TEACHING PLATFORM

Teaching Platform
Maria Evers
University of South Florida

TEACHING PLATFORM
Teaching Philosophy
Growing up, my family has always valued education and college was always viewed as
a must for my brother and I. My family also said that The more we educate ourselves the
brighter our future would be. This is a huge part in my philosophy because I feel that
education is the only way to better our generation and the generations to come. Throughout my
life I have most likely spent more time in school then anywhere else including my own home.
Even when I wasnt thinking about being a teacher one day I developed thoughts and ideas of
what my teacher was doing right vs what he or she was doing wrong. Now that I know that I
will be in charge of my own classroom one day I am not only continuing to develop new ideas
but I am also thinking about how I felt in my past classes as a key to help me be the best
teacher I can be. I will never forget two types of teachers, the worst and the best and it was
these experiences that showed me what kind of teacher I will be. Being a teacher that not only
will go above and beyond to make sure their students understand the material, but that will also
build a positive relationship with them to ensure that they will have and maintain a positive
view on learning is the type of teacher I aspire to be.

Philosophy of Management
Over the course of this semester we studied a variety of different teaching philosophies;
Alberta, Canter and Kohn. Although many of these theorist made valid point, but I personally
agree with Albertas the most. Some people may say that using cooperative discipline is
allowing the students to control the classroom and gives up your authority as a teacher, but I
disagree. This type of classroom management is having compassion and understanding for your

TEACHING PLATFORM
students and making them feel accepted and valued. My CT (Collaborating Teacher) has
demonstrated first hand this type of philosophy and it works beautifully in the class, the
students listen and respect her and in return she does the same. However, the assertive
philosophy by Canter is a plan b for students that do not respond well to cooperating discipline.
Because not all students learn and act the same as a teacher you have to act in ways that will fit
every students personality. In my classroom I feel that the cooperative discipline will be more
my style, but if I realize that the class or student that I have is not responding well to that theory
I will then have to figure out something else that will work, even if that mean taking myself out
of my comfort zone.
Teaching Styles
There are many teaching styles like delegator, facilitator, demonstrator, and formal
authority. After observing and being active in the classroom I have started to develop and
visualize which style best suits me and although I prefer student centered classrooms the
facilitator style and the demonstrator style are the two styles that suit me. Facilitator style
teachers use activities and is student centered learning to convey the classroom vs demonstrator
which although is teacher focused but what I like about this style is that the teacher using
modeling in classwork and in his/her own behavior to guide the student through material and
actions. It is known that student centered classrooms have been shown to be more beneficial
and that teacher centered is slowly becoming a thing of the past, but student based learning can
sometimes become hectic. Having students work in groups and participating in activities
although is a great way to teach your classroom this may make your classroom look and feel a
little deranged. To fix this problem in my classroom I will create a balance of the two teaching
styles facilitator and demonstrator which includes both teacher centered and student centered.

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Assessments
As a teacher I will be making many assessments about my students throughout
the year. There are many assessment strategies we can use as teachers that will help us with
our students. My favorite strategy that I tend to use a lot is asking open ended questions, this
helps me see where the students stand on understanding the material that I am teaching. The
students that are not grasping the idea also might start to understand by listening to what their
classmates have to say about it. Another assessment technique is journal reflections. What I
like about these are that the student reflects independently without fear of others listening in.
This allows for the student to explain what their concerns are or if they are having trouble
with a certain topic they can feel free to tell me about, this will also allow me to fix and go
over what the students are not grasping.
Goals
The people who set out to be teachers are clearly not doing it for the money, so
what is it that drives us to be teachers? In my philosophy I stated that education was a way to
better our world and future generations and not only is this part of my philosophy but it is my
goal to help every student be the best they can be. Bringing this down a level my classrooms
goals is to ensure the material I teach is understood by all of my students and that I am
teaching the material in a way that is not only fun, but in a way for my students to not only
learn the material short term but long term as well. Nothing pushes students to do their best
work like a professor who takes pride not in his or her own accomplishments, but in helping
others realize their potential. Jason Dent, Philosophy 05. This quote is not only inspiring but

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also focuses on another goal of mine, helping my students reach their full potential. In my
classes growing up I noticed that without putting much effort into my work I still somehow
received As and Bs. Although this allowed me to have more free time looking back this
cheated me out of a proper education because I was never pushed to my fullest. Until one year
I had a teacher that did and I was shocked because I actually had to work and push myself out
of my comfort zone. My goal is to always push kids to do their absolute best and if I see they
are on level but can do better I dont want to be that teacher that doesnt do anything I want to
give them material that will continue to progress them. Our classes will have students of all
different levels and as a teacher we have to be able to work with that and meet the needs of all
the students in our class and which is what I plan on doing.

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References
H.(2015).20SimpleAssessmentStrategiesYoucanUseEveryDay.
RetrievedNovember18,2016,from
http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/assessment/20simpleassessmentstrategiescanuse
everyday/
Defining Your Own Teaching Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2016, from
https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/teaching/planningyourapproach/defining
yourownteachinggoals
What is Your Teaching Style? (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2016, from
http://old.biz.colostate.edu/mti/tips/pages/WhatisYourTeachingStyle.aspx
Charles,C.M.(2006,July27).CooperativeDiscipline.BuildingClassroomDiscipline,67
84.

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