Our Teaching Philosophy

Below families will find a description of our teaching philosophy! Our teaching philosophy will discuss
how families can be involved in the classroom, the tools provided to families, and how we, as teachers,
want to present our classroom.

As teachers, we want our children to strive. For that to happen, we must create a rapport in the
classroom. It is essential that we get to know you and your children and that you get to know us.
Knowing you and your students allows us to make students feel welcome, included, cared for, and it
makes them feel good about themselves. It also helps our students and us learn more in the classroom.
It allows us to see things from new perspectives and learn about each other. It can introduce us to the
many differences in our lives, cultures, families, interests, and more! Learning about and acknowledging
diversity is very important to us. In our class, we want our students to be able to feel represented, and
we want them to see pieces of their lives reflected in our curriculum. Doing these things allows us to
build strong relationships with our students and help make the classroom more enjoyable. According to
Schwarzenthal, Schachner, and Juang “Reaping the benefits of cultural diversity: Classroom cultural
diversity climate and students’ intercultural competence,” doing these things will build something called
intercultural competence, which is the knowledge, awareness, and tolerance of other cultures and walks
of life (2019, p.324). To help us make this applicable in the classroom, we ask you, the families, to fill out
our Family Questionnaire and Student Questionnaire under the Contact tab. If you want to know more
about us, I recommend checking out the About Us tab.
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We would also like to prioritize respect in our classroom. Miss. Griffin says you don’t have to have
respect for someone to be respectful. We understand that respect is something you earn for some
people, and while we all hope to be someone you and your children grow to respect, we ask that we all
still act respectfully. We will always intend to be respectful toward you and your children, and we hope
we can have that shared sentiment. When we all make an effort to have a positive and respectful
environment, it allows things to run smoothly in the classroom. Students, faculty, and families can all feel
more comfortable and safe, and we can communicate more effectively.

A big part of having a respectful environment is establishing roles in the classroom. We want students to
feel like they have a voice in our classroom, but also they need to understand when and how they use
that voice. Rules play a big part in this. We have required regulations and procedures in the classroom
that we will ask everyone to abide by for the safety of our classroom and the fluidity of our school day.
Students must realize that while we want a fun and inviting classroom, we will still be doing work and
learning. We, as teachers, do hold power in the school as authority figures, but teachers, families, and
students have to work in a partnership. Classroom operation, how students learn, and how students
grow depends on all of us. If we do not work together, our students will not be able to succeed to the
best of their ability if we work together and maintain strong communication.

We are striving to create many different connections and partnerships with families. We want to keep
parents and guardians as involved as possible in their child's education years. We, as a team, created a
calendar filled with different opportunities for families to get involved. We will be consistently adding
events where parents could volunteer if desired. If you are interested in staying connected, please visit
the “Resources for Families” tab. We want to ensure the parent or guardian has multiple opportunities
throughout the year to see their child developing and growing in the school setting. We believe parents
must see how their child develops at home and in a more extensive and diverse environment such as
school.

We have created a “Culture Day.” The students will learn about a specific culture monthly with the event
listed. Our staff will provide food and space to make this possible. We love when parents volunteer. One
of our priorities is ensuring students stay culturally educated.

Strong partnerships are so important when working with our students and families. All families and
communities have something great to offer, and we will do whatever it takes to work closely together to
ensure every student succeeds. We look to build relationships, link learning, address differences, support
advocacy, and share power with our families.

When building relationships, we want to create a place where families can come to us for materials that
will better inform families about learning. We want families to honor the contributions of families.
Finally, we create a building open to the community and social services available to families.

Regarding linking learning for families, we want to create a place where families connect directly to what
students learn in the classroom. We will create family activities that relate to what students are learning.
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Even more so, we strive to create a place where families and teachers look at students' work and result
together and gain resources to help students, such as community groups that offer tutoring and
homework programs at our school. Our students go home with work every week, as well as a scoring
guide so that families can see the progress of our students.

When addressing differences, we want an inclusive environment where every family is in the spotlight.
We will have translators readily available, and PTA and PTO will include all of our families. According to
De Bruïne et al. (2014, p.412), “Filed experiences should include comprehensive and prolonged
interaction with parents… experiences allow candidates to discover the complexity of parenting and
gather knowledge about the diverse cultural backgrounds of parents.” We also use books and materials
that help us learn more about families’ cultures and utilize local groups to help us reach out to families.

Regarding supporting advocacy, we want to share the good news with our families. We have a
straightforward, open process for resolving problems. We also contact families each month to discuss
the progress of our students and have student-led parent-teacher conferences three times a year.

We want every family to join the team. We involve families in significant decisions and provide
resources. We also work with local organizers to improve the school and community.

The last thing we want is for our partnership to grow apart, which is where we address the potential
barriers that could cause that separation. Some schools may assume that families belong at home, not
school. If students are not doing well, it is because families do not give students enough support. Those
schools believe they are the oasis for students and want it to stay that way. Communication, learning
material, exclusion of culture, lack of advocacy, and no share of power are considerable barriers to a
solid and engaging partnership.

One thing that we, as teachers, find very important in our classroom is the impact that families/
guardians have on the success of our students. As said previously, families/guardians involved with
students inside and outside of school can make or break how a student's success will be within the
classroom. If a family is less engaged in school or at-home-work the more likely, the students will likely
act out or be unprepared for the work we have for them. That is the opposite outcome that we would
like to see our students have in our classroom.

Students will succeed tremendously when the family is involved as much as possible. According to Tan,
Gong, Zhang & Zhang, “One of the core features of family-school connections is to engage parents and
schools to support children’s learning collaboratively” (2021, p. 871). Although COVID-19 is not as
pertinent in our society today as it was a few years ago, the pandemic's outcome still affects our
children. A child before school age that grew up during the pandemic will need more attention and
involvement than a child who grew up without the pandemic.

In our classroom, your and your child's needs are essential and will be dealt with professionally and
promptly. On our website, we have many tools that you can use to reach out to us, become more
involved with the community, learn alongside your student, and just know what we are doing in the
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classroom. We have five contact forms. For example, the Band App contacts other parents and teachers.
You can post questions to a public chat with everyone in the classroom. We will also be adding forms
that are being sent home physically to the band app for accessibility purposes. We have a Calendly link
where parents can sign up for a specific time to physically meet with us or set up a zoom link to discuss
any concerns you have. Whether it is about your student or something you would like to see us do in the
classroom, you can set up a meeting, and we will discuss it. We also have provided a questionnaire for
both the parents and students to fill out that is 100% confidential that will help us better center on the
specific needs of you and your students. On our website, we have added our direct emails/phone
numbers, where if you are in a sticky situation and need to contact us immediately, you can go ahead
and call us. We will have our phones on do not disturb from 7 pm-7 am and will try to get back to you as
soon as possible. We also offer a learning lab activity. The activity includes Vocabulary Bingo, one of the
many activities we will do in our classroom.

De Bruïne, E.J., Willemse, T.M., D'Haem, J., Griswold, P., Vloeberghs, L., & Van Eynde, S. (2014). Preparing
teacher candidates for family-school partnerships. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37(4),
409–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2014.912628
Schwarzenthal, M., Schachner, M. K., Juang, L. P., & van de Vijver, F. J. . (2019). Reaping the benefits of
cultural diversity: Classroom cultural diversity climate and students’ intercultural competence.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(2), 323–346. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2617
Tan, F., Gong, X., Zhang, X., & Zhang, R. (2021). Preschoolers’ approaches to learning and family-school
connections during COVID-19: An empirical study based on a Wuhan sample. Early Childhood
Education Journal, 49(5), 869–879. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01217-x