Who am I as an educator?

Who am I as an educator?

When thinking about this question and reading the statements, I have to admit that I didn't think the results would end up as the following:

Humanism
Humanist educators consider learning from the perspective of the human potential for growth, becoming the best one can be. The shift is to the study of affective as well as cognitive dimensions of learning. Beliefs include: human beings can control their own destiny; people are inherently good and will strive for a better world; people are free to act but must be responsible; behavior is the consequence of human choice; and people possess unlimited potential for growth and development. There is a natural tendency for people to learn, which will flourish if nourishing, encouraging environments are provided.

I do however, feel that humanism is part of my educational philosophy. Working with special needs students every day I realize how important it is to understand that each student is an individual with his or her own needs rather than a group with all the same goals or expectations. Students also need to become responsible for their own actions and belongings. Very often we find in our class that students are constantly losing things from pens and pencils to textbooks, lunches, and expensive items such as I-pods. These students need to learn how to care for their things. We try to help them develop a sense of responsibility for their own things.

I also feel that I am a constructivist. I know that for the most part, until I try something, watching doesn't always help me learn. An example of this would be working on math problems. Watching a teacher work on a problem on the board is very different from me trying to do the math problem myself. If I want to learn I know I have to try the math problem. Many if not all of my students are like me. When we worked on the Pythagorean theorem this year, it didn't sink in until they worked on several problems. Soon they were able to see that they can use the theorem when they see a right triangle. But at first, every problem they saw, they didn't know what to do.

Constructivism is a philosophy in which students learn and internalize new information through experience. I firmly believe this is the case. Students can learn basic information from reading about how to do somehthing such as create a Power point presentation, but they will only truly learn after they have tried it for themselves (I know this from experience).

I feel as a teacher, I try to always guide my students without spoon-feeding them answers. I try to encourage them to plan or seek answers to questions in ways that will not only help, but promote higher level thought after. I enjoy watching students process information and apply it to life when possible. I insist that students work on becoming responsible for his or her own actions. Students must acknowledge when they have acted in a way that is harmful to themselves or others in order to learn that those actions should not be repeated.

It is very important to me to show students that they can and will learn from me as the teacher but also help them understand that they can be in charge of their own learning, while I facilitate and guide them to deeper and higher levels of thinking. As an educator, I feel with my course work and teaching experiences my philosophy is developing more and more everyday. Each time I work, I learn as I teach. It is important for teachers to understand that they are at school to learn also.