I believe that as a future educator, we are here to help guide children to achieve greatness, but what that greatness means for different people is all relative. What may be right for one student may not be right for another, and I think more teachers need to realize this, not just regarding subject’s children pick up, but also just regarding teaching methods. Some children are visual learners, while others may learn best by trial and error, while others may just listen to directions and succeed from there. To me, this means that as I develop as a teacher candidate, I must learn other learning styles than what just worked for me and learn how to apply them to different teaching strategies I can scaffold with.
I believe that the fundamental aspects of education are gathering knowledge and skills, which can be later applied and used in their future. I am “old school”, and believe that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it, and that our education system has gotten us this far in life, so clearly the educational system is doing something right, and we shouldn’t tamper with that. I believe in the traditional methods of education and learning, and we can still apply those methods to more up to date teachings if and when necessary. I realize that having an “old school” outlook on education can come off as “drill and kill”, which is not what I mean by “old school”. I have been fortunate enough to observe and be in multiple classrooms, third-grade at Paul Ecke Central Elementary, San Elijo Elementary and Del Mar Heights Elementary School. What I mean by “old school” is having children use pencil and paper to do certain tasks, rather than doing everything on an iPad or Chromebook. I have observed how some schools try to implement technology into every learning aspect, which is a great idea if it works. I noticed a lot of students struggling with math, not because they couldn’t complete the equation but because they couldn’t show their work, and some didn’t understand how the program wanted them to submit their answers. I prefer pencil and paper, that way I can look at their work and see where a mistake occurred and tend to that specific need of the student. I have observed that the schools that use a healthy balance of both technology and actual paper worksheets/notebooks yield the most positive results. I have even witnessed certain districts that make technology a pullout, just like there are music, art, physical education and science pull outs, which allows the students to focus on the computer program without the stress of multi-tasking. These pullouts also allow teachers to become better educators and be more attentive to their students because they have prep-times which allows them to grade, assess and make changes to adapt to their students needs. What I observed in the schools who do most of their instruction technologically and less hands on is that those teachers are overworked and emotionally exhausted, and they need different pullouts as well to better assist their students, and I learned a lot about what kind of teacher I don’t ever want to be. I’m “old school” as well regarding activities; I believe kids should be kids, and we shouldn’t strain their eyes all day and we need to get them outside to burn off energy and allow them to enjoy the short time they are blessed to be young and not take that precious time away from them. My philosophy of education has evolved over the past year, since taking a course that introduced the different philosophies of education in schooling, working styles, learning styles and learning about the multiple intelligences. During my time spent in graduate school I have taken The Educational Philosophy Test and yielded the same results of having an Essentialist philosophy of education, the second time I took The Educational Philosophy Test, I received an even higher percentage in the Essentialist column. Before, I still was leaning on the Essentialist philosophy, but after spending more time in the educational system, my philosophy of education has developed even further into being an Essentialist, believing in traditional education. Essentialism, which I identify the most with is the view that for any specific person there is a set of attributes which are necessary for him or her to function through their own identity. I believe that every student is unique and blessed with their own attributes and gifts, and in their own way they will succeed by staying true to themselves, which as a future educator is very important to me. I believe that if educators and students stay true to themselves, then they will succeed.