. There is nothing more rewarding for a teacher, in my opinion, than when a child they have been working with has an “aha!” moment and their face lights up because they finally understand a subject. I do not think that there are students out there who are immune to this phenomenon, instead I think they just haven’t been reached yet. We have to help them be the student they can and want to be. If we don’t give them the tools they need to be successful(i.e. meeting them where they are at) how can they be? This may be a far reaching analogy but my husband sometimes gets frustrated with our dog. She is two years old but sometimes still has puppy tendencies, especially if she does not get the attention she needs. My husband feels that she should just simply know how to act regardless of whether or not her needs are being met (i.e. exercise). I have had many conversations with him about the fact those are her “needs” for a reason and if those needs are not met she is likely to act out. Similarly, children have basic needs to be successful students and if those needs are not met by teachers and other adults involved in their education how can they be expected to succeed?
          Every student is a unique individual and therefore will have unique academic interests. I believe that it is my job to facilitate students in discovering where their interests lie and help them in their pursuit of knowledge concerning those interests. However, I also believe that it is my duty to expose children to a variety of subjects and give them a base of knowledge in those subjects with which they can build upon. For as much as my role is a teacher, it is equally as a motivator. Because academic achievement in core subjects is a requirement for most teachers, motivation is the key to producing the desired level of achievement in all students. Some students are easily motivated by getting good grades and praise from teachers and parents, others require more creativity on the part of their educators. One such student I worked with last year was highly motivated by music. This student was a fifth grader at Acoma Elementary School, where I was employed as an Educational Assistant. He had an unstable home life that often resulted in him being passed back and forth between parents and grandparents. Although he was not very interested in school, it was the one constant force in his life. He probably couldn't count on his parents for much but he always knew he would find understanding and support from his teacher. He was very smart and usually got a grasp on new concepts quickly but they just did not hold his interest. The one thing that did hold his interest was music. Probably the best thing his (for lack of a better term) deadbeat dad ever did for him was buy him a guitar. As soon as he picked up the instrument and started playing his face lit up. He would practice for hours, perfecting every single note and learning countless new songs. Allowing him to bring his guitar to school and incorporate music into his school day as much as possible made school bearable (and maybe sometimes enjoyable) for this student. It also gave a place to his interest and life outside of school, showing him that the two did not have to exist separately. Music is clearly the force that motivates this student and upon discovering this, his teacher had a much easier time not only coaxing him to do his schoolwork but also relating the work he produced at school directly to his music. His teacher was able to discover and give a place in her classroom to what truly interested him without sacrificing the core curriculum he needed to accumulate.
I believe that learning is a lifelong endeavor and that the roles of “student” and “teacher” are never set in stone.
        While it is my role to educate the students in my class, that does not mean that I am immune from learning myself, particularly from them. As a teacher, I have put a high value on education and therefore believe that it is a lifelong endeavor. I feel that continuing my education is vitally important to ensuring that I am the best teacher I can possibly be. I believe that it is also important to discover what my students have to offer in ways of teaching both myself and their fellow students. I believe that because every student has a unique background, they have unique experiences to share. These experiences serve to enrich the classroom environment and the class as a whole, including me as their teacher. Everyone in the learning community will ultimately benefit from the sharing of these experiences.
         I believe that by giving my students the freedom not only to learn but also to share information and teach their fellow students, they will be able to recognize that they have a valid voice and a stake in their education and community. It is vitally important that students take an active role in their education and I believe that they must be engaged and feel a level of ownership towards the information being exchanged in the classroom in order to do so. Throughout my experiences working in schools, particularly elementary schools, I have been in several classrooms where teachers are utilizing a “student of the week” program. Each week the teacher selects a student who has been consistently working hard, staying on task, or otherwise had a notable week at school. The selected student takes a poster board sized paper which is laid out to look like the front page of a newspaper home over the weekend to fill out with their own information. There are various questions and sections on the poster for them to fill out, ranging from “favorite food” and “favorite movie” to “who is a hero to you and why”. Not only is this program an incentive for good behavior but also allows students to share personal aspects of their lives with their classmates. I plan to utilize a similar program in my own classroom. For the poster I would use in my class, I would also like to add questions like “what is your favorite family tradition” and possibly a section for a brief family tree or history so that the poster becomes almost like an autobiography. While this will not be the only way in which I incorporate students working in the role of an educator in the classroom, I feel that this is one example of how I will strive to make it a collaborative learning environment for everyone involved.          

I believe that a learner cannot simply be defined by their race, gender, ethnicity or any other social/cultural difference but that those differences can be an asset to their fellow students.           
