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Applicant

My name is Kelsey Giles and I am a 10th grade English educator at Chaparral High

School. I come from a family where my mom is a college professor, so I have been surrounded

by this environment for a long time. As a future educator, I often think to myself, what is it about

long lesson planning, early mornings, late nights and crazy students with different backgrounds

that draws future and current educators? Often, many adults and students don’t quite understand

how much educators, really, impact a child or young adult life, which makes one sit and reflect

on what the philosophy of education really is. There are certain roles that a teacher, student and

the parents have that play in part in order to better the community and education experience.

So, what​ is​ the purpose of education? Of course, the answers like, “be there for the

children” and “change their lives and outlook on education” is important and often said. The

answer of preparing people for life, work and being a good person is stuck in my head. Roughly,

the first 18 years of life are spent at school, averaging about 7 hours a day. In those days, they

are consistent of different adults managing and forming how a student will learn and apply social

skills. An educator has a huge role and impact on a person’s life, starting when a child just starts

to form their own ideas. A teacher is the first, besides parents, role model that a student can

relate to and look back on. Leading into the roles of the teacher, it is to be everything in a

student’s life, such as, a mom/dad, friend, nurse, therapist…etc. It is way more than lecturing

content. TeacherCertification.org (2019) claims, “Students look to teachers as examples of

professional adults. They often have more contact with their teachers than their own parents, so

it's important for teachers to always reflect a positive image and teach children things like
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respect, trust, and responsibility. A teacher can do this through his actions and words in the

classroom, leading by example”. It is very important to take this into consideration everyday on

the job, one mishap can cause a ripple in a child’s life and outlook on respect towards adults.

That being said, students directly form the structure of a classroom and the learning atmosphere;

this creates a culture of learning for each student. When students go home, the parents have the

accountability to check on their child and make sure they are okay. The reliability of getting

homework done is split between student/parents but, it can be pushed by the parent and should

be. Overall, everyone has a direct effect on education. Teachers, being under appreciated, have a

huge role in a child’s life. Students form their learning environment and parents check in on that.

Statistically, an adult will spend 15% of their life in school, that is the first 18 years of a child’s

life at 180 days a year. This allows a child to discover who they actually are and that’s a big

thing.

Project-based learning is a huge part of my teaching philosophy; To actively engage in

real world, personal meaning is what I am all about.A problem I am currently facing is how do I

as an educator make reading more relevant and exciting for students? Recently, I have run into

problems of unmotivation when it comes to reading. I personally believe, a project that takes a

little longer than a week on a topic a student genuinely enjoys can make students more active and

motivated to complete their best work. My idea is to incorporate social media and reading

together in order to make it more appealing to students. Here at Chaparral, chromebooks and

computers are available for students to make this project come to life. Students develop deeper

understanding as well as critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills among other

students and other people. Project based learning is intriguing for both the students and teachers
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which makes learning environment more fun. As for technology, I have experience with all

varieties of it! I am also very adaptive so, anything new I can conquer in little time. I think

technology can have a positive impact as well as a negative. As long as I am engaging with

students and active with them, technology cannot cause a negative in my classroom.