Lauren Brooks

Dr. Miller
October 19, 2015
My teaching philosophy
When it comes to teaching I have found that I am more a
progressivist. I know that I have wanted to teach this way for years,
because that's the way my favorite teachers taught and I learned and
was more invested in the lessons. I think so many students learn with
having life experiences as an applicable way to learn. In the book
progressivism is described as "an educational philosophy emphasizing
real-world problem solving and individual development." (Introduction
to teaching) I find this to be true and that emphasazing real world
situations that kids can learn from and can help them progress and
bring their schooling into the real world. This helps in many wasy one
big way is that kids can find more a purpose in leanring the content,
knowing it will help them in years to come. Progressivism has a few
goals stated in the book for example, it helps develop problem
solving, decision making, and other life skills. (Introduction to
teaching). The book helps give some examples of how a teacher would
go about teaching in progressivism form like guided discovery. In the
book on the page about progressivism there is a picture of a little boy
and girl looking at some rocks or gems. This is a great example of
guided discovery, giving a group of children a worm in a shoebox and
having them look at the worm and use adjectives to discribe the worm
and have them to talk about what a worm eats and etc. This is an
example of a lesson that I would teach to kindergardeners, I think
humanism is a part of this topic because it helps emphsize that they
are humans and can learn and participate.
I also scored high on the teaching method called essentialism.
The book defines this, as an educational philosophy suggesting that
specific knowledge and skills exist that all people should possess.
(Introduction to learning). I personally was surprised that this was one
of the teaching methods that I scored high on, because I am really not
the type to make everyone have the same stuff or be the same person,
I think everyone should be unique. Although, it is nice for everyone to
have the same information and then from there they can choose what
they would like to do with the information. I really liked the examples
the book had about this method, like the educational goal is to aquire
the basic skills needed to function in todays world. I think that being a
teacher is very important and you are the way that elementry kids are
going to get their information about the world and yes whether their
parents like it or not you are going to influence them. Giving children
all the basics and having them make decisions will help them go far in
life. An example of how I would teach this in my classroom would be a
lesson with a lecture and a slde show or powerpoint and have the kids

in groupd after a few minutes of intructiona and lesson teaching I

would have the students talk in there groups and have them discuss,
maybe I would have them do it in think pair share. Where you give five
minutes for the students to look over the content and then have them
talk with a partner about they just learned. Giving each student and
learning and etaching moment so they can learn. As hard as teaching
can be the first year I am so excited to teach kids and to help them
discover and grow.

Works Cited
Don Kauchak and Paul Eggen. Introduction to Teaching. Pearson
Education Inc,

2014.