My Educational Philosophy

In the Beginning

In the beginning, I saw myself in the dual roles of teacher and student. I landing my first full-time teaching position with a small parochial school a couple of months after receiving my provisional teaching certificate. During the first couple of years of teaching, my primary goals centered on acclimating myself to the culture of my school and its routines. I had attended public schools from kindergarten through college, I was not raised Catholic and had no prior experience with parochial schools that are steeped in the traditions of the Church. Two well-seasoned teachers who had worked in the parochial system for several years took me under their wings and mentored me during this period of transition.

The Middle Years

After the initial period of transition, I turned my attention to pedagogy - the “how” aspect of instruction. At this point in my career, I became more confident about my abilities as an instructor and set my sights on trying new ideas. I experimented with different instructional methods I had learned as an education student, such as Total Physical Response (TPR) and language immersion (e.g. “French only Fridays”). Creating assessments for my French students to gauge what they knew of grammar as well as their ability to converse in French was one of my primary professional goals. For example, I required all of my French students to schedule a time to practice their conversational skills with me for a participation grade. Expanding my French students’ experiences to the world outside my classroom was also a professional goal. Prior to each class trip I led to France, I included lessons on the history and culture of the areas we would be visiting, such as the D-Day Invasion of Normandy and the foods of that region. Each of my second year French students selected to make or purchase a specific delicacy to bring in and share with the class a part of our unit on foods. During our class trips to France, I encouraged my students to draw on their classroom knowledge, modeling for them how I conversed with vendors to purchase items. During this time period I actively channeled my enthusiasm for my subject area, evolving into a “learning coach” for my students.

The End of the Master's Journey

I returned to education after an eight year absence and again took on the dual roles of college student and high school science instructor. Returning to the school where I had begun my career many years earlier, I knew some of the staff and the school routine had not changed much, making for a smooth transition back to the classroom. My school had shifted its language focus from French to Spanish, and I was assigned teaching duties in high school science (i.e. chemistry, physics, and biology). My provisional teaching license had expired and I needed to complete additional coursework to reinstate my license. After completing this and additional classes to add a teaching minor in Integrated Science, I set my sights on a Master’s degree in Education (MAED).

As I embarked on the MAED leg of my educational journey, I retained some aspects of my earlier ideas of teaching and education: 1) to instill in my students a curiosity and love of learning, and 2) to show my students that learning continues outside of the classroom. To these prior philosophical beliefs I have added the belief that my role as a teacher is to inspire my students to become successful lifelong learners. I have drawn on my own life experiences to demonstrate for my students that learning continues outside the classroom. As the Chinese proverb states, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”