Chelsea Pence

Dr. Hall
Student Teaching Seminar
08 October 2014
Philosophy of Education
As a part of the education community, I believe that open communication, active
learning experiences, positive attitudes, and the needs of the students being at the top of
priorities are the key features of an effective teacher. Classrooms should welcome diversity
and accept the daily challenge of differentiating instruction to meet each and every
students learning needs. The opinions and ideas about education are created through
experience. Teachers have the power to help every student reach their full potential and to
prove the importance of education in the beginning years of preschool. From past
experience, all of the teachers I have had in the past have taught me all of these important
features of an effective teacher. All of their hard work and persistence has given me a
constructive work ethic and has made me the educator I am today.
The key to understanding all students and their needs is to teach with differentiated
instruction. All lessons should be able to accommodate visual, kinesthetic, and auditory
learners. Along with all of these characteristics, lessons should include lower and higher
level thinking questions. Starting with basic questions to activate prior knowledge should
lead into more critical questions that require the students to use their imagination and
problem solving skills. During my first few weeks of student teaching, I taught a second
grade math class. The first topic the students covered was time, which was very difficult to
understand. To reach all types of learners, I provided a video for the students to watch and
listen too and allowed the students to create their own clocks to use when needed. I used
the Apple TV, Ipad, and MacBook to teach these math lessons. The students enjoy using
technology in my classroom for different types of educational computer programs. The
majority of the students needed hands on materials to grasp the concept better, which was
why I allowed the students to use the clocks they created to assist them with worksheets
and activities during the first week. I believe that by accommodating all types of learners all
students have the potential to reach success.
Along with understanding students and their needs, it is important to create a
positive learning environment for all students. I believe that all teachers must always
possess a positive attitude in the classroom. Students are capable of picking up negativity,
which will cause them to become more negative. When a teacher shows passions in their
lessons and takes the time to make a comfortable and appealing environment, students can
be ready to learn. I also believe that open communication is key to any successful
classroom. The students should feel comfortable talking to their teacher and vice versa. It is
important to remember that the students home lives are a mystery. These children come
to school in hopes of a safe and positive environment to learn and form friendships. I have
created this type of environment for my students by relating to them and being able to use
humor in an educational manner. Humor captures their attention right away and allows
them to see that I want them to learn, but in a fun and exciting manner. When creating tests
I always use the students names so they make a connection with the questions. After

getting to know all of my students so well over the past several weeks, it makes it much
easier to relate materials to their current interests to teach in a more meaningful fashion.
Classroom management is especially important at every grade level. Creating a fun
and positive environment is great, but it is important that the students know what is
appropriate and not appropriate. In my current classroom, we use a clip up/down behavior
chart. All of the students start out in the middle on ready to learn. If they have good
behavior, the students will clip up until they reach the top of the chart. If they have bad
behavior, they continue to clip down to the bottom (which can result in a phone call home).
For my specific classroom, I created a clip chart to go along with the classroom theme of
sports. The clip chart uses different sporting terms such as MVP, benched, great game, etc.
The students really enjoyed this twist to the chart and understood what was expected of
them. Another management method I use is clapping of hands or the phrase eyes on me.
The entire school district I am teaching at responds to hand claps by repeating the beats.
This is a fun way to get their attention and allows the students to be able to use movement
to begin their focus. I believe that when a classroom has effective management strategies,
learning can be fun and engaging for both the students and the teachers.
Parent participation and communication should be encouraged in every classroom.
When parents are able to understand the expectations of their child and stay informed of
their childs progress, they are more likely to be more supportive of the school. Positive
relationships with families can help the school and home life work together to find what is
best for the child and to plan ways to achieve it. After two weeks of teaching time to my
students, I assessed everything we talked about. The majority of the students did not
receive a passing grade; therefore I sent a letter home to all of the parents stating what we
have talked about and asked them to sign the attached paper if they would like their child
to take a retest. The majority of the students returned the paper with their parents
requesting a retest, and the second time the majority of the students received passing
scores. I believe that the parents were able to see that their child was struggling which
allowed them to work with them more to study for the retest. Some of the parents wrote
letters back, which I thought was great to be able to read their thoughts. Several parents
explained how they studied and the areas that their child is still confused. These letters
helped me by reviewing the most commonly stated problem to help better prepare the
students for the retest. In the end, this action and communication resulted with passing
grades and happy students, parents, and teachers.
The final characteristic to an effective teacher is to incorporate 21st century skills
into classroom instruction. The students can use inquiry-learning activities to learn more
information than what is just in their textbooks. Students enjoy hands-on experiences
compared to filling in a worksheet. By using their hands the students are more likely to
remember an activity that makes them think critically or problem solve to find an answer.
In my second grade science lesson on different tools a scientist uses, the students were able
to experiment with the different tool. The chapter in their book had excellent definitions of
all of the tools, but I thought it would be more meaningful for the students to use the tools
and to investigate how to physically work all of them rather than reading about it. I also
like to include technology into lessons. Technology advances everyday with new computers
and cellular devices. When the students have practice with these types of tools they can
better prepare themselves for more advances. By incorporating it into lessons it will help
prepare students for the future of technology with experience and prior knowledge.

I believe that by incorporating all of these key features into one classroom that one
teacher can make a difference for children. All it takes is one teacher with the passion,
determination, attitude, and work ethic necessary to motivate students to reach their full
potential. This is the teacher I am and will be to all of my future students.