April
12, 2003
Current Teaching Philosophy
The high school English classroom should be and can be a world in which both creativity and logic are celebrated. This belief stood as the cornerstone of my initial teaching philosophy. Now, after two semesters of student teaching, I still maintain that both critical thought and the emotional, or creativity, are essential elements within the classroom. Over the last eight months, I have had the opportunity to see my teaching philosophy in action. My convictions concerning creating a community, challenging my students, and relating the literature to my students persist. Initially, I held these values as abstract desires. Through my experiences as a student teacher, I developed several methods in regards to how I can achieve these goals.
bell hooks writes, “To hear each other (the sound of different voices), to listen to one another, is an exercise in recognition. It also ensures that no student remains invisible in the classroom” (hooks 41). I want to provide my students with an environment that encourages their search for identity, challenges them to think in new ways, and values their voice. Thus, I believe that the development of a classroom community is essential. In order to successfully create a community within my classroom, it is important to focus on active listening. Not only do I employ active listening, I also encourage all of my students to listen to each other. It is important for students to learn from each other as well as from me. Connected to peer learning, I hold firmly that a discussion-based course is important. By developing in-depth discussion questions to begin a dialogue, I believe students have the opportunity to explore language, literature, and their power.
While I maintain that discussion should be the basis for the classroom community, I also feel that lecture is important. To transmit new information, I believe that teacher input is extremely efficient and effective. However, I do not believe that to lecture translates into only the teacher speaking. I feel that instruction must always be an interaction between teacher and student. When I lecture on a new topic, I give the students an opportunity to share what they know about the topic and then provide them with further information. In addition to incorporating student information, I try to incorporate technology. In this age of technology, the use of PowerPoint presentations as well as illustrations of major concepts through pictures and video are highly effective in supporting lecture material.
Each student deserves to be and can be challenged. I want to challenge students to realize their own capabilities. So often I would hear students in my Standard level English IV class say “I can’t.” Yet, when we began reading Hamlet and working together to understand and analyze the play, they were able to do it. Students will rise to your expectations if you show them that you believe in them and that you are there to support and guide them. Further, I believe that including both directed and undirected questions within the classroom helps to challenge the students and include the students thus reinforcing the classroom community.
Not only do I want to challenge my students in terms of content, but also in regards to new opinions and ideas. I believe that the use of discussion provides this introduction to differing views. Further, I believe the use of cooperative learning emphasizes the exchange of student opinions. In order to assist students in finding their voices within cooperative learning groups, I believe it is important to have students journal. The journaling process allows students to develop their own ideas before entering a discussion forum.
By giving students the opportunity to form and share their own interpretations and views in regards to the literature, my goal is to help them develop and support their own opinions. This development is key in my belief that teachers should help students to find how literature relates to them. I share bell hooks belief that, “combining the analytical and experiential is a richer way of knowing” (hooks 89). To assist students in finding the connections between the literature and their lives, it is important to create analogies, use specific questions bringing the text into their world, and to use supporting texts. Within my AP English IV class, I distributed Margaret Atwood’s “Gertrude Talks Back” when discussing Gertrude’s power in Hamlet. This document sparked discussions that helped students look at the text from another viewpoint while also bringing the text to life for them.
Throughout my efforts to challenge my students to look at literature from a variety of perspectives, I had the opportunity to develop a more concrete understanding of my classroom management skills. I believe that an absolutely essential element in developing a successful classroom community lies in the creation and implementation of guidelines and consequences. By basing my class around discussion, it is important for me to have consistent guidelines concerning respect. Further, I realize that positive interactions with students directly relate to relationships based on mutual respect.
Ultimately, I want my students to be active participants in the exploration of language and literature. In creating a classroom community where students are challenged both in terms of participation and analysis of literature as well as given the opportunity to relate to the literature, I find that students walk away with an understanding and appreciation for the fact that literature and the power of language specifically through writing has a direct relation and usefulness in their lives. In order to facilitate this understanding, it is important to give students clear objectives for lessons and units.
The fundamental beliefs concerning teaching that I held before stepping into the classroom remain the same today. I feel that my focus on creating a classroom community, challenging students, and helping students to relate to literature will remain as three of my major goals as a teacher. As I continue to grow as a teacher through experience, these goals will expand. Based on a belief that constant change and growth is essential for a teacher, I find myself evaluating and reflecting on my teaching methods on a regular basis. Thus, I know that my teaching philosophy will be a continuous process as I gain more experience and thus, develop and learn new and exciting methods of teaching.
Works Cited
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress:
Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994
