Teaching Philosophy
I teach for the “aha” moments, the opportunities to scrawl a big ‘A’ across the paper of the student who has been struggling so hard to succeed, the ability to watch smiles invade students’ faces as they find enjoyment in a lesson, the pleasure of finally collecting a completed assignment from an indifferent student in whom I have taken a special interest. I teach for the joy of listening to the imaginative, endearing, and witty things my students say. I teach because students’ successes energize me, and their failures galvanize me to do better. I teach because teaching enriches my own life, and I hope that, in teaching, I am bringing enrichment to the lives of my students.
A great teacher once told me that the best teachers are those who have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to learn their subject matter, and I am hoping that he is right. I have chosen to teach second languages because learning Spanish has been, and continues to be, one of the most challenging endeavors that I have ever undertaken. Yet, it has also been one of the most rewarding. As a language learner myself, I believe I can effectively identify with my learners; it was not that long ago that I was replaying Spanish language CDs four or five times to be able to answer comprehension questions and wearing the pages of my Spanish/English dictionary thin trying to translate written texts word-for-word. Nevertheless, speaking Spanish has introduced me to cultures which would otherwise have been largely inaccessible to me. In learning to respect and value those cultures, I have also developed a greater appreciation for certain facets of my own culture, and I hope I can instill a similar cultural awareness and appreciation in my students.
I have very high expectations for my students, but I do not consider my expectations unrealistic. First and foremost, I expect my students to come to class with a readiness to think critically. I recently remarked, upon reading a student’s Spanish fairy tale, that his story was very creative, to which he replied, “Yes; I am limited only in my knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and grammar.” At the time, I found it hard not to chuckle in response to his seemingly vain reply, but in retrospect, I find it highly insightful. The truth is that my students do not check their brains at the door when they enter my language classroom. They come with the same power of creativity and cognition that they are asked to exercise in every other class, and it is my goal to access and build upon their creativity and critical thinking, while recognizing that they are still developing their linguistic proficiency.
I also want my students to realize that learning a language is about more than learning isolated words and grammatical structures; it is about learning how to communicate in that language. I expect my students to come to class willing to engage in communication, and I offer in return a promise to do all that I can to make that communication comprehensible, authentic, and engaging. I also pledge to create a learning environment in which mistakes are not only accepted but encouraged. My Chilean roommate told me, “I cannot help you improve your speech unless you speak,” and that provided the impetus that I needed to let go of my inhibitions and allow mistakes to form a part of my learning process. That ultimately led me to make great advances in my language learning, and I believe it will be instrumental in helping my students do the same.
I do not merely have high expectations for my students; I also set the bar high for myself. I am a meticulous planner. I have been known to spend hours planning a single lesson if I believe it is the best approach to engage and enlighten my students. Yet, I do not allow the time I invest in planning my lessons to cloud my perception of the lessons’ effectiveness. I pride myself on being both a perceptive and reflective teacher. I often modify my lessons from one class to the next in an effort to make them better, and I have made great strides in adapting my lessons on the fly to better accommodate my students’ learning needs.
I like to maintain open lines of communication with my students. I believe that students should have a say in what they are learning, and for that reason, I administer interest surveys and teaching evaluation surveys so that I can learn about my students’ interests, the learning activities they believe contribute most and least effectively to their learning, and the ways in which they believe I can improve as a teacher. As a result of reading these surveys, I have come to believe more than ever that no single teaching method could accommodate the diversity of learning styles and interests which my students bring to the classroom. Rather, I subscribe to a varied teaching approach, wherein I incorporate large-group instruction, small-group and partner collaboration, individual work, inductive instruction, both implicit and explicit deductive instruction, face-to-face communication, internet-enabled communication, games, songs, role plays and theatrical plays, authentic texts and videos, problem-solving puzzles, and any other engaging activities that I believe can contribute to meaningful learning. I am not afraid to try anything once, and I am constantly on the lookout for effective instructional activities that I can borrow from fellow teachers. I am also always willing to share my effective instructional lessons and materials with my counterparts.
While I am eager to adapt my teaching style to best meet students’ learning needs, I must admit that my favorite aspect of teaching involves walking around the room and observing students as they work independently or in small groups. I love this because it gives me an opportunity to identify student misconceptions and provide additional one-on-one or small group instruction to those students who seem to be struggling to learn a given concept. I particularly enjoy following up students’ questions with questions that prompt them to search the recesses of their minds for the answers, as helping them to uncover the right answer in this manner undoubtedly leaves them with a greater sense of self-sufficiency and pride than would giving them the answer outright. I also find that walking among my students helps them to see me as more approachable; I am never loath to kneel or crouch down beside a student to work through a difficult concept face-to-face. And, beyond enabling me to identify student misunderstandings, carefully monitoring my students gives me a chance to recognize them for their hard work.
Aside from informally assessing my students as they are independently working, I greatly enjoy assessing students’ performance through authentic performance assessments. I believe these provide me with yet another avenue through which to gain insight into my students’ lives. I also believe they provide students with test anxiety a lower-pressure, more realistic way to convey their knowledge of learned concepts. That is not to say that I believe there is no place for tests and quizzes in classroom assessment, but I do not intend to rely solely upon them to judge my students’ language learning.
I go to great lengths to try to make my students feel valued. I make every effort to learn their names as quickly as possible, and I make sure to recognize them, by name, for their contributions. I also take time to go to their band concerts, choral performances, and even their wax museum presentations to let them know that I care about what they are doing both in school and out. I relish opportunities to praise my students for their strengths and share funny anecdotes about them with their parents at parent-teacher conferences. I continue to maintain correspondence with students that I am no longer teaching.
