Keosha Gaston

Dr. Ellis
EDUC 1301.100
13 Apr 2015
Philosophy of Education
I believe the most amazing career to choose out of teachers, doctors, lawyers, and police
officers are becoming a math teacher. My future career is to become a Middle School mathematics
teacher due to the fact that I enjoy working with young people, very interested in math, and will give
my all in helping anyone. As a student in middle school, which are grades 6-8, I always looked up to
my math teacher Mrs. Helms. I think highly of her because of the way she explained a few problems
easily, worked with me one on one, showed me that she really wanted me to learn and pass, and
courteous. I believe I have the potential to develop into a wonderful math teacher since Mrs. Helms and
I have just about the same characteristics.
I believe curriculum and assessment go hand in hand together. Curriculum shape the students
and enable them to learn, and in order to shape the students, I will develop different assessments to
determine how each student are learning. As I hand out assessments, although they are more
challenging, but I can discover which student need to improve their progress. I believe establishing
numerous strategies of learning will allow students to gain more knowledge, and the students will not
give up on a problem that is difficult to unriddle. Some of the multiple strategies I will include in my
math classroom to enhance my students learning are: make them active by allowing them to make out
equations on the dry-erase board, go over math formulas every day for memorization, present
challenges, grant the students to discover patterns, and create projects. I believe there can not ever be
enough strategies for students to learn.
In the future, I will make certain the environment in my classroom is well spiffed up. I believe
the students whom will enter my classroom filled with math formulas, drawings, multiplication tables,

math symbols, math vocabulary, and place value system placed all over the walls thinking cap will turn
on, and they will be ready to learn. For example, I never thought that I would be completing my 16
hours observing my middle school math teacher classroom, but when I go to observe Mrs. Helms
classroom, everything that is hanging on her walls catches my eye. I will make sure each and every
student feel welcome as they step foot inside my classroom door. Moreover, I believe every student is
equal and shall be taught the same based on their learning style. I will interpret the learning styles by
looking for which students are visual, hands-on, auditory, or a little bit of all three learners. I came to
mind that once I have figured out their learning style, it will be easier for the students to understand and
lucubrate.
Nevertheless, I admired the American educator William Bagley. He founded one of the teachercentered philosophies, which was essentialism. Essentialism is used more widely in public schools. He
believed students should be taught the accumulated knowledge of our civilization through core courses
in the traditional academic disciplines. Bagley viewed the major role of education is to produce a
literate, intelligent electorate; arguing against electives to help students apply their academic
knowledge. In addition, George Count, founder of social reconstructionism, is a philosopher I will keep
in mind. He outlined a more ambitious, and clearly more radical, approach to education. He believed
that schools should focus on reforming society, an idea that caught the imagination and sparked the
ideas of educators both in the country and abroad. Count also believed teachers ought to create lessons
that both intellectually inform and emotionally stir students about their inequities surrounded them.
To come to the point, I believe in order for students to gain better knowledge and access a
classroom wanting to learn, I have to include students with the lesson, fulfill the classroom with colors
and posters, and ensure a safe environment. I know every parent want their student to be educated and
be someone one day, so it is my job to ensure all the students learn everything they should possibly
know.