Sally Hoang

Philosophy of Education

School should be a safe space where every student should have the opportunity to acquire

valuable knowledge as well as important skills and values from their teachers and their peers. It

is expected from every student to be academically successful; however, becoming an empathetic,

tolerant, responsible, ethical and fair person is a crucial factor for the community and the society.

In my second field experience, I learned that respect is a crucial factor for both teachers and

students. To respect and to gain respect is far more important than being a popular teacher.

Students will trust and obey you willingly and teachers should never let students step over them.

Being firm and consistent as a person and as a teacher is important.

One main thing I learned about in my second field experience was the importance of

extracurricular/cocurricular programs. The school’s culture creates an environment where

students can interact with each other outside of the explicit curriculum, which includes music,

art, drama and dance classes. Moreover, the school has a long culture of dance and music shows,

multicultural/country, and entrepreneurial fairs. These activities are more than extras, but as

Parkay et al., indicates that these activities “having important educational goals” are deemed as

cocurricular than extracurricular programs (2012, 237). When students participate in these

activities, I saw how they were very involved and puts in many efforts. I also saw how other non-

participants enjoy being at those fairs. Most importantly, I also had the chance to get involved

and meet all the teachers who organized these activities and events for the students. Working

with them gave me the opportunity to learn more about how teachers’ involvement truly matters

and how they were all prioritizing the students’ needs for their personal and academic growth.
 Many students see their teachers as their inspiration or role model most of the time;

therefore, I believe I want to become a teacher that can help students not only to succeed

academically but also socially. Another thing I learned from my second professional seminar was

that I should become a teacher of respect instead of a teacher of popularity. The idea behind this

is for teachers to understand that they have a huge responsibility in shaping their students to do

well in school and in life. Correspondingly, a goal I want to achieve as a teacher that creates a

caring classroom. According to Parkay et al., this means teachers should be supportive,

encouraging and caring for their students (2012, 207). A teacher who truly care for their students,

students will know and will respect them for that. This respect is earned and should never be

forced. Also, this not only creates a healthy relationship between teachers and students, but it

also creates a positive environment that keeps students in school rather than having negative

ideas such as dropping out. Students would learn better and feel less stressed when they can rely

on their teachers for support; however, students tend to feel less motivated to work when

teachers put much pressure on them. Nevertheless, some stress is healthy and is unavoidable.

The kind of classroom I want to promote is for my students to not only respect me but to

respect each other. Respect could include kindness, humility, treating others the way you want to

be treated and treating each other as equals. According to Parkay et al., some successful

classroom management tips could include assigning “chronically misbehaving students to sit

close to your desk” and separating “friends who tend to misbehave and get-off task” (2012, 214).

There are much more strategies that teachers use, but these are some of the strategies my

cooperating teacher has used during my second field experience. I saw how it minimized many

distractions and disruptiveness in the classroom. Ultimately, my ideal classroom environment

should feel equal and safe. To not feel judged by others should be an important aspect of a

classroom; equity.

During my second field experience, I saw how technology was used responsibly by my

cooperating teacher. “Careful and purposeful use of educational technology changes the roles of

teachers and students and enhances students’ higher-order learning and problem-solving skills”

(Parkay et al., 2012, 263). In my classroom, I would implement the use of technology for a

creative and fun learning experience for my students to avoid attention deficit and boredom. I

think it is important for them to learn meaningfully rather than rote learning. I also believe the

integration of technology in classrooms would be a useful presentation tool to keep students

interested in a class with PowerPoint notes. As for the students, they can use the SMART Boards

as presentation tools for their projects and assignments. In this digital era, students need to learn

more about the possible digital tools out there that they can use. This also develops their

creativity and effective oral presentation skills.

How I would facilitate instruction and assessment is by using rubrics for assignments

with all the criteria for the students to follow to achieve their grades base on the effort they put in

their work. When projects are assigned, they will also be given a self-check list to follow for

when they finish a certain section of their work, they could check it off; this is to develop their

organizational skills.
 References

Parkay, F.W., Hardcastle Stanford, B., Vaillancourt, J.C.,Stephens, H.C., & Harris, J.R.

(2012). Becoming a teacher (4th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson.