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Elizabeth McDonald

Professor Christensen

EDU 202

November 19, 2017

Artifact # 2 – Philosophy of Education

Being from a family so low on the economic status pole, I knew as early as kindergarten,

my place in society and especially in school. I was very quiet, shy, easily embarrassed and felt

less than everyone else. I developed a fear of teachers from a humiliating experience in second

grade when my teacher yelled at me in front of the entire class for not putting my name on my

math homework. She made an example out of me by telling the other students that I was what

was wrong with kids today. She had no idea that at seven years old I was more concerned with

head lice, family finances and trying to attend school than putting my name on my math

homework. All the pride I had for doing my homework and feeling like a normal student for

once was quickly erased as I silently cried at my desk. That hurtful experience stayed with me

and shaped the way I dealt with teachers. This would be one of many childhood and adolescent

experiences that would shape my decision to become a teacher. Because of the unjust

humiliation and hurt, I experienced by a teacher, I vowed to be different. As a future teacher,

my education philosophy is founded on building relationships with my students and

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empowering them to be the best version of themselves while teaching common core subjects

that are based on their needs yet drives them to change the world.

For a teacher to understand his or her student there must first be a relationship. Looking

back at what went wrong in second grade; I realize that there was so much going with me at

home that greatly affected me at school and my teacher had no clue or interest. Growing up in

Northern California as the youngest of three girls, I always had a playful carefree personality. At

home that is. At school I was an entirely different child. While I was the youngest child at home,

at school, I was one of the poorest. My father worked in construction and was in between jobs

a lot leaving our family to be welfare supported. While my parents wanted me to be educated, I

missed a lot of school due to working alongside my parents in the agricultural fields and from

the constant battles with head lice. We were evicted quite often and quite often our electricity

was shut off. I often wondered if my teacher knew just a fraction of how my family struggled,

would I have been met with more compassion and understanding instead of humiliation.

As years passed, I was fortunate to have some great teachers, but I never let myself

truly be open and become vulnerable to any of them. My sophomore year in high school would

forever change my life. While my family was still struggling financially, I obtained my first job

and was starting to come out of my shell. I found the courage to apply for the link crew /

conflict mediation program at my high school. After review of my application and an interview,

the teacher for this program, Ms. Lori Walte, offered me one of the very few spots available for

the Link Crew program. When I applied for this program I didn’t know what it all entailed, but I

knew I wanted to be more than what I was and I wanted to be more involved in my high school.
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The Link Crew program was my catalyst for change. I could no longer be a fly on the wall

because this program did not allow that. Being a Link Crew member, I was part of a team

responsible for welcoming and mentoring incoming freshmen and helping them get acclimated

in their first year of high school. In addition to organizing and leading the freshmen orientation,

I was tasked to create a lesson plan that our team felt was relevant and important for freshmen

students and once a quarter teach this lesson in their designated classrooms. I can say that

during this time a teacher in me was made, however that’s not entirely true. I always knew and

felt that I was purposed to lead and reach others, I just never pursued it because I thought the

dream was too big for a poor, Hispanic girl who was not necessarily the smartest or most

outgoing. This program allowed my dream to take form in a more public way. Ms. Walte was

more than a teacher to me, I could talk to her about anything and she was so open and real that

I knew she loved me when I didn’t even love myself and she truly wanted me to succeed. She

saw something in me that I was too afraid to see in myself. She was the first teacher I allowed

my walls to come down with and let in. She pursued a relationship with me that no teacher had

done before. She inspired me to be better, to graduate high school, and to excel past my past

mistakes and stereotypes. She pushed me when I needed to be pushed, gave me tough love

when I tried to find excuses, and encouraged me to keep going and to always keep smiling. She

was more than a teacher, she was a leader who not only told me the way to go, but walked

with me as I found the way for myself. For the first time in my life, I started to see myself as Ms.

Walte saw me. That I had worth, I mattered, and I could make a difference.
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The very core of why I want to become a teacher is based out of these life experiences.

It would be my very childhood and adolescence years that would serve as a springboard for the

desire to treat students with kindness and respect and to go above and beyond what the school

district says is the minimum requirement. I learned early on the high impact, be it negative or

positive, a teacher can have on a student’s life. I’ve lived through the downside of teacher’s not

taking the time to find out what is going on in a student’s home life and then publicly ridiculing

them and I vowed to not be that teacher. My entire life changed because a teacher went above

and beyond to get to know me and treat me like an individual and not just another student.

This is the teacher I want to be. I want to become a teacher to reach, impact, and inspire

students through building meaningful relationships.

While my childhood and adolescence years played a huge role in my wanting to become

a teacher, I wouldn’t realize my passion for teaching until some six years later. After graduating

high school and dropping out of college, I moved to Las Vegas, NV where I met my husband and

we joined Nellis Baptist Church and started helping with their youth group. This is where I

realized I had a gift and a desire to reach teenagers. I recognized the need they had to be loved,

taught, and truly cared for. My husband and our love for this generation grew so much that he

became the youth pastor at our church and I have assisted him in running an entire youth

department for the last nine years. I know that through all their emotions, attitudes and hopes

to fit in, they have worth and are our future and deserve to be loved and educated. I have

encouraged those who are hopeless, I have loved those who hated themselves, and I have been
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an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. The relationships I have established with the teenagers

in my care have brought about transformation for me and them.

