Teaching Philosophy – Robin Logan

My teaching philosophy is to face every day with positivity, excitement and expect the
unexpected. I believe that people have an innate motivation to learn and us humans thrive off
our constant need to make sense of the world around us, making us continuously motivated by
our curiosities. This can apply to the learning we do in school as well as the learning that is done
in everyday life to complete new tasks, learn new hobbies, and make connections between
ourselves and our environments.
As a teacher I strive to help my students become intrinsically motivated to learn by,
allowing them to be curious and giving them the chance to explore things they are truly
interested in while connecting those things back to the specific learning outcomes. My teaching
style is very based on hands on learning and making sure the students have the chance to
experience and complete tasks themselves instead of just having them watch me. I believe it’s
important to allow the kids to explore the information or the task at hand by themselves and
allow them to create their own ideas and meaning before giving them the rules or a concrete
explanation. This allows them to brainstorm their own thoughts and connections about the
information, and what they want to do with it. Children’s imaginations can create meaning
between things in so many ways, some that we as teachers may have never even thought
about. It’s good to observe and reflect on your students’ ideas and feedback because it gives us
insight on different ways we could change assignments or projects and to allow us to assess
their learning in a more authentic way. By observing the way our students make connections
and create meaning around the material they are being taught we can more easily learn and
understand how their brains work, how they think, and most importantly, what conditions and
assessment strategies are the most effective in helping their learning progress.
Good teaching means you can foster meaningful relationships with your students to not
just help them learn and navigate the curriculum, but also to navigate their own lives,
relationships, and futures. I want to strive to make every student in my class feel as though they
have everything they need to be a successful learner. I want to continuously check my biases
and not let situations or bad experiences affect the way I treat any student in any one of my
classes. I will also remember to never question the confidence I have in myself as a teacher and
remind myself that the passion I have is worth a few bad days. The most important thing I want
to focus on with my students is how learning can happen in a multitude of ways, and they can
try as many ways as they want until they find the one that is fun and effective for them.