              In today’s society, a multi-cultural classroom isn’t just an ideal, it is reality. Every student comes from a unique background and therefore, in my opinion, has something valuable to offer  their fellow students. We are the best representations of our culture and who better to learn from other cultures than members of that particular culture themselves.           The term “multi-cultural education” meant something entirely different when I was in elementary school than what it means today. My multi-cultural education consisted of celebrating minority members through holidays and specific school days dedicated to honoring other cultures. While I ultimately learned about minority cultures and their members, it was very impersonal and the process was one of observation and examination, not inclusion. The reality is that we live in a multi-cultural society and our nation’s schools should be representative of that. As is the case with other subjects, a textbook cannot convey the reality of the various cultures that comprise our society and therefore a multi-cultural education should engage students in a meaningful way. As I mentioned earlier, I strongly believe that every student has something to offer their classmates and community in terms of their own life experiences. I feel that no where is this more true than when discussing a multi-cultural curriculum. I have come to find that the best representatives of any particular culture are members of that specific culture. If students are allowed to share aspects of their culture with their fellow students, not only is the class’s multi-cultural understanding enriched but that student’s culture and home life has a valid place in the school environment. As I strive to be a multi-cultural teacher, I will do my best to always listen to my students and their families, reach out to families, to include them in as much of their child’s education as possible, and be open to every student sharing aspects of their culture and home life in the classroom. Because of the fashion in which I was “multi-culturally” educated, I feel that this will be an area of my teaching in need of constant critical reflection. The idea of viewing students from various cultural backgrounds from a cultural difference perspective versus a cultural deficit perspective I believe to be paramount in my ability to successfully bridge the cultural gap I may have with my students and their families. I will strive to connect with both students and parents in an effort to make known that their unique cultural experiences are something valued in my classroom.
 I believe that the school, it’s teachers and students are part of a larger community and therefore must draw from that community’s resources of knowledge and also contribute to the betterment of that community.
    Students and their families live within the community and as such are a part of it. Likewise, I believe that the school is part of the community in which it is located and not a separate institution. Therefore I believe it is important to facilitate connections between the school and the surrounding community. Just as students have valuable experiences to contribute to the learning environment, so do surrounding community members. Because students live and interact in the community on a daily basis, they must learn to pull from it’s resources of knowledge. A truly valuable education does not start and stop and the school’s door but instead is enriched by incorporating experiences from the world they live in.
    In turn, I also feel it is important for students to positively contribute to their surrounding community. By positively contributing they are not only serving to better that community but also come to realize that they are an integral part of it. This idea lends itself to the use of project based learning in my classroom. I believe that the use of project based learning, in which students identify a problem or issue in their community in which they are interested in researching and attempt to find and/or implement a solution, is an opportunity for students to connect with their surrounding community in a concrete way. Again, I believe that students have more to learn than what is presented to them in their textbooks in order to be successful in the real world. I do not believe a textbook can teach them to be critical thinkers, I do however, believe that project based learning can. Due to the nature of my degree program, my undergraduate work was rich in project based learning and through those experiences I have come to hold this type of learning in high regard. My undergraduate degree is in Community and Regional Planning, so the very nature of that field requires close interactions with surrounding community. Much of the work required for that discipline requires collecting data and information from community members and because of that I have come to value the perspective those community members can provide.
I believe that in order to become well rounded, critically thinking, productive members of society, students curriculum needs to be rich in both traditional subjects, such as math and literacy, but also in subjects that affect their everyday life and that will ultimately help them navigate the world in which they live.
          This belief directly ties into the importance I have placed on project based learning. Children do not live in a two dimensional world, therefore a two dimensional textbook cannot give them the complete education they need to navigate the world in which they live. That is not to say that traditional subjects, such as math and reading, do not have a place in today’s classroom. I believe children need a solid base in those subjects from which they can build upon. Without a solid base, in say addition or subtraction, it may be difficult for them to grasp the concept of the monetary system and how purchasing food products from the grocery store. In this way I seem to subscribe to the constructivist theory of learning. I believe that students need a solid foundation of knowledge from which they can expand upon through the exploration of a variety of subjects.
I believe in being accountable to my students, their families, the community and myself. This means continuously being guided by my core values and never giving up on or dismissing a student because they struggle to connect with other students or myself.   
    Just as no one aims to only be mediocre in their line of work, I also believe that everyone wants to be proud of the work that they do. In order to ensure I can be proud of the work that I do and the teacher that I am, I must be accountable. Accountability is necessary to ensure that I am producing the best possible results in my classroom. As a teacher, I believe I owe it to my students, their families, the community, and myself to provide the most conducive environment for learning. This means that every single one of my students has an equal opportunity to learn and achieve academically to the best of their abilities. This also means that it is of vital importance that I am guided by the core values which I have laid out in this philosophy of education. In the first belief statement I made I said that I believe in all students and their ability to learn. This means that I cannot dismiss a student because they are more difficult to work with than their peers. If I am to truly stand by what I say, I must have the endurance to work with children who are struggling. As I mentioned earlier, not every student who walks into my classroom will be a model student who is easily motivated to produce work. Again, students are unique and the challenges that they face and the subsequent challenges they pose to me as I attempt to connect with and teach them will also be unique. However, those challenges will not be impossible to overcome, particularly if I strive to adhere to my personal philosophy and the belief statements I have laid out. I must remember that at the very core of my philosophy is the simple statement that I believe in every single student and it is because of that simple belief that I will be able to enable them to be successful. 

Thanks for reading!