Teaching Philosophy

The Basis for my Philosophy

My teaching philosophy comes from a love of reading and learning answers to
questions throughout my own education. As a teacher librarian and information
specialist, my central mission will be to:
Encourage a love of reading
Promote information literacy and technological fluency through investigation
and analysis of all the options for research and the literary world
Foster lifelong learning by enabling students to formulate the necessary
questions and retrieve the information that they require to answer those
questions.
Constructionist and Inquiry Teaching
To accomplish this mission, I will enable constructivist and inquiry-based learning.
Using collaboration, both teacher and student, I plan to provide opportunities for
apprenticeship, modeling and scaffolding to enable active learning and mastery of
the skills necessary for the next level of development. Encouraging students to
bring their own wealth of prior knowledge and engage in co-operative learning and
use of reciprocal teaching and questioning is vitally important to skill building in a
technology rich, learning environment and in preparing young people for the ability
to gather knowledge in further academic and career environments. Knowing the
right questions to ask, making connections within various media and materials,
forming hypothesis and having the ability to prove them is the basis for higher
thinking that can be utilized for a lifetime.
Classroom Management
Intrinsic learning and flow theory will be essential for motivating students. The
rewards of hands on learning, physical engagement in library science and
technology, and the use of collaboration, may be supplemented with the occasional
unexpected, performance contingent reward. I am very hopeful to use the
classroom management theories of Glasser and Coloroso, by encouraging a sense of
belonging and freedom among students. I plan to allow for an open and fun
atmosphere in the library setting, including time for music, physical performance
and a collaborative relationship with classroom teachers. All collaborative
assignments would be meaningful and relevant work, library meetings would
discuss the expectations of the collaboration with the teacher and students and how
these assignments will enhance their education in the current year and future years
to come. An emphasis on the development of personal responsibility, inner
discipline, decision-making and consequences, will be tempered with an
opportunity to engage in the decision portion of the activity. Likewise, self-
assessment would be a key factor for student success. All students will be
encouraged to set their own reading goal at the start of the school year and will be
aided in achieving this goal with direction.
Collaboration: Colleague and Student
I hope to work closely with all educators and administrators and by utilizing
curriculum mapping in the library space I plan to provide support and tools to staff
members and students alike. I hope to develop strong professional relationships
with the enrichment and special needs teachers to develop strategies for helping
students to expand their reading and keep them challenged within teaching plans or
Individual Education Plans. Likewise, the library should offer resources to teachers
and students in order to help those with reading disabilities. Using library
resources for support, I will work with the reading coordinator to ensure that there
are books and audio visual aids for systematic phonics instruction to encourage the
natural development of alphabetic principles and improve reading by automaticity
training as needed. Finally, through the use of media and technology, the librarys
programs and environment will be a channel for divergent thinking and creativity.
Students and staff would be encouraged to share knowledge, forming a positive
partnership for learning. Students have important knowledge to share as well.
Self-Assessment
My personal goal is to show my value through the achievements of my student body
in the forms of:
A rise in MAP and ISAT test scores for vocabulary, reading comprehension
and overall percentage.
A rise in fiction and non-fiction circulation.
A rise in journal and article usage for research.
An overall increase in quality of writing, reading and technology as it
pertains to individual classroom work.
I hope to utilize my own writing skills and will endeavor to research grant
opportunities and apply any monies available to improve the quality of technology
and printed materials for the use of the student body. Working together with all
members of the staff and school board will be of the utmost importance and enable
my to meet my goals of giving the student body the best possible preparation for the
current curriculum and future education.