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Philosophy Of Education
Tierney Smith
Professor Teri Abbott
2/12/2016

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Philosophy of Education
When you decide to become an elementary school teacher, you are making a
commitment to ultimately influence the minds of hundreds of children at an age when
their minds are most fragile. Young children can be molded and influenced by absolutely
everything that you say and do, and it is up to us, the teachers, to make sure that our
influence is meaningful and constructive. As educators, we must educate children, not
only for knowledge-sake, but in order to build character and empathy within them. Not
everyone is going to have the same experiences in life, however, all children in the
United States experience going to school. It is up to the teachers to make it a worthwhile
experience. We need to make sure that we teach for a purpose, that we create the proper
learning environments, that we commit ourselves to social justice amongst our students,
teach worthwhile lessons, and adjust our methods and environments accordingly.

PURPOSE OF EDUCATION:
When someone decides to become a teacher, they need to do it for the right
reasons. Ive heard people in the past contemplate becoming teachers so that they get off
early and have summers off. If this is the reasoning behind your desire to become a
teacher, please, dont become a teacher. True teachers, those that teach with a real
passion, they teach for a purpose. They desire to raise societys children, in a sense. By
this, I mean that teachers want to build character, teach fairness and empathy, teach the
dark truths of the world, and try to right the wrongs of Americas past by creating logical
thinkers. As quoted by Oakes and Lipton, everyday lessons.are helping to prepare
them for the world outside of our classroom .

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We want students to think before they speak and act. We want students to be able
to create based on their own knowledge, experiences, and curiosity. We want students
who are respectful. We want students who dont judge others, but rather look into ways to
understand or even help them. We want students to build confidence and believe in
themselves and others, students who will persevere when the going gets tough. However,
children can be mean, they can be selfish and intolerant, they can bully, and they can be
psychologically affected by being bullied themselves. They can hit, bite, and throw fits.
They can be insensitive and prejudice. They can give up too easily, and they can be lazy
and negative. It is our purpose to alter and correct these behaviors and form young adults
who will fit into and create a more unified and socially just society.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:
When you become a teacher, you are taking in kids from all backgrounds. You
may have students who dont trust you, students who are hungry, students who are abused
mentally and physically at home, students who know nothing but crime and anger, etc.
According to Darling-Hammond & Bransford, This is especially important since
beginning teachers and those who are unprepared- are disproportionately assigned to
teach students in low-income, high-minority schools and students in lower track classes
who most need skilled teachers in order to succeed (pg 3).As teachers, it is extremely
important to be approachable, and have a welcoming classroom environment. The room
must feel homey in a sense, and safe. Get students into groups to socialize as much as
possible. The pictures, artwork, posters and projects need to make students feel like they
are a part of some type of classroom community, and they must portray positive attitudes.

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We want bright colors, and smiles on every wall. As for the teachers, they must look
approachable; they must speak respectfully and never scream or yell. This is how you
gain the trust of students. The more trust you have with your students, the more
comfortable they will be with telling you of any issues that they are having both inside
and outside of your classroom. This will better allow you to adjust and help the student in
any way that you can. Another way to get to know your students and gain their trust is
through daily journals. By having students write down whatever they like in a journal,
whether it be fantasy-fiction stories, stories of what they did over the weekend, or just
something they learned in class. I feel its important to give them an opportunity to write,
get it out, whatever is in their heads. Also, be sure to give comments, students love to get
comments, nice comments. If they wrote about their new dog, write a little note or a little
question. I know it takes up a lot of time, but thats what it means to be a teacher; TIME!
I also think it is important to make sure all your students are fed, whether its a
granola bar snack, or an apple a few hours after lunch, students need to be well fed.
Hungry students do not learn, and they can often times act up or become aggressive
toward others students. Some students may not have food at their homes, so, I ,
personally, will have a canned food bar in my classroom, and any student may take food
home if they are hungry whenever they like. This may cost me money, but thats what it
means to be a teacher: BEING BROKE FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN! (No one
becomes a teacher in order to get rich!)
Also, I believe its important to be at school early and stay late, so that students
can come speak to you or get help whenever they need. I would like to form a student
study day in my classroom, so that once a week, students can get together and help

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EACH other in groups, but also will have me there to help teach them all if they are
struggling. However, I will always be available for one on one time with my students.

COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE:

In California especially, our classrooms will be diverse. Again, some students may
not be able to afford certain necessary classroom items or even food. This is why I will
make sure that any of my students who cannot afford supplies, will be lent these items,
which I have purchased with my personal money. I will also promote sharing in my
classrooms, so that if we are doing a project or an activity, other students will gladly jump
in to lend their friends a crayon or a pair of scissors, etc. I also believe in schoolsponsored fundraisers, and I would like to try and get local restaurants, etc., to try and
promote fundraiser nights in order to acquire supplies for my school as a whole.
As for race issues that may come up in my classroom, I will make sure that my
students learn numerous lessons on respect. They will all be treated as equals because we
are all just humans, yet they will be able to embrace their different cultures and share
their different cultures, to show the beauty in being different and living in such a unique
and diverse society, like California. As stated by Janene Ashford and quoted by Oakes
and Lipton, Diversity opens doors of intellectual exploration and discussion; it should
not close doors of opportunity and growth. My responsibility as an educator lies not only
in opening doors of knowledge and opportunity for my students, but in showing them
how they are capable of opening such doors themselves. I also love the idea of a culture
fair. Each student can write about a culture of their choice ( whether it is their own
culture, or not, it will still be beneficial), these students can then make posters which talk

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about their culture, ie. The language ( with simple phrases, How do you say Hi?
Goodbye? I love you? Etc. ), the country and its location, and interesting facts about that
culture and what makes them unique. This way, students are exposed to several cultures,
and may find it interesting and want to learn more about them.
If there seem to be racial issues in the classroom, I will sit one on one with the
students and have them speak to me directly and write a paper on how they would feel if
they were treated the way they have treated other students , ( I will also use this for
bullying issues in general ).

