Diary 2: What is my teaching philosophy and can it change during the years?

When you think about your teaching philosophy, can you always use it in your class? Does every teacher has the same philosophy or can it be totally different? When you become or you know already that you are a born teacher I believe that you have the same thought as every teacher. Just to mention a couple of examples:

-> A class is a living community and everyone wants to teach in a positive atmosphere.

-> Students are individuals and everyone learns in their own unique way.

-> You prefer that every student is motivated and you will do your utmost best to gain this.

-> Your goal is to give as much attention as you can to every student even though there are students that needs more attention.

-> Every feedback that you get of your students about loving your classes and that they learn a lot, is a dream that come true.

-> Maybe you want to make jokes and have a good time with them. You want to educate and let them feel that you believe in them to gain the best out of your students.

All these examples of a teaching philosophy is a small part of more examples. According to GreatSchools Staff teaching is one of the most complicated jobs today. It demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum, and standards; enthusiasm, a caring attitude, and a love of learning; knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques; and a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people.

For example: When I was teaching Cultural Arts dance classes to young learners in a secondary school I had prepared a teacher centered lesson. I let the students all together watch a youtube video about the history of dance. After watching the video I asked some questions because I wanted to start a discussion to talk about the evolution of dance and what has changed the last couple of years. But nobody wanted to talk. I tried to elicit the students with questions, with pointing out somebody, with jokes etc. Only one or two were responding but not in the way I wanted. I realised that they were not used to talk and brainstorm about ideas, with each other. They were used to only listen to what the teacher is saying. Because I am a choreographer I thought that everyone would have joined the discussion, everyone would come with lots of ideas, that they were interested in dance and how beautiful the content of the video was etc. In this moment I felt that I had to change my plan to start a discussion but in this moment I couldn't. I knew that I had to do it different next time and I learned from it. This moment changed my teaching philosophy to young learners and the next time I teached them I knew what had to do.

I would like to share with you my thoughts about my philosophy:

I don't believe in test scores because of the heaviness of the grade

I do believe in nun summatieve tests: Also a support from the student during the learning process. This does not always have to be done in writing. Observations, asking open questions and test dialogues are also valuable methods. This gives the teacher a clear understanding of how the student masters the assessed components. The feedback that the teacher gives on this should lead the student to develop further and to take it one step further in the learning process. In addition, the student knows what depth is expected on a certain topic.

I don't believe in that you have to let your students choose if they want to participate in a group

I do believe in that every student can participate even if they don't want or are embarrassed and that they will gain confidence from participating in the group

I don't believe that success is achieved by material wealth and that it makes you more happy

I do believe in that success is achieved by your personal character and your will of accomplish your goal. If it's being a mother or being an advocate.

I don't believe in teaching without love, without listening to the children, without any form of empathy will let the children develop themself as much as they can

I do believe that children who are raised with love from their parents, know what empathy is, knowing how to share and love to read books and playing outside instead of sitting at home behind their mobile, that they have a impact social change in our society and are can achieve everything that they want in a good way

I don't believe that only your way of teaching and not changing your way of teaching is the best way to keep up with the fast going changing society

I do believe that volunteering, listening and open up for tips/feedback, evaluating with your students, changing trying things in class, makes you a modern teacher, ongoing and keeping up with our fast changing society

This Tefl course made me become more conscious and clear about my teacher philosophy. Before this course I knew what was important for me to share with my students but I never thought about it in this concrete way, I could never define it so specifically. What a philosophy means, this ideology that specifies you as a person, as a teacher. Only when you have all clear what is important for you, you can bring it over to your students. I am still learning everyday what is important to life and what is my teacher philosophy, because I think all your norms and values makes you how you are as a teacher. I want to keep up with the students so I need and also I want to adjust my ideas, my thoughts and my approach. That means that my teaching philosophy is changing during the years to keep up with this society.

Links:

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/job-interview-answer-what-is-your-teaching-philosophy-2063859

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moment-youth/201512/6-habits-great-teachers