Teaching Philosophy

Over my teaching career, I have spent time in many different learning environments of which include
both general and special education. In all my teaching settings, my goal for students is for them to become critical
thinkers that have the ability to develop their own opinions and ideas. There are a variety of methods included in
my classroom to help students reach these goals. Through developing an emphasis on literacy, respect for others,
and an appreciation for lifelong learning, students in my classroom successfully become critical thinkers. As an
educator, I focus on improving students skills, continually student/self growth, and collaborating with colleagues.
Ultimately, I believe that failure to learn is not an option. In my classroom, when a student continually
fails, than I am failing to do my job as an educator. All students have the ability to learn, but each individual
student takes a different route in learning the material. As a Learning/Behavior Specialist, it is my job to ensure
that students receive assignment modifications to access learning materials. In addition, I believe that students
deserve the opportunity to improve the work that they complete, including assessments. There is a commitment as
an educator to provide students feedback on their assignments. When students apply teacher feedback into their
work, they display the qualities that it takes to improve on their skills. Students deserve to be rewarded when they
improve on their outcome assessments. Similarly to my students continually improving upon their own work, I
also follow the same mantra.
In order to continually improve as an educator, I utilize student evaluations and professional evaluations.
Constructive criticism allows me to reflect on areas that I need to improve and to help make my teaching more
well rounded. Also, it is important for me to observe other teaching settings within and outside of my content
area. Observing other educators allows teachers to utilize other teaching strategies within their own classrooms.
Additionally, I engage in professional learning communities to learn new skills and share my skills with other
professionals. Most importantly, working with other colleagues is an essential aspect of being an educator.
To continually improve my teaching, I collaborate with others by going beyond the built-in time that
schools give professionals to work together. It is important to build a team relationship in collaborative teaching,
so both educators have equal responsibilities in the classroom. The only way for students to fully benefit from
both of their educators is to be sure that there is a team relationship developed in the classroom. Both students and
teachers benefit from inclusive settings when strategies are implemented properly, a strong belief of mine.
Teaching is important to me because it allows me to share my passion to continually learn. In my
classroom, my goal is to create a safe environment where my passion to learn is contagiously passed on to my
students. When students develop a relationship with their teachers, they become more invested in the material
that is being taught. Once I get to know each student and develop a relationship with each one, they grow invested
enough in the lessons to grow into critical thinkers. As long as I can share with my students the importance of
learning, I will continue to teach.