Huff 1

Logan Huff

My Teaching Philosophy

I understand that the teaching philosophy I use in my classroom will have a major impact

on all my student’s lives. The way I control my class will affect each and every individual

present. If I show my students that I mean business, they will come to class with a serious

learning mentality. With that being said, I want my students to feel like they are in a comfortable

learning environment. I want them to feel comfortable asking questions at any point of

confusion. I also am aware that all students learn differently. As a result, I want to mix up my

teaching styles to cover all learning abilities. Some examples may include full class discussions,

small group work, and individual work. Another important aspect that is under-utilized in the

teaching world, that I would like to incorporate in my classroom is review. At the beginning of

every class day, I firmly believe in doing a quick review of the main points that I wanted my

students to pick up from my lesson the day before.

I think that today kids need more technological based ways of learning. It has become the

norm in society to use technology to advance one’s knowledge on a topic. Therefore, I think

mixing a traditional classroom and a technology based classroom would be beneficial to today’s

students learning styles. I will incorporate the conventional approach by having my students take

notes on my lesson, read the chapter out of the book, and work in groups to process the assigned

material. I will incorporate technology into the classroom by using clickers to learn and review

information, making my students create powerpoints on topics, and by occasionally using a

reverse classroom. With this reverse classroom style, my students will learn by watching a video

of the lesson I have recorded at home, so when they come to class the next day they can do their

homework and be able to ask me questions.

 Huff 2

When my students leave my classroom I want them to be able to see the bigger picture. I

know that as I teach certain lessons my students will wonder, “Why will I ever need to know

something like that?” I want to make sure that I provide them with the information regarding that

question so that they are ready to engage in all learning material not just certain sections.

However, overall when my students leave my classroom, I want them to have the skills and

mindset to be lifelong learners.

As a teacher, I will have the mentality that every student will have the ability to learn

everything that I teach them. I am very confident in my ability to keep students engaged and

interested. With that in mind, the only way my students are going to have this success is for me

to have a disciplined classroom. My students are going to know that I have high expectations of

them and any misbehavior will not be tolerated. By having a strict classroom, students will

constantly be learning and they will not be set back due to others wrongful choices. My goal as a

teacher is to have my students comprehend as much information in the allotted time I have with

them, and this will be achieved by keeping order in my classroom.

As I touched on earlier, I want my students to feel like they are in a comfortable place to

learn. I want the atmosphere of my classroom to give off a “homey” vibe. My classroom will be

filled with enjoyment, generosity, respect, and kindness. I believe one of the main purposes of

school is for kids to learn how to be a good person, not only a good student. One of my motives

to becoming a teacher was to be a role model to others. I want to be someone my students look

up to and learn from. When I was growing up and going through the school system, I had great

role models in my life, they taught me what it takes to be an admirable individual. I want other

kids to have this experience as well. As a result, there will be an emphasis on becoming a good
 Huff 3

person, friend, and classmate in my classroom. I believe that as my students learn to have good

character, they will also discover or build on what it takes to have academic success in school.

Getting parents and the community involved with school events and in the classroom is

also really important to me. Having guardians involved is very important, it helps ensure student

success. As a teacher, I want the ability to call a parent into my classroom after school and say,

“your kid is not doing their homework or participating in class and we need to figure this out

together.” By building up this relationship with parents, we will have the ability to figure out

other arrangements to achieve their child’s academic success. I also believe it is highly important

to involve the fellow community members. Having the community involved in the school system

allows for extra activities beyond just learning in the classroom. Some of these include

homecoming floats, cook offs, sponsors for events, chaperones for field trips, and support at

sporting events. Having this sense of security and encouragement causes individual prosperity.

Finally, I want professionalism and student differentiation to be a highly principled part

of my teaching philosophy. It is my responsibility as a teacher to stay up to date on the newest

methods of teaching and content information. I will make sure that I continue to grow as a

teacher, so that I always have the skills needed to be an effective educator. With this in mind, I

will make sure that I am a very diverse teacher. It is particularly important for me to stay up to

date on all areas of teaching. I understand that my students will learn differently and at different

rates. It will be my job as a teacher to be able to connect and fulfill all my students needs to be

successful in the classroom. Mark my words, I will be a teacher who your children can count on

and look up to as they go through their years of education.

After teaching my lesson in 9th grade Physical Education, I found that there was a direct

correlation between my lesson and my teaching philosophy. In my philosophy paper, I stated that
 Huff 4

I wanted my students to have a “homey” feeling while in my classroom. While presenting my

lesson, my students looked and acted like they were very comfortable with what I had asked

them to do. To engage my students during my lesson, I had one of my students demonstrate how

to perform a certain skill. It was then the rest of the classes job to observe and help critique

anything that was done wrong. In my teaching philosophy paper, I stated that I would have a

strict classroom. When teaching my lesson I was able to control my classroom very efficiently.

Whenever the group started to get off task or get noisy, I would blow my whistle three times in a

rhythm. My students would then clap the same beat back to me to show they could hear me and

were ready to listen. Occasionally, I would have to blow the beat twice because some did not

hear me the first time. I would also blow the beat with my whistle again, just as a fun way to

bring excitement to my class. It was also stated in my philosophy that I would use small and

large group work. During my lesson, I had my students break up into small groups. In those

groups, my students worked on shooting, dribbling, and passing together. Students were

encouraged to help one another out if they saw something being done the wrong way. After

practicing these basketball skills in groups, my students got the chance to implement what they

practiced in a full class setting. My students played King Court Lightning, which is a form of

continuous lightning that allows students to practice dribbling, shooting, and passing in a

competitive atmosphere.