Alexa Vero

Teaching Philosophy

Throughout my time in the educational world, I can confidently say that the most

influential component to any student’s learning experience is the teacher. Combining my

experience in the education system and what I have learned in GWTeach, I hope that I am

successful in creating an impact in the lives of my students. I hope to give them the tools they

would need to flourish as they continue with the rest of their academic careers and beyond. I

believe that a teacher needs to have an inclusive and welcoming classroom where every student

has the chance to succeed regardless of educational or personal history. A teacher needs to

individualize and diversify teaching so the lessons can reach a larger number of students. A

teacher should also lead their classroom with a focus on inquiry, excitement, and curiosity for

learning. They must move the focus away from “teaching for the test.” As a teacher in training,

these are some elements I hope to incorporate into my classroom. 

  I believe that it is vital to create and proper classroom environment where all the students

feel safe, welcomed, noticed, and included. The classroom culture I want to build has its

foundation on mutual respect between student-to-student and student-to-instructor. I hope to earn

the respect of my students by getting to know them as individuals, and not just a grade. As a

class, we would formulate the classroom rules together. The students will have ownership of

what we are doing in the class, and they are more likely to follow and enforce the rules to their

peers. Additionally, I would want to try an activity one of my professors did during his office

hours at the beginning of the year. He has us fill out a questionnaire about ourselves, our

interests, how we learn best, and our career goals. Then we had one-on-one meetings with him to

just get to know us. This was really impactful on me because a lot of college professors do not
seem to care who you are. I want to bring this into my classroom because I want my students to

know that I genuinely care about each of them.

Additionally, since respect is a two-way street, I expect that my students would like to

know me more. In the questionnaire, I would put a section asking for “questions for me.” After

getting my list of answers, I would answer one or two a week if they were appropriate. In

addition to having a healthy teacher-student relationship, I would want healthy relationships

between student-to-student. I would encourage open conversation about issues students might be

having, and to practice social-emotional skills in the classroom to curb future classroom

conflicts. Since classroom disruptions will arise, I will mediate the conversation between the

student and hear their sides of the story before getting higher administration involved. 

Other aspects to the classroom culture I want to cultivate is that I want students to feel safe in my

classroom. I want to be a resource for students to go to if they are facing any personal difficulties

at home, within themselves, or just in general. I want to offer constant support for my students

and help them to the best of my abilities. If I cannot assist them directly, I will point them in the

right direction to get the help they need. 

Along with being a resource for students, I want to put an emphasis on good mental

health and mindfulness practices. For the longest time, I put school in front of my wellbeing, and

that is not how it is supposed to be. For most people, you cannot present your best work or

perform optimally if not everything is right in your world. This is reflected in Maslow’s

hierarchy of needs. If all the pre-requisite needs are not met, then a person will not experience

self-actualization. They can not strive to be their best possible selves. I would evaluate the

success of this goal by doing monthly check-in surveys about how I am doing as a teacher and

what changes they want to see in the classroom.

 The second part of my teaching philosophy is centered around how I teach and how I

assess students. Not everyone learns the same way; students can vary between auditory,

reading/writing, and visual learners. With that being said, you need to give students a variety of

ways to understand the information presented and to produce their best work. You need to

diversify what questions you are asking and the kind of lessons you are having. There needs to

be a balance in instruction. Somedays should be group work and inquiry-driven, while others can

be more of an interactive lecture. Some days can have a discussion portion, and other times it can

be a flipped classroom. All the models have their pros and cons, as a teacher, you need to think

about which ones will be the best for the material you are teaching. By diversifying the

classroom, you can reach more students, including the ones with mental or physical disabilities. 

Another aspect I want to keep in mind when teaching and planning my lessons is to

challenge my students academically. When you work out at the gym and struggle with the

exercise, your body becomes stronger, and you can complete the task easier the next time. The

same concept work with your brain. By incorporating challenges into your lesson and saying that

it is ok it struggle and ask questions in your classroom, students will be more driven and ready to

tackle the next problem. Of course, you need to be continually building up your students’ self-

esteem and efforts, so they still have the motivation to try and not just give up out of frustration. 

For assessing my students, I want to give multiple opportunities to succeed. For project-based

assignments, it depends on what I am teaching, but I have two models that I think would be

effective. The first option is that I will set up general guidelines on what the project needs to

cover. Then I would let the students be creative on their own concept and let their interests guide

them in presenting the information. This format is very open-ended, and that can be daunting for
students. However, they will have the opportunity to workshop ideas with me so I can guide

them to produce their best possible work. My second option is to give three straight forward

project ideas and have the student pick one that they would be most interested in doing for their

topic. I would defiantly encourage my students to be as creative as possible. This idea still gives

students a choice in what they are doing however, it is more structured than the first format. I

would evaluate my students primarily based on the effort they put into the project and, of course,

the content of the work. As an additional side note to this philosophy, I feel like being able to

compromise and let a student redo an assignment or get an extension on it is vital. Unexpected

occurrences happen. Whether it be a personal family or mental health problem or something less

significant, I believe that there should always be room for flexibility when submitting work. Like

I stated earlier, I want to give students the chance to show off their best work, and if that means

moving a deadline back for a student, I will with the appropriate compromise.   

