Jacqueline DiPaolo

10/27/20
Teaching Philosophy

Every teacher, no matter the subject, has different views on how a classroom should be held
and how students should be taught. From this realization, teaching philosophies were born. “A
teaching philosophy outlines your ideas about teaching and learning and sets out techniques for
being reflective about your practice, and describes how you teach.” So every teacher must create
a teaching philosophy in order to understand what they want their classroom to be like, and for
students to get a better understanding of the classroom. My teaching philosophy is that I believe
that a classroom should be a safe, caring community where children are free to speak their mind
and blossom and grow into thoughtful citizens and members of society.
Along with my teaching philosophy comes purposes and principles of teaching that relate
to my philosophy, the first purpose is learning how to learn, and the principle is active learning.
The subject matter at hand is a very important part of what students need to learn, teaching
students how to learn is also very important and needs to be taken into consideration. Learning
how to learn is a subject that students will learn throughout their entire school life. It is one of the
most important topics a student can learn because it helps better their future education and
themselves. An important teaching principal that goes along with this purpose is active learning.
Active learning is a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved
in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on
student involvement. Active learning is very important when it comes to learning how to learn
because active learning is something that everyone needs to do throughout their lives no matter
what job they are in.
No matter the age level or grade, one of the teachers main purposes is to educate and create
a student that will grow and blossom into a functioning and thoughtful citizen. Doing this
requires a lot more than just teaching a student the subject matter at hand, a teacher must go
above and beyond to teach life skills that a student will take with them beyond the classroom. A
lot of these lessons will consist of working with your peers or presenting in front of the class
because these are some attributes that make a functioning member of society. A principle that
goes along with this purpose is to develop reciprocity and cooperation among students. This is
essential when teaching students how to become a thoughtful citizen because working with
people is going to be a life skill that everyone needs to know and master.
Every teacher struggles with the issue of students decreasing self esteem and self
confidence, especially high school students. Self esteem and self confidence is something that
not only students, but most people struggle with today. It’s a sensitive topic that teachers need to
work around because it has a lot more to do with the classroom than most people think. Students
without self confidence will not only present themselves poorly in the classroom, but will also
have minimal participation and might not be the best to work with. A principle that correlates
with this is communicating high expectations. When a teacher communications high expectations
with their class, it shows the students that they’re going to have to develop a hard work ethic in
the classroom, and that the classroom environment is hard yet rewarding. This hard work and
direction might provide a student with a bit more confidence.
To conclude, there are many purposes and principles that go into teaching and that correlate
with my teaching philosophy. Every purpose and principle are specifically chosen because they
go together with turning students into functioning members of society and that’s my end goal.
Teaching about life skills and how to work with people is one of the most important lessons that
you will take with you throughout your entire life. Teaching all these concepts is what truly
makes an effective teacher and what also makes a great student. My teaching philosophy is all
about just doing what is best for the students and their future and these purposes and principles
really shine upon that subject.