Emily Weigand

Professor Suk

EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Fall 2021

Rationale Statement- Standard #8

Standard #8 Instructional Strategies

The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to

develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply

knowledge in meaningful ways (New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers Alignment with

InTASC, 2014, p. 10).

Artifact: Teaching Philosophy

Date of completion: December 2021

Course completed in: EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Rationale statement:

The artifact that I am using for this rationale statement is my teaching philosophy from education

field experience. In my philosophy, I discussed my top priorities when I am a teacher with my

own classroom. Some of these priorities include making my classroom feel safe and comfortable,

keeping learning fun, and making myself emotionally available to my students. This artifact

relates to standard 8.i.4 “the teacher varies his/her role in the instructional process (e.g.,

instructor, facilitator, coach, audience) in relation to the content and purposes of instruction and

the needs of learners (New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers Alignment with InTASC,
2014, p. 11). In my philosophy, I mentioned how it is the teacher’s role to be more than a

teacher. It is not enough to simply relay information to the students. A teacher needs to play all

of the roles at times, whether it’s an educator, a friend, a coach, someone to talk to, or even a

therapist at times. A good teacher is able to be flexible and play all of these parts while still

having healthy boundaries with students.

When creating this artifact, I reflected back on what I remember the most out of my career as a

student, going all the way back to preschool. I thought about all of my most memorable teachers,

and asked myself what I liked so much about them. The answer was, I always looked forward to

going to their classes because it felt like we were one big family. Those teachers made it feel like

more than school; they made it feel like a safe haven where we could all be ourselves

unapologetically. They made learning fun, and that made it memorable to me. I used that to start

off my philosophy, and it took off from there.

I can use this artifact to reflect back on and hold myself accountable when I am a teacher in the

future. Anytime I feel that I am not doing enough or like I am not feeling as confident in my

teaching, I can look back on this philosophy to remind myself why I took an interest in this

career to begin with.

References:

New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers for Teachers alignment with InTASC. (2014,

May 5). The Official Web Site for The State of New Jersey. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from

https://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/requirements/standards/docs/ProfStandardsforTeacher

sAlignmentwithInTASC.pdf