Teaching Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy

By the time I was ten years old, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I remember that Halloween excitedly showing everyone my costume made up of a pair of big, round glasses, apple stickers, and a ruler to top it off. This idea has stayed with me ever since I watched an episode of The Magic School Bus, and I saw how the teacher, Ms. Frizzle, was able to engage with her students and make learning a fun and interactive experience. Even from this children’s cartoon show, some concepts still ring true to me today.

As an educator, I want to make my classroom an environment where students feel encouraged to engage with their source material and grow from their learning experience. The atmosphere of my classroom will be welcoming and positive, as I want it to highlight my teacher philosophy: by building a personal relationship with the class texts and assigned works of literature, students will be able to reflect upon themselves and their role in society, which ultimately allows them to grow as human beings based on the characters they read about in books. Here, they will relate to the basic identity of humanity and get a better understanding of their peers and others around them. By establishing connections between themselves and the literature, students will be able to seek out and identify with the human sense of identity as demonstrated by the literary characters, as well as recognize the vulnerable and complex nature of these identities, thus relating them to the real world and the nature of humanity. This humanistic approach to literary characters highlights the flawed and real-world identity of people as a whole. With this mindset, students can gain insight about themselves, specifically their emotions and feelings to the problems they face everyday. I want to have a safe place where students can grow in this manner, so having an environment in which they feel comfortable expressing themselves is my utmost concern. Then, students can see and appreciate the realistic and authentic approach to teaching literature. This style can facilitate students with connecting to the real world outside of the classroom and encourage them to relate to one another on a more intimate, human level.

The student teaching program here at Stony Brook can help me get first-hand knowledge and experience on how to gain the tools that can help me practice my teaching philosophy as well as learn from the students I will be teaching one day. Being a part of the classroom setting, I can witness the methods teachers use to educate their students and one day incorporate these skills into my own classroom. Overall, I cannot wait to be a part of the growing family of educators here in this teaching program, as I would love to be a candidate and student in this field.