Becky Czekaj

Professor Suk
Education Field Experience EDUC 230-02
Spring 2015
Personal Philosophy of Learning
In my early years of school I always enjoyed the experience of going to school. I was
always excited to wake up and walk to my elementary school. I remember loving school so much
I would go home and play school with my Likes Tikes chalkboard. Once I hit fourth grade
everything changed. I was always struggling to pass almost every subject. If I got a C I was
happy. Then I went to middle school. I finally got to experience teachers teaching in their subject
area. It was eye opening. I struggled sixth grade to get good grades, but ended up doing well in
every subject. Then I hit seventh grade. I had the best teachers in every subject. One that really
stuck out to me was my math teacher. My math teacher was amazing. I always liked math but
struggled in my early years. I always wanted to be good at it. My pre-algebra teacher made class
fun, he made math fun. I remember drawing comics as an assignment. He would make jokes
which made some things easier to remember. He tried to make it relate to our lives and seem
more interesting than a+b=c. Since then math always clicked for me, I never struggled learning it
after having him as a teacher. He is the reason I want to be a teacher, I want to be like him. I want
to be able to make math fun, and make it interesting and relatable.
So many people find math difficult. From my experience practicing it makes it easier, as
it does when you practice anything. This is contiguity learning which is learning by associations.
Contiguity learning is important for learning the vast amount of information children and
adolescents are presented with. For example, letter and word recognition in early childhood is
based on repeated exposure (Bohlin, 159). In a math environment, as with anything difficult,

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practice makes perfect. I think a lesson, along with an activity and homework going over a topic
is very important. Its important to go over the things again if students are having difficulty with
it. With the right amount of exposure to a topic, many students will be able to pass. I also think
differentiated instruction is important in a classroom. In an average classroom there will be
different forms of learning styles. Some students will be able to learn by seeing the process being
done, some will learn by writing it down, others will need hands on activities to learn. I plan on
having multiple ways for students to learn topics. I would like to assign projects for students to
have hands on activates with math. Everybody learns differently, at different speeds. If needed I
would have extra actives, including extra credit projects available for the students who are ahead.
For the students who might be a little behind, I could have some simpler things fading into the
harder part of the topic, so they can learn at their own speed when needed. I learn by doing hands
on activities. If I could draw it, it worked for me, in every subject. History was always a struggle
for me to be interested in. I do remember doing art projects for different topics in history and I
still remember all those topics and why we did art projects.
My future classroom would be full of helpful things for the students to use. Such as
posters and cute pictures on the walls.. I would like to have activities available for students to
further their knowledge on the topics being learned. When a visitor is observing in my room I
hope they see a well-run classroom with work being done, there should be lots of student
interaction and participation in the class. I think if the students feel comfortable interacting with
myself and other students it will be easier to learn in the class. During instructional time, when
the lesson is being taught, I expect the class to be quiet and listen, but participate when needed. I
would love to have the student have fun in the classroom while learning. I plan to have fun
activities for students to learn math. If they can have fun, it might be fun to learn. Being bored in

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a class, theyre minds will start to wonder. I remember doing all sorts of activities in my middle
school math classes. I remember drawing, making cereal containers that werent rectangular. I
plan on doing things like that. I hope my classroom is a comfortable environment for everyone in
it. I want my students to have fun and laugh.

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References
Bohlin, L., Durwin, C. C., & Reese-Weber, M. (2009). Edpsych: Modules. New York: McGrawHill.
Koch, J. (2012). Teach. Belmont: Wadsworth.