Danielle LaVille

(616) 8561847 | lavilled@msu.edu

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Creating a safe place within our classrooms is an essential component to having a positive learning environment
for all students. One way to create this safe place is through effective classroom management. If classroom
routine and management have not been properly established before a lesson begins, a teacher runs the risk of
spending more time getting the students on track than teaching them the new material. Each of us has their own
method of management that works best, and it is important to try new strategies until you find one that works
best for you. This can be done not only through observation of other management techniques, but through the
advice of ones colleagues as well.
Another way to create this safe environment for our students is to stress the importance of respect in the
classroom. This means that we are to not only teach our students what respect means, but we should model it for
them too. That respect will not only keep students from talking when a peer is, but it will also allow them the
opportunity to make mistakes and learn from their peers, without the worry of being ridiculed.
For our classroom to be a meaningful learning space, it is essential to recognize the diversity within it; these
meaningful environments allow students to apply what is learned in the classroom to their daily lives. While we
are the primary teacher of our students, they are teachers to one another as well, so it is important to offer them
these opportunities. For example, if students celebrate different holidays during any given season, it may mean a
lot for those students to talk to their classmates about it.
Last, in order to create a conducive learning environment, I believe in the importance of fundamentals. Through
working with kindergarten-aged children, I have learned the importance of knowing letters and sounds to read
and write. In addition, if students do not know their numbers, it is much more difficult to build upon that
knowledge in further areas of mathematics.
To many, it is difficult to understand the teaching profession, as there are many components that go into the
learning experience of a child. It is not just about the material that is being taught, but it is also the ways in
which it is taught and the environment in which it is learned. It is my goal as an educator to tailor these specific
components to different students with whom I work in the classroom.