While building relationships with students is highly important, so is the content of what I

will be teaching. I never gave much thought to what my educational philosophy was until I took

this course Introduction to Secondary Education. After much review of the five educational

philosophies, and much self-reflection, I have concluded that I am a believer in Essentialism,

Progressivism, and Social Reconstructionism. While I am a firm believer that teachers are to

teach the traditional disciplines such as math, science, history, foreign language and literature,

the school and curriculum should be based on the concerns and real-world experiences of the

students and not solely focusing on the core curriculum only. It’s a good practice for a teacher

to maintain structure and good classroom management skills, however schools are for the

students and should be organized and facilitated as such. Building curriculum with their

interest, abilities, and experiences in mind is what will engage them and allow teachers to meet

students where they are and to cultivate and grow their interests. This is a great way for

students to build relationships with not only one another, but with teachers as well since

teachers will need to know the needs of their students to create such lesson plans. The Social

Reconstructionist classroom is what I found I believed in the most. I am a huge supporter of

today’s generation changing tomorrow’s world we live in. I think it is so very important for

students to be aware of social injustices and what is going on in the world today. I think it’s

even more important for those students to feel empowered to do something about it and have

a place where their voice can be heard. Teachers have the opportunity and honor to
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intellectually inform and emotionally stir their students. I want to be a teacher that moves

students to change the world.

To move students to change the world, I must make sure education is moving forward.

Learning about the path education has taken from the dame schools in the early 1600’s to

curriculum, standards, and testing we have in place today, one common thread that resonates

with me is that education must adapt to the times, be student driven, and support the better

good of the world. This course has shown me that education is constantly changing, and that

change is good. Sometime the best of intentions ignites acts and laws in education such as No

Child Left Behind, but later proven to do more harm than good. With change comes the

freedom to find what works and what doesn’t. As a teacher I will be open to change and

constantly thriving to find what works for my students and what does not. My personal

philosophy will be a combination of core curriculum teaching, incorporating curriculum based

on my student’s interests and needs, and moving students to change the world.

In addition to having a personal curriculum philosophy, how my instruction will reflect

my philosophy is just as important. I’ve lived through and studied the damage the high stakes

testing system brought about. I know that students are so much more than just a test score and

are so diverse that it would be a great disservice to them to ignore this fact. In my classroom all

forms of diversity will be embraced. I want my students to know that my classroom is a safe

place for them to be themselves without fear of rejection or bullying. I plan on creating a

cooperative learning environment that encourages students to work together while drawing on

different strengths within these groups. For example, I would dedicate an entire lesson on peer
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interviews. Students would spend time interviewing each other to include culture, strengths,

interest, etc. before presenting each other to the class. The goal of cooperative learning in my

class would be to establish a team mentality. A team that looks out for each other respects

each other and succeeds together. I believe everyone has something to bring to the table and

my classroom will be the discovering point for those students that feel like they have nothing to

offer. The other strategies that I plan on using are Bloom’s six levels taxonomy. Utilizing the

lower-order and higher-order questions in addition to the six levels will allow students to go

beyond knowledge and understanding into a deeper, meaningful mastery of what’s being

taught. My wait time after asking such questions will be increased to the recommended three

to five seconds to increase student participation and achievement. Assessing my students will

consist of a portfolio of work. This will allow me to examine students beyond a test or a report.

Because of all the different learning styles it is important for me as a teacher to examine a

student’s body of work on various assignments. Assignments in my class will be varied and

outside the box to include all learning styles. For example, a history lesson about presidents

would be more than writing a report and creating a power point; I would have each student

research a president of their choice and then debate each other as that president. If I want to

make sure that education is moving forward, then I must be a teacher that is adapting and

reaching all students by creating an interactive, engaging learning environment that applies to

different learning styles.

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To teach and reach students I must continue in my secondary education major and

obtain my Bachelor’s degree. Being a youth choir director and high school Sunday school

teacher is moving me forward to becoming a public high school history teacher. The

relationship I have established with youth in my life has given me incredible insight to what

they are going through and what their needs are. I am currently volunteering at the Women’s

Resource Medical Center where I plan on training to become an advocate for teen girls with

unplanned pregnancies. Because of the struggles I have dealt with as a child and an insecure

teenager, I have a heart and understanding for teenagers and am very aware to those in need.

As a wife and mother of 4 children ages 10, 7, 6, and 4, I am constantly volunteering at my

children’s school and have a front row seat the public-school system and the different stages

that comes with each grade. Education courses, field observation, volunteering and running a

youth department at my church has greatly helped confirmed that teaching is not just what I

want to do, but is a part of who I am.