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Maisy Mathews

Connie Christensen

EDU 201

November 27, 2019

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Artifact #1 – Philosophy of Education

Early Education has always been a huge part of my life and, now that I am majoring in

this field, it always will be. Ever since I was young and in Early Education myself, I have always

loved the feeling and even the smell of school. Kindergarten was my favorite and the majority of

Elementary School was just full of fun, excitement, so much learning and growing, and overall

great memories that I still look back on today. I had so many great teachers and the fact that my

mom was PTA president made it even more fun. Watching her participate in so many events I

was in, being a part of the school, and helping make the school what it was inspired me and

helped me grow to love school. That is where my passion for the school and for teaching started.

As I got older, middle school became one of the worst and toughest years of my

education, and I would have considered myself the average girl who had a good number of

friends but was a huge nerd deep down. I say this because I started noticing the groups forming

and I would watch their behaviors and so I decided to adopt the behavior of what’s considered

the “teacher’s pet”. I always talked to my teachers, I never had missing work, always

participated, and I was always rewarded by my teachers with phone calls to my mom and after

school parties for students who had no late work or something of that sort. Building that personal

knowledge and skill set helped me become who I am today. I am proud and love being

considered a nerd, which is a great characteristic and attitude to have when becoming a teacher.

There is so much to learn and you have to love school and teaching in order to become an

effective and impactful one.

I had a lot of teaching experience within high school because I was in the Early

Childhood program area and I got to do an internship as well as work with kindergarteners. It

helped me explore my interest in teaching more and on top of that my program area teacher
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encouraged me to become a teacher because she said she saw my gift and how good I am with

children. That inspired me and sparked a fire in me. Once when I took this class and I started my

internship in a class of third graders, I got to explore more of my interests and now I am leaning

towards older kids. Being in the internship has helped me better understand the cognitive

development of children within different age groups as well as the importance of how to teach

these ages. I have been enjoying studying the classroom environment, what to look for, and how

the teacher performs. It’s been exciting and has helped me get a visual of how a classroom

should run overall.

After learning so much about teaching and watching it in action, I have built a few beliefs

from the philosophy I go by as well as philosophical orientation(s). Within the book, Becoming

A Teacher by Forrest W. Parkay, on page 116 it explains the constructivist perspective and

transmission perspective. Out of the two, I can definitely say I am on the constructivist

perspective side. I believe that students should be able to learn on their terms and in their own

way a majority of the time. I don’t think transmission perspective, which is very structured

based, is efficient enough to reach all students. Some students don’t learn with just reading the

directions and doing, some students need a visual representation, or they need to experience the

topic, just like I do. I think that is why I am for constructivist perspective more because of the

fact that I do prefer that type of teaching to be taught to me as well. At the end of chapter four of

this book, there was a philosophical inventory test that shows what philosophy you go by. My

result was the existentialism philosophy, which is the belief that individual and emotional

commitment to living authentically is extremely important. This philosophy emphasizes choice

over the importance of rational theories. It also explains how people should define themselves

through personal choices. This resonates with me very well because I do believe in those
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statements and I think exploring individuality is so crucial and important in order to become

successful in life.

One of the biggest historical events that have set the stage for me was Sarah Pierce’s

Female Academy. Her event started in the dining room of her home with two students and grew

up to 140 female students from almost every state and from Canada as well. Pierce’s curriculum

was based off of practical knowledge and skills instead of the classics such as cleaning, cooking,

and becoming a mother. Pierce also created female seminars which was a way to train women

for higher education. Pierce’s academy helped women eventually be able to vote and she

changed history. This event was huge because she gave women freedom and the ability to learn

more than just household work. One of the reasons why I am typing this essay right now is

because of her and she basically helped me get an education.

A few instructional strategies that are important to me are abstract thinking, active

learning, active participation, activity centers, compare and contrast, and sharing ideas. All of

these strategies listed are important to me because they represent not only cognitive learning, but

it also encourages physical learning as well. I think the sharing ideas strategy is super useful and

effective because it helps encourage others and students are working together as a team which is

a great aspect to have within the classroom and for students to learn to do. There are so many

students who are different from the way they think to their physical appearance and it’s

important to share those difference with the class and help students learn from one another. That

is why I will approach student learning, student diversity and variability, and assessment fairly

and respectively. It is crucial to make sure you think of every students’ needs and their

background needs to be considered when it comes to teaching and testing. I will make sure every
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student feels comfortable, that they are never judged for who they are and what they are capable

of, and to make sure they learn to the best of their abilities regardless of race, ethnicity or gender.

Last but not least, there are a few characteristics and skills I will need to posses in order

to continue this career. The most important ones in my opinion would be hard working,

passionate, helpful, smart, kind, giving, optimistic, accepting, flexible, encouraging, positive,

formal, and instructive. These characteristics is how I want to be and hope to be within this field

as well as everywhere I go because I think these characteristics are crucial to have. I have gone

so far within this field and I am so excited to explore so much more of it. I am going to keep

studying my degree and I hope to graduate with a bachelor’s in Early Education by 2022. I was

already offered a substitute job from my internship school and I am planning on working there

once when I get my associates as a sub. Once when I finish my internship hours, I am planning

on asking the principle if I could still come volunteer at least once a month. I think that would be

exciting and would help me get more experience in order to learn more about this field which

will benefit me in the long run. I want to keep trying to get internships and more and more

experience within teaching. I would like to explore different age groups and grades such as

fourth, fifth, and middle school. I also would like to pursue the field of science within teaching

since I have such a huge passion for science and math. I am so excited to keep pursuing this path

of teaching and I cannot wait to see what is in store for me.