Sample
of work: We were required to write out our teaching philosophy. Here is mine.
I have always considered myself a person with
commitment issues. Basically, I tend to get bored easily. What does this have to do with my teaching philosophy? I cannot
choose one way of teaching and call it good. I have to have a variety of ways
of teaching to keep myself interested in the material, and also to keep my students interested. Phonics was the basis of everything I learned while in school, and my mom was a major reader, thus introducing
me to the whole language concept. I would sit in her lap and look at the random
symbols on the page while listening to her read. Then I would go to school and
see those symbols broken up into letters and words. I consider myself a pretty
proficient reader, and I believe that this is why. Students need to learn to
love to read because of its content and livelihood, but they also need to get down and dirty with how language is put together
and which letters make what sounds. All of this leads to my being an interactionalist. I agree with both the top-down and bottom-up methods of teaching, as long as they
are done in a balanced manner.
In the past this has definitely impacted my teaching
style. Even when I was working as a lead teacher in a 4 year old room, I made
sure I read stories that were above the children’s reading skills, and worked with them on how letters fit together
to form sounds. I’m a big advocate of center work in which kids can be
hands on and working with reading manipulatives. I also think that word work
can be interesting by using word play to mix up the phonics a bit. Songs like
the banana fana song work really well with preschoolers. Concrete poetry is really
great for the upper elementary students.
