It has been over 20 years since I wrote my original Philosophy of Education. A lot has changed from the perspective of a young teacher in the college graduating class of 1996. Fundamentally, I think that many of my core beliefs are the same now as they were back then. I still believe that all students can learn. I still believe in setting high, but achievable, expectations. I still believe that the teacher needs to be a guide for learning, not a dictator of learning. I also believe that I was quite naive in my instructional practice and my understanding of student learning, but I have learned a lot in my teaching career since then.
When I first started teaching, I thought it was my job to cover the material and the student’s job to listen and learn. I wanted to make learning interesting and exciting for the students, but what I failed to understand at the time is that not every student I taught had the same definition of interesting and exciting that I did. I really did try to make the learning interesting. I threw in some “fun” practice worksheets and let them illustrate a scene when we read one of Shakespeare’s plays. Very exciting, I know. What I failed to do, more often than not, was help make it meaningful to students. I didn’t help them make connections and engage with the bigger concepts behind the lessons. I didn’t ask questions that made them dig a bit deeper on how they felt about the topic. I didn’t ask them to apply it to something in their own lives that they could relate to. “Meeting students where they are at”, was not a concept I was familiar with yet. This is an important part of my philosophy now, though. I have often wished I could redo those first few years of my teaching career, but I am pretty sure I didn’t scar anybody for life, and more importantly, those years did help me to learn a lot about how I needed to improve my teaching.
“Don’t smile until Christmas.” This was the advice that I had heard from many veteran teachers as I was preparing for my first teaching job. I wasn’t completely sold on following this philosophy to the extreme, but as an extremely young looking 22 year-old, who was teaching high-schoolers only a few years younger than me, I was concerned about establishing myself as an authority figure, not a friend. I was probably a lot sterner than I needed to be and I was far too serious to make great connections with my students, but as I look back, I still think it is important for students to know that my role is the teacher, and they are the students. We are not best friends, and I don’t think we should be. Building relationships with students as a caring adult is essential, but it is different than being their friend. I have seen young teachers come into the profession and get sucked into the friend role (avoiding classroom management because the students won’t like you, talking about boyfriends and parties, chatting on social media). Some manage to dig their way back out and eventually establish a balance, but some end up blurring the line too much and run the risk of getting themselves into a situation where they are not able to manage their class effectively, or worse, a situation where their job is at risk.
My “curriculum” when starting my first teaching job consisted of folders of mimeographed copies of each lesson I was to deliver to students. I had a list of things to cover, but no real expectations of what the student learning should be. My personal philosophy as a new teacher was to help guide students in their learning journey so they could be successful in whatever career path they chose. That is all well and good, but I know I had no clear definition of what exactly it was they should know to help them on that journey. I covered topics and skills like the five-paragraph essay, lots of grammar, reading (including Shakespeare), and poetry, but I know for a fact that I did not share a single written learning expectation or clearly defined rubric with the students that first year. I delivered the instruction, but I failed to share with them what exactly they were supposed to get out of it. Now, I think sharing clearly defined learning targets and performance expectations with students is essential. The assessment or how we grade it should not be a surprise to students. It should be the tool we use to show understanding of the learning that we expect and communicate. I know not everyone is onboard with common standards, but they are extremely important as a guideline for teachers, students, and parents to clarify targeted learning. Standards do not dictate that teachers have to teach a certain way, but they do create a common expectation of what should be taught at each level and to what depth. They can sometimes be overwhelming, but if I would have had common standards and training to go with them as a beginning teacher, I feel I would have done a much better job of communicating and helping students see the big picture of their learning. That is why I am a strong advocate of them now.
For the most part, I have similar core beliefs now to those I had when I started this profession. My understanding of how to support those beliefs in the classroom has changed a lot, though. Each and every class I have taken as a student and taught as a teacher over the years has encouraged me to be a better teacher. Nothing teaches quite as well as experience, but one has to be open to learning from and reflecting on those experiences in order to reap the benefits.