Teaching Philosophy

The following is an excerpt from my personal teaching philosophy, written during my classroom management practicum during the fall semester of my senior year. The full paper includes my vision for a future classroom, what I believe is the ideal classroom floorplan and layout, and the techniques and strategies I hope to use to support every student in my class. Click here to read my whole teaching philosophy.

“Perhaps the most important thing I learned to say during my semester of classroom management experience in Ms. Goldstein’s class was this: “Lo siento. Yo no se mucho de español pero yo practico para tu.” This was the first full sentence I spoke to one of our students, a little boy who showed up in the middle of October unable to speak or understand any English at all. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure if it’s grammatically correct, but in rough translation it means, “I’m sorry. I don’t know very much Spanish but I’m practicing for you.” When this student first arrived, I was so overwhelmed at the challenge of trying to teach him or even speak to him when the last time I had used the Spanish language was in a high school Spanish class nearly five years ago. But what I did know was that I needed some way to tell him that even if I couldn’t always find the words to say it, I cared about him and wanted to support him just as much as the other students. So I pieced together the limited Spanish vocabulary I had at the time to tell him that, even though it was hard and I was sometimes not going to do well at it, I would put forth every effort I could to be able to talk to him just like I do the other students in the class. When I spoke that sentence to him, I saw understanding flash in his eyes, and ever since then we’ve had a special bond. Sometimes, I point at things and ask “que es esto?” (“What is this?”) and he gives me the words, and other times I give him the words that he needs. We learn from each other, and I know that our relationship in the classroom is stronger because of it. The relationship that I now have with this student is exactly the type of relationship that I want to have with all of my students. Whether their needs involve translating into another language, accommodating for a disability, or just giving them an extra push, I want to be the teacher who looks them in the eye and says, “I may not have all of the answers now, but I promise I won’t stop looking until I find them.” ”