MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
A teaching philosophy is one's self-reflective statement of their beliefs about teaching and learning and education in general. This is my teaching philosophy as of the 15th of October 2021, From the beliefs I had when I first wrote my teaching philosophy, I can say that certain experiences have changed, and I have noticed a lot of growth in me but I still believe in certain values I had about the teaching experience and I am more into them and making them a reality accordingly.
For the academic year I have spent a total of 10 weeks of being in control of a classroom environment during a worldwide pandemic due to the work in learning and I can say that it was one of my best blessings in terms of experience as a student teacher and an upcoming school ICT support specialist. I was able to experience a concept I have discovered this year in actions, and I was able to fall in love with it and the concept is teacher agency. I have seen the importance of teachers working together based on their past experiences as it yields positive results, I now believe that practicing teacher agency can take the South African education system to a better level and as a teacher I will use every opportunity I get to learn from the experiences of other teachers and allow my peer teachers to learn from my experience. I can now say that I am an agent of change as I have seen the impact, I have made in the 10 weeks of work integrated learning, I allowed myself to acknowledge when I had short fallings and took teachings from both the teachers and the learners, and all the experiences contributed in the beliefs I have as a young teacher right now.
My concept of learning is that the learning process can take place anywhere and anytime and I believe that challenging people’s thoughts is one of the best ways to help them develop knowledge about something so as a teacher I always have to make sure that I prepare for my lessons in a way that will challenge the learners and stimulate a response that will make them want to learn more about the topics at hand. It is with this concept that I became a teacher that best involves learners in the learning process so they can have a deeper understanding in what they are learning and enable them to use what they learn outside of the classroom and education spectrum.
My goal in life as an educator is to be someone that allows growth to take place and allow me to embrace my versatility in a way that I always become aware and adapt to the changing world around me as time and years go by. I want to always be hands on with the outside world so that I can be able to move on with time and update my knowledge and ways of doing things so that I can always be a teacher that delivers and creates a classroom environment that always results in daily effective teaching and learning. As a teacher I do not focus on one teaching method as I have an understanding of different learning abilities that are there in learners, so whenever I am assigned a class ,I make sure that I use as many strategies as I can in my first days of interaction so that I can get to understand my class and what works for them. Mostly I include visual aids in my classes as I believe that memory and understanding is mostly built when one can see an idea of what is being discussed.
In my classrooms I always want learners to feel accommodated and have a sense of belonging and to be critical thinkers in a way that will enable them to have the capacity to try different things as much as they can in order to understand the qualities of things and concepts and create a meaning out of them. I always design lessons in a way that will allow learners to be builders of their own understanding. I am currently a full on supporter of the constructivism approach of teaching and learning, with this approach I always allow myself to be a mediator of information and that has always made me to enjoy my time in class with the learners as they are always engaged in class because of how I make them feel in charge of their own learning.
Currently as a teacher I believe in going to class and enjoying a lesson the best way you can but baring in mind that you are developing smaller minds into being the best version of themselves, So I always uphold myself in a manner that is professional but also allows me to not box myself but to enjoy and have fun in what I do,I know that I am a human before I am a teacher and that always encourages me to understand my learners and make them get the best they can from me as someone they look up to and someone that helps to guide them from the school academic stage of life. I always allow them to explore and be as comfortable as they can in the best disciplined way possible and I always preach love and unity to my learners as I have first-hand of experience on how unity can build the best version of you as an individual. I also believe in me being as comfortable as I can in myself and at the same time addressing myself in the best appropriate way possible as I know I have learners and the society looking up to me as a teacher and also as a member of society, I hate ties but I love dressing neatly and appropriate for class and I know that with how I present myself to the learners I can go a long way into being a role model.. I still have a long way to grow and a lot of experiences to interact with and I am always positive and ready to soldier on and make the best out of thing.This is a start of me as a teacher and the end is nowhere near.Thank you.