Jessica Lynch

EDU 1010
September 24, 2014
My Teaching Philosophy

I believe that education today requires a lot of hands on involvement from the students that are being
taught. I believe that in order to keep the students attention, the lectures/activities need to be
interesting and fun to them. Learning should be and can be fun for students and teachers alike. I think
there is nothing worse than sitting and listening to someone read a lecture, and having no hands on
training on the subject. Children lose interest easily when they are not actively participating in the
learning process.
I remember being in 6th grade, and my teacher, Mrs. Gordon, was a very hands on teacher. We were
always being active in the classroom, participating in activities in groups and always doing experiments
that were interesting to every personality type in the classroom. I remember making posters in groups
of some of the important things that we would be learning throughout the school year, and referring
back to those throughout the year remembering that we are an important piece of the classroom. Mrs.
Gordon made every subject that she taught to us seem interesting and important. Even while reading a
book, she would bring costumes that fit the characters in the book and have the class act out what we
had just read, which kept us focused while reading, and helped us understand what it was that we just
read.
In the readings by Don Kauchak and Paul Eggen in Introduction to Teaching, Becoming a Professional,
when asking a question of Who were your best teachers it is stated that Most believe their best
teachers were those who cared about them, both as an individual and as a student, and actively
involved them in learning activities. (pg. 158) This is the kind of teacher that I want to be. I want to be

involved in the childrens lives, and show them that their success is important to me. I want to show
them how the things that they are being taught today will help them tomorrow, and in the years that
follow.
The things that I remember most prominently from school are those projects that made me think. Those
projects that I had to work on to get a solution to the given problem. I loved hands on and group
activities. It helped me to understand and remember the things which I was supposed to learn. I do this
with my own children now, and plan on teaching in this same way.
A great quote in our readings state, The purpose of schooling is to develop students as completely as
possible-physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally (pg.157) The best way to do this is through
active involvement in subjects that in other ways may be redundant and boring to children. I even had a
math teacher in college who had us do hand signals and sing songs that helped us to remember what we
were being taught. That was definitely the most exciting math class, but also the singing and body
movements really did help everyone to remember what we needed to do to solve those math problems.
My philosophy of education is to help students understand, through hands on projects, activities and
testing, what they need to do to become upstanding individuals in society, who do service and help
those around them in all situations they are faced with.
Reference: (Introduction to Teaching, Becoming a Professional: Don Kauchak and Paul Eggen)