Teaching Philosophy Statement

Ever since I could remember I wanted to become a teacher in an elementary school setting. As I grew older that desire only became stronger. After finishing high school, and volunteering at a child care for children ages 4-5 my freshman year of college, I decided to teach at an elementary school level. The reason in which I want to become a teacher is because of my kindergarten teacher Ms. Llopis. She was a teacher who would engage her students in all the activities we were doing, she would complement me on my homework, writing style, and the things I did. Receiving those compliments were the main reason why I wanted to do more, why I wanted to be better. I believe that if a teacher can make an impact on children such as my teacher did when

I want to become a mentor to children at a young age in which they can mentor them throughout their educational career. My teacher made such an impact on me that I found her later on through her husband who coincidentally was also my fourth grade teacher. I hope that in the future I am also able to impact a child’s life so they can continue the chain of teaching. I am the first person in my family to finish college and earn their bachelor’s degree and now I will also be the first to go to graduate school. Coming from a low income school setting from elementary school to high school, I understand that it can be difficult to teach what you want because there are not enough recourses that one has access

I have volunteered with a program called Reading Partners, where I tutored a student one on one following curriculum that was provided for tutors. I have seen how my student at the time did not know how to recognize letters or numbers. This kindergarten student was also extremely shy so the beginning was difficult but I did not give up. Following the curriculum that was given to me, I was able to teach the student their letters. At the end of the semester, I was proud of this student because of their hard work, they were able to not only identify letters of the alphabet but also write their name on their own. The feeling of seeing a student work hard and earn that success made me extremely overjoyed with happiness. I will never forget that moment which also reassured me that I wanted to become a teacher. I have also volunteered in an elementary school classroom to observe and help the teacher in charge. This included helping students, giving suggestions on lesson plans, and helping the teacher when needed. I have worked at two different child development centers which taught me the early mind development of children ages 6 months to 5 years old. With this, I wanted to learn more about the curriculum and classroom teaching so I became a substitute teacher. I was not satisfied with being a teacher assistant and wanted to learn more hands on