CURRICULUM:
Although the curriculum is mostly set by the state law, I will make sure to
research and create my own ways to make them more interesting for the students. For
example, many students do not like learning about English. However, I have come up
with a few ideas to make it more entertaining. One idea is to try to introduce Mad-Libs
into the classroom when we learn about the parts of speech. Growing up, it was one of
my favorite road-trip and slumber party games. The stories can be pretty goofy, but the
kids have a blast, and they learn about the parts of speech. I have also made it a mission
to teach children how to properly diagram sentences. Another idea I have for the students
is called, Rainbow words, each color represents a part of speech, ex. red=noun,
yellow=adjective, orange=article, green=verb, blue=adverb, and purple=pronoun, the
students can then write a rainbow of words on notecards and we will put them in
designated rainbow bags, and each day on the board we will pull out a word from each

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bag and create a rainbow and the students will create a short story using the rainbow
of words.
As for history, I believe in a lot of plays and diary entries. I like the students to
actively think about what it would be like to live in each time period, in hopes that they
will form a personal connection to the material and remember it. It is also important to
share documents from several points of view. This also touches on the asepect of social
justice learning. Rather than hearing a story from one gender, or one race, we are hearing
the story from multiple perspectives, as to eliminate bias or create delusional thinking. As
pointed out by Hackman, focusing on information from multiple, non-dominant
perspectives, and seeing those as independently valid and not as an add-on to the
dominant, hegemonic one;decentering students analytical frame and opening their
minds to a broader range of experiences
Science can be taught using a lot of experiments and videos, ( I remember I loved
watching Bill Nye videos every Friday in elementary school! Surprisingly, I learned a lot
from them!)
Math can be taught using hands on models, colored chips, blocks, cuisinar rods,
graphs, pictures etc. They should be taught in a way that makes the students solve
problems through prior knowledge. Rather than teaching a student how to solve a
problem, you can teach basic understanding, and the students will be able to solve the
problems on their own. One example that they showed in an article titled Seeing the
Future: How the Common Core Will Affect Mathematics and English Language Arts in
Grades 3-12 Across America ( 2013), there were sample problems shown , Karls
rectangular vegetable garden is 20 feet by 45 feet, and Makennas is 25 feet by 40 feet.

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Whose garden is larger in area? In order to solve this problem, the students then drew
out each garden, and then placed the pictures on top of each other. You could then easily
see that though they were slightly different shapes, Makennas garden had a much larger
hang-over section than Karls. Surprisingly, when you share your answers, you can
actually learn several different ways to solve problems, and if a student doesnt get to the
correct answer, we can then show him where his problem went awry.
Visual and Performing arts is an interesting area to teach. I really like the idea of
having fun-Fridays in my classroom. On these days we can perform silly improve skits,
do dances, make our own mini-plays, have talent shows, and even do projects. I always
had an idea of having students make C.D.s of 5 songs that really relate to their life, and
have them write a short paragraph about why each song is meaningful to them, and how
it relates to their life.

TEACHER:
The most vital part of a classrooms success is its teacher. If the teacher doesnt
know the material, the student wont learn it either, or they will learn it incorrectly. If the
teacher comes to school grumpy everyday, the negative attitude will be returned to you
by the students, making everyone that much grumpier. If the teacher isnt able to gain the
students trust, the teacher will not be able to help students who are struggling. If the
teacher doesnt commit herself to her students, and give them 100% effort, they will not
give you 100% of their effort. If you cannot entertain them, they will get bored, and they
will not learn. If you dont show respect to your students, they will not respect you. Its a

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lot of pressure to try to control and maintain the attention of 30+ growing and hyper
children, but I truly believe it will be the most rewarding experience of my entire life. I
have wanted to be a teacher since I was 4 years old, and I have never changed my mind
or even bothered to look at another career choice. I know in my heart that I am a teacher.
I am also a human, and we all make mistakes. Some lessons may fail, miserably. It is my
responsibility to reflect and react to my lessons. If a lesson goes south, it is my
responsibility to find a way to teach it again, in a way that the students will understand. It
is my responsibility to know my students, their weaknesses and strengths, their
personalities, etc. I am responsible for their brains, all 30+ of them, and that is a scary
thing. It is my job to be flexible and reflective. I have written down lesson plans and
ideas that I have created or even borrowed from some of my favorite teachers of the past.
I want to be that teacher that students visit after they have graduated or found their
careers. I want to build a better society, one student at a time.

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References
Darling-Hammond, Linda & John Bransford. Preparing teachers for a changing world:
What teachers should learn and be able to do.
Hackman, Heather W. Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education.
No Author. (2013). Seeing the future: How the Common Core will affect mathematics
and English language arts in grades 3-12 across America.
Oakes, Jeanne and Martin Lipton. (2003). Teaching to change the world: Schooling;
Wrestling with history and tradition.