Teaching Philosophy Statement
It is hard for me to decide which I like better, being a student or a teacher. I love teaching when the learning in my classroom is evident; when I can sense an increase in the excitement and passion for the discussion at hand and when I can observe students' visible delight in using new skills and embracing their newly transformed perspectives. I consider these experiences a milestone for professional success. Yet, I transform back into the role of the student and reflect on the origins of such success and compare it to the moments that were not so successful. I examine my pedagogy, my instruction and that of others as I strive to recreate the conditions that made optimal learning possible. Therefore, my philosophy of teaching is informed by the students' needs, the content I teach, and the continuous lessons I have learned from my teaching successes and failures.
I believe that identifying and catering for students' needs promotes learning that is both purposeful and meaningful. It is my responsibility to know who my learners are and what kinds of knowledge and experience they bring into the classroom. I need to identify their learning goals so that I can tailor the curriculum that addresses their needs and yet leaves opportunity to explore topics and interests that arise through collaboration. Through profiling and examining my learners' prior knowledge, learning needs and learning goals, I can provide the instruction, support and scaffolding they need to not only bridge gaps in their learning but develop connections between their prior knowledge and the new understandings that we endeavour to create. I embrace inquiry based teaching, authentic learning and other active learning activities because they engage students in higher levels of thinking and stimulate intellectual collaboration, purposeful and informed debate and cooperative problem solving. Such learning environments are designed to develop students' ethical and social capabilities along with teaching them the necessary steps to creating meaning and solutions, all of which are foundational to life-long collaboration and essential skills for the twenty first century.
I believe that teachers who demonstrate curiosity and passion about their disciplines motivate students to not only learn but also become inspired. Teaching is a learning journey and as W.B. Yeats eloquently suggests, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." My goal as a teacher is to ignite in my learners a passion to challenge themselves, each other and the world around them and inspire a desire to discover knowledge that will make the world a better place for all.