Nick Sandstrom

EDS 203-8
Philosophy Education Essay
Professor Chandler
11/26/21

The Educational Philosophy of Nick Sandstrom

To begin, there are many different viewpoints of what an educational philosophy should

be or look like. But the joy of becoming a teacher is that you can make your own philosophy on

how you want to teach your students. Educational philosophies consist of many components

such as your learning focus and goals, classroom organization, teaching style and lesson

planning, student assessment and evaluation, motivation, classroom management, and my own

personal philosophy.

First, I am going to talk about what my learning focus and goals would be in my own

educational philosophy. I believe that the most important goals for my earners as a teacher is

to make sure that my students learn what is needed and cover all of the material, but I would

teach in fun ways for the students to learn so they wouldn’t just be reading from the book. I

would have many activities throughout the semester so they aren’t just sitting down the whole

class period and hopefully, the students will enjoy coming my class. Then, there is my classroom

organization which is also a very important part of teaching because if none of the students are

listening, then how are they going to learn. My classroom will be a good and safe environment

that students would like to go to and feel safe in, but also a good place to learn. There will be

desks in the classroom, but I would also like to have tables for group work because many

students work better in groups as we do in the class that I am in now. Now, another key factor
is teaching style and lesson planning because in order to be a good teacher, the style in which

you teach as well as having a good lesson plan is very important. As a student, I have always

liked hands-on learning because if I have something in front of me it is easier to understand, so

when I become a teacher, I will plan on doing mostly hands on activities with my students and

will be in most of my lesson plans. Although there will be assessed readings and lectures, the

students will then get into groups and discuss as a big group what the reading was about and

key points that really sticked out to them.

Those are the first three key components of my educational philosophy but the other

four are just as important. Student assessment and evaluation is important because I’ll know if I

am doing my job as a teacher. Depending on the grade that I teach, most of my assessments

and evaluations I’ll be projects, reports, and discussions because while I grew up going to

school, I was never the best at tests. I also think that discussions and projects make you learn

the material better. The way that I am going to grade will also be letter graded because there

will be more assignments as well. Another very important key aspect in my educational

philosophy is the motivation that I bring and as well as my students because the main priority

for these students is so they can succeed. When I become a teacher, I want most if not all of my

students to be motivated to come to class, complete their homework, be on time, and have fun

while doing it. Although I will try and be a “fun” teacher, I also have to make sure that my

students respect me so I will have rules for them to make sure that they can reach their full

potential while enjoying learning at the same time. How I manage my classroom and the

climate of the classroom is also a key factor in my philosophy because if the classroom is hectic,

then students won’t be able to learn. I will use conflict resolution in my teaching because there
will most likely be many conflicts in many years of teaching and I can use some of the conflicts

as a learning point for my students and how they can overcome a conflict in the classroom as

well as outside of the classroom. I will also plan to build relationships with my students because

I will most likely be at the same school for a long period of time and I want them to feel

comfortable if they need to talk to me about something. The climate in my classroom will also

encourage anyone that wants to talk in discussion to talk as well as getting people out of their

comfort zones and be given a chance to have their thoughts heard. Lastly, there is my personal

philosophy learning focus which is also very important because if I want to be a successful

teacher. As I begin to start teaching, I will spend a good amount of time throughout the year

making sure I focus on my students getting the right amount of required knowledge and to

make sure that they understand what they are learning and keeping that knowledge with them

as they get older.

In conclusion, this is just the start of my educational philosophy’s and I have much more

to learn and am very excited to do so! But as of now, my educational philosophy is definitely

more student centered because I want what’s best for each of my students and I will let them

choose how they would like to learn to the best of their abilities. This is just the beginning of my

long educational journey, and I could not be more excited!

Educational Autobiography Essay

I grew up in the small town of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I am the youngest in my family. All four

of my siblings and I started out by going to private school. When I was younger, I loved going to

the catholic school and my family members did as well. But then, after my 5 th grade year at

catholic school, my mom decided that I should switch to a public school for 6 th through 8th grade

and I couldn’t have been happier with her decision. I made some of the strongest friendships

after I made the switch from private to public. I am currently roommates with three of my

friends from Rhinelander. Our school was small enough in which you knew almost everyone,

but not too small where you knew everything about everyone. That was one of my favorite

things about my school. I was mad at my mom when we she told me that I was leaving the

catholic school because that meant all of the friends that I have made over the years I would

have to leave and make new friends. At the time, I was unhappy with her but then I found out

that one of my closest friends from catholic school was also switching to go to the public middle

school. That made the decision much easier for me because I always knew that even if I didn’t

make new friends right away that he would also be there. Some of the best things in middle

school were making new friends that I still have to this day and we became closer as the years

went on to high school and even beyond that into college. Middle school is also where I found

my love for so many sports and activities that I still play to this day. Some of those sports

include, tennis, soccer, hockey, cross country, and basketball, but as I went onto high school, I

only continued to play three of those sports because they became much more challenging and

competitive. Another great thing about middle school was having my older sister in the same

building for the first year I was there because she was two years older than I was, so she
showed me around and made sure that I was ready to go and knew where everything was.

Then, I went onto high school and got to be in class with all of the new friends that I made in

public school as well as some of my old friends from catholic school! I was much more involved

in clubs in high school than middle school such as FBLA/DECA, and debate as well. Being

involved in those clubs helped me make new friends as well as get a good rib on what business

was like as I get older. I was also playing three main sports which were soccer, hockey, and golf,

hockey was definitely my favorite and “main” sport in my high school career because I have

been playing it my whole life and loved playing on the team in high school. Throughout my

years from 1st grade to 12th grade I had many favorite teachers, but if I had to pick one that was

my “teacher hero”, I would have to say it would be my 8th grade social studies teacher Mr.

Shoenecker. He was my favorite teacher and my hero because I never dreaded going to his

class, I was excited to every day because he made the class so fun while also learning a lot

about history. He was a very active and outgoing teacher and just made each day of class

something different and fun and made me want to become a teacher in the future. If I could

change one thing about growing up and where I went to school, the only thing that I can think

of is wishing that I had switched to public school sooner than 6th grade because I thought it was

much more fun and I met many more people! Now, I am in EDS 203 and am very excited for this

class because it will be a great starting class for my degree of teaching. I hope to gain

knowledge about the early stages of teaching in this class as well as what it will be like to

become a teacher and how great teachers are!