Educational Philosophy Statement

I believe schools should a place where students feel that they have an active role in their learning process, it is important to me that my classroom is student-centered, where students feel free to learn and grow as individuals. I feel it is important for students to have a lead role in their education. Student-centered learning is described as “shifting the focus of activity from the teacher to the learners” (Felder). When the classroom is student centered the students will become active learners rather than passive learners. With active learning, the students are involved in every step of the learning process (Felder). Student-centered learning is tailored to their needs and it is more of a hands-on approach.

As an educator it is my goal

In my class, everyone’s ideas are great and important and will be heard. Everyone’s opinions matter and everyone will have a part in the learning experience. Developing cooperative learning and respect in my classroom will develop a community and that is important in a classroom. Developing a community is important because the students can learn new things about people and be more open to diversity.

When thinking about how I want my future class to be, I realized that my philosophy listed above is a mixture of many different theorists. I took little bits and pieces of each and put them into what I want my class to look like and function

Cooperative learning is important to me and that is one of my most important goals within my classroom. Cooperative learning which is discussed by David Johnson and Roger Johnson is described as “students working together and learning from each other (Manning, Bucher, 2013, P. 133). They also describe it as “students, teachers, administrators, community members working together towards mutual goals” (Manning, Bucher, 2013, P. 132). In my class, the students will be on task and well behaved if someone were to walk in, they would not be loud or disruptive. The walls of my classroom will be warm and inviting. Alfie Kohn believe that is it is important to have a classroom that “reflects the learning, the people, and the things students create to develop a sense of community” (Manning, Bucher, 2013, P. 174). With this, there will be art on the walls from the students and some of the art will include some educational posters. The educational posters will be about subjects that will be taught over the year, posters of helpful hints, like formulas needed for math, or important dates in history. My walls will be bright and colorful. My classroom walls will also have our rules and routines posted clearly for everyone to see. My students will know the rules, consequences, and rewards, which are taught in the first week of school and refreshed as needed, usually after holiday breaks. My students