My Philosophy of Education

Inspire to Inquire
As a teacher, I strive to inspire my students to inquire by getting them excited about learning.
As William Butler Yeats said, Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
While content is important, so, too, is providing the tools to students to get motivated and
approach each day as an opportunity to learn something new. I consider myself to be a lifelong
learner both teacher and student and this is evident in each part of my life, professional and
personal alike.
I seek to make personal connections with students in order to make them comfortable in my
classroom and to enhance the learning environment. As a substitute teacher, seating charts were
a critical tool to enable me to call students by name during class. I comment on books I see
students reading and sports jerseys they are wearing in order to build rapport and learn more
about them. I hear news about a students achievements or hobbies and make an effort to
congratulate them and show my interest in their activities.
I believe a critical aspect of the learning process is to instill responsibility and accountability
in students. I am organized and will hold my students to a high standard of work. I provide clear
instructions and expectations to students through a written plan and schedule as well as an
ongoing calendar of assignments provided. With the variety of communications tools available
today, there should be few excuses for not knowing what is due at a given time. I will encourage
students to ask questions of me and fellow classmates in order to understand classroom
procedures and expectations. As most of the learning will be student-centered, this will build
critical skills for young people that they will use each day.
An important element to education is to make it experiential. As much as possible, students will
use their work for real world applications, whether it is writing a press release or news feature on
a current event, developing a multi-media public service announcement, expressing opinions and
creating persuasive and critical arguments about issues of the day. There are many opportunities
to create cross-curricular lessons by reading multicultural literature and examining immigrant
issues as a result; or looking at history through personal memoirs, such as the civil rights
movement, and applying critical thinking skills to compare and contrast life today to that time.
Experiential learning also involves cooperative learning strategies, as this collaboration benefits
students in professional life and interpersonal relationships.
With optimism and these ideals, I believe my teaching has a great capacity for inspiring my
students to inquire further about life, language and the world around them.
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Kathleen B. Carlisle