Ryan Martorello

Educational Philosophy
 Abstract

This paper outlines my personal philosophy of education and my experiences entering

into the educational field. EDSC 323 geared me towards an effective planning of my lessons and

understanding the lengthy structure of what I will have to write when I enter into the field of

teaching myself. My practicum experience is the in-person experience that I obtain through

interacting in the classroom with my mentor teacher and observation of the classroom lessons

and classroom management of the students. In this philosophy, I will share experiences through

my practicum experience and outside understanding of education.

 Educational Philosophy

When I chose the path of education, I was not completely clear on my decision to go

down the path. I questioned myself multiple times if I were going to end up wasting time

following this profession and that I made a choice just off of impulse and just stuck with it

because I needed to find a career to do. As soon as I walked into my practicum assigned school, I

found out immediately that I enjoyed the school environment of Advanced Technologies

(ATECH). When I walked through the school and into my mentor teacher’s classroom, I

connected with the atmosphere of the students and my mentor teacher.

When I first walked into my mentor teacher, Mr. Jeff Hinton’s classroom, he was very

professional in opening up his classroom to me and telling his students that I was going to be

here for the semester. The students were welcoming in his classroom as well. The overall

experience was eye opening to see how he connected with students on a personal level but also

keeping it professional in the classroom with presenting the content to the students. Mr. Hinton

was extremely knowledgeable in his profession and he admired my interest in education. From

giving my one lesson in class and from us discussing the lesson afterwards, he recognized that I

showed humility in my learning process as a beginning teacher and I was open to critical

feedback rather than having a boastful attitude like I was going to come into the classroom and

immediately know exactly what to do.

From giving that first lesson and receiving feedback from it, I understood that I had a lot

of learning and organizational structure of the classroom. First, improving the learning

experience. Lessons given through a direct instruction format can be dull and disengaging the

student learning environment. The future of learning is depended on indirect learning

experiences in the classroom. Lessons that encourage more student involvement in the classroom
will be able to yield better results in the classroom for understanding content. By reflecting on

their own experiences, students continually change what they believe, discard old information

and accept new information, and question, explore, and assess what they know (Borich, 287).

Understanding and encouraging student participation creates an environment where the educator

is holding accountability to the students by giving them the content they need and having them

produce their learning experience from the content. With my field of Social Sciences, correlation

of Problem-Based Learning is an effective tool to use because I can take real life experiences that

students are going through and apply those experiences to lessons in the classroom.

Moving onto understanding organization of the classroom to encourage a productive

learning environment is to organize the classroom to your placement of students. Mr. Hinton

explained to me on my first day in the classroom that you never want students to choose their

own seats in the classroom and that structuring a seating chart will be your best decision. This

correlates to Bosch’s statement about organizing the classroom. There are times when you will

want to change the arrangement to encourage a more cooperative, interactive, and group-sharing

climate (Borich, 80). This will encourage a productive learning environment because students are

going to be placed in areas where there are going be limited social interaction in the classroom.

The bulk of understanding in my educational path as a teacher is that the best and most

effective way of processing information to the students are through indirect instruction and

creating a social environment with your students that also demonstrates a professional standard

in the classroom. Indirect instruction includes a collection of activities that implement student

learning the content instead of me, the teacher feeding the content to the students through direct

instruction to the students. If I implement more indirect instruction activities in this classroom,

this will veer the distraction of the student minds to wander in the classroom and not stay
engaged with the lesson. Creating a professional but also social relationship with the students

will benefit my teaching experience in the classroom. From a Ted Talk I watched, it said,

“students are not going to learn from people they do not like.” This resonated with me in the fact

that I first have to build relationships with my future students to be able to run an effective

classroom. If I create an environment that does not encourage student engagement, all my

lessons regardless of indirect or direct are going to be doomed to fail.

Overall, my experience in my practicum year motivated me to continue this path of

education. The stigma behind a teacher’s job being easy is not accurate at all. This stigma stems

from the content being laid out for the teachers to teach students. I am responsible not for just

delivering the content but allowing student comprehension. Building relationships with the

students on a professional level encourages a productive learning environment. There is a lot of

skills that a teacher must possess to follow this role. I cannot be just knowledgeable of the

content. I have to understand that not every student is going to get every lesson and every student

is going to require my assistance in my lessons at one point in time.

 References

Borich, Gary D.. Effective Teaching Methods (What's New in Curriculum & Instruction) (p. 80).

Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

Borich, Gary D.. Effective Teaching Methods (What's New in Curriculum & Instruction) (p.

287). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.