To evaluate written examinations, I would diversify how I am asking questions in the

exam. When I go to create questions on my assessments, I usually default to multiple-choice or

short responses. I feel like I need to learn more about how to ask better questions and how to

present them in different formats so that all students’ learning styles are addressed. Because of

that, I feel like I would do written assessments more in the form of quizzes rather than big unit

exams. I would save those larger assignments for projects. 

The third part of my teaching philosophy is to lead my classroom with a focus on inquiry,

excitement, and curiosity for learning, not to only teach for a test. I am not saying that tests

should be eliminated since that are an excellent way to evaluate a student’s understanding of the

material and to track their growth throughout the year. Additionally, it is a great way to assess

yourself as a teacher. It can help you with lesson planning, and it can assist you when
determining what you can change if students are struggling in a particular area. However, that is

not the primary purpose of standardized testing. A lot of the time, the test scores are to evaluate

how much financial aid a school will get from the government that year.  

I truly value the idea of continuous learning and forming my students into lifelong

learners. To do so, we must always be asking questions. Socrates said, “question everything”

during the 4th century BC, and that idea of inquiry is still relevant today in our classrooms and in

life. I believe that standardized testing pressure harms a students’ learning experience by creating

unnecessary stress for the student and by impeding their enthusiasm and curiosity for learning.

My goal is having them prepared for the exam, but not make it the only thing we do. I would

focus on the material while also incorporating all the different lesson models we have talked

about in GWTeach.  

Comparing the middle schoolers in Step 2 to the elementary school students I taught, in

Step 1, the elementary school students still had that ambition to learn for the sake of learning.

The middle schoolers lost that spark of wonder in them. Additionally, as students get older and

more self-aware of the education system, I believe that they feel like their value as a student and

as a person is dependent on these test scores. It is a very discouraging thing to go through as a

person trying to figure out life. It creates a self-deprecating idea that holds you back from

embodying a growth mindset. I defiantly want to change this notion and teach my students that

you are not only a grade. You are a person first and a student second.

Along with that idea, I found that without the pressure of exams, students are more likely

to enjoy learning more. Of course, I am speaking of personal experience. In my senior year, I

audited an AP Chemistry class and did well in it despite not taking the class for a grade. I did sit

down through every exam, and my teacher evaluated me like any other student. The mindset I
had was focusing more on learning for the sake of learning. Without the pressure of learning how

to pass that specific exam, it made the class more enjoyable, and I got more out of it. To achieve

this goal, I would change the conversation in the classroom by focusing more on learning

reflection and change how I introduce and implement assignments. I would want to give my

students a purpose for why they are learning the things I am teaching. It will provide them with

more motivation to try hard and learn the material. For these assignments, I will ask my students

to write down a few things that they gained from it and how this will help them reach a future

goal. This will make the students focus on what they are striving for rather than the grade.

Additionally, when I give out assignments, I will introduce it by talking about what skills it

advances first and ask them, “what might you learn from this.” After that, then get into the meat

and bones of the rubric. I feel like measuring the success of this ideal is more challenging

because it is hard to dictate if someone’s way of thinking has been altered. To measure the

effectiveness, I could send a survey around polling their opinions of school and learning

periodically through the year to see where the trends flow. 

           An additional note to my teaching philosophy that I want to keep my students informed on

current events and what is going on in the world around them. According to John Dewey, he

believes that schools are the place where we can initiate change for a better society. I think it is

only right to include my students in on the conversation. There is this morning newsletter I read

every day called TheSkimm, and it covers major events and world news. I want to go through it

with my class some mornings to just keep them informed, and so they can form their own

opinions. My goal for this is when my students move on in life, beyond my classroom, they will

be opinionated, informed members of society that will help see a positive change in our world. 
  When I went to go and revise my first teaching philosophy, I still had a lot of the same

values that I believed in, however they refined over time since taking Knowing and Learning and

STEM Topics in Teaching. My philosophy has always been student-driven. However, the core of

this revision is to create a positive classroom culture and to ensure that all my students all have

an equal opportunity to succeed. 

By no means am I a perfect teacher just yet. I still have a lot of learning to go. However,

with the knowledge I acquired during my time with GWTeach and with all my years of

experience being a student, I can say that the best teachers are the ones that open up their

classroom like a second home and accepting everyone, provide multiple paths for success and

make the focal point of their classroom learning and embracing the power of knowledge. With

that being said, no idea is set in stone, and opinions can change. My views on what makes a good

teacher can shift in the future, but for now, I am very grounded in my beliefs.