I teach because I legitimately care about my students, and I hope to be the one caring adult that it will take to make a difference in some of their lives. I teach because teaching brings me joy and self-respect and because it challenges me to keep constantly learning – a challenge that I readily accept.
A great teacher once told me that the best teachers are those who have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to learn their subject matter, and I am hoping that he is right. I have chosen to teach second languages because learning Spanish has been, and continues to be, one of the most challenging endeavors that I have ever undertaken. Yet, it has also been one of the most rewarding. As a language learner myself, I believe I can effectively identify with my learners; it was not that long ago that I was replaying Spanish language CDs four or five times to be able to answer comprehension questions and wearing the pages of my Spanish/English dictionary thin trying to translate written texts word-for-word. Nevertheless, speaking Spanish has introduced me to cultures which would otherwise have been largely inaccessible to me. In learning to respect and value those cultures, I have also developed a greater appreciation for certain facets of my own culture, and I hope I can instill a similar cultural awareness and appreciation in my students.
I have very high expectations for my students, but I do not consider my expectations unrealistic. First and foremost, I expect my students to come to class with a readiness to think critically. I recently remarked, upon reading a student’s Spanish fairy tale, that his story was very creative, to which he replied, “Yes; I am limited only in my knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and grammar.” At the time, I found it hard not to chuckle in response to his seemingly vain reply, but in retrospect, I find it highly insightful. The truth is that my students do not check their brains at the door when they enter my language classroom. They come with the same power of creativity and cognition that they are asked to exercise in every other class, and it is my goal to access and build upon their creativity and critical thinking, while recognizing that they are still developing their linguistic proficiency.
I also want my students to realize that learning a language is about more than learning isolated words and grammatical structures; it is about learning how to communicate in that language. I expect my students to come to class willing to engage in communication, and I offer in return a promise to do all that I can to make that communication comprehensible, authentic, and engaging. I also pledge to create a learning environment in which mistakes are not only accepted but encouraged. My Chilean roommate told me, “I cannot help you improve your speech unless you speak,” and that provided the impetus that I needed to let go of my inhibitions and allow mistakes to form a part of my learning process. That ultimately led me to make great advances in my language learning, and I believe it will be instrumental in helping my students do the same.
I do not merely have high expectations for my students; I also set the bar high for myself. I am a meticulous planner. I have been known to spend hours planning a single lesson if I believe it is the best approach to engage and enlighten my students. Yet, I do not allow the time I invest in planning my lessons to cloud my perception of the lessons’ effectiveness. I pride myself on being both a perceptive and reflective teacher. I often modify my lessons from one class to the next in an effort to make them better, and I have made great strides in adapting my lessons on the fly to better accommodate my students’ learning needs.
I like to maintain open lines of communication with my students. I believe that students should have a say in what they are learning, and for that reason, I administer interest surveys and teaching evaluation surveys so that I can learn about my students’ interests, the learning activities they believe contribute most and least effectively to their learning, and the ways in which they believe I can improve as a teacher. As a result of reading these surveys, I have come to believe more than ever that no single teaching method could accommodate the diversity of learning styles and interests which my students bring to the classroom. Rather, I subscribe to a varied teaching approach, wherein I incorporate large-group instruction, small-group and partner collaboration, individual work, inductive instruction, both implicit and explicit deductive instruction, face-to-face communication, internet-enabled communication, games, songs, role plays and theatrical plays, authentic texts and videos, problem-solving puzzles, and any other engaging activities that I believe can contribute to meaningful learning. I am not afraid to try anything once, and I am constantly on the lookout for effective instructional activities that I can borrow from fellow teachers. I am also always willing to share my effective instructional lessons and materials with my counterparts.
While I am eager to adapt my teaching style to best meet students’ learning needs, I must admit that my favorite aspect of teaching involves walking around the room and observing students as they work independently or in small groups. I love this because it gives me an opportunity to identify student misconceptions and provide additional one-on-one or small group instruction to those students who seem to be struggling to learn a given concept. I particularly enjoy following up students’ questions with questions that prompt them to search the recesses of their minds for the answers, as helping them to uncover the right answer in this manner undoubtedly leaves them with a greater sense of self-sufficiency and pride than would giving them the answer outright. I also find that walking among my students helps them to see me as more approachable; I am never loath to kneel or crouch down beside a student to work through a difficult concept face-to-face. And, beyond enabling me to identify student misunderstandings, carefully monitoring my students gives me a chance to recognize them for their hard work.
Aside from informally assessing my students as they are independently working, I greatly enjoy assessing students’ performance through authentic performance assessments. I believe these provide me with yet another avenue through which to gain insight into my students’ lives. I also believe they provide students with test anxiety a lower-pressure, more realistic way to convey their knowledge of learned concepts. That is not to say that I believe there is no place for tests and quizzes in classroom assessment, but I do not intend to rely solely upon them to judge my students’ language learning.
I go to great lengths to try to make my students feel valued. I make every effort to learn their names as quickly as possible, and I make sure to recognize them, by name, for their contributions. I also take time to go to their band concerts, choral performances, and even their wax museum presentations to let them know that I care about what they are doing both in school and out. I relish opportunities to praise my students for their strengths and share funny anecdotes about them with their parents at parent-teacher conferences. I continue to maintain correspondence with students that I am no longer teaching.
I teach because I legitimately care about my students, and I hope to be the one caring adult that it will take to make a difference in some of their lives. I teach because teaching brings me joy and self-respect and because it challenges me to keep constantly learning – a challenge that I readily accept.