Kayla Fowler

ECD 201

Personal Philosophy and Belief Paper

Growing up as a child, one of my favorite activities to do was engage in

imaginative play. I would dress up, take on a new role, and lead in dramatic

play. One of my favorite roles to take on was being a teacher. I would set up

stuffed animals as if they were students and had paper to take attendance,

make lesson plans, and grade work. This was the start to my growing passion for

teaching and working with children. Once I discovered this is what I wanted to

do, I had to put in lots of thought about why, where, who, and how I wanted to

teach.

As I begin my journey in teaching, I realize there will be many instances

where I will need to self-reflect on why I am teaching and how effective it is for

the children in my care. I feel that teaching is important to me by nurturing

children through love and guided experiences, as well as offering opportunities

for children to grow and expand their minds. Knowing that I can influence at

least one child in a positive way has an impact that I am sure will last a lifetime

for the both of us. The education that teachers provide should expand beyond

testing and reaching mandated guidelines. I believe that the purpose of

education should open the doors of learning, not only to the core

understanding of concepts such as math or science, but also to socialization

skills, learning how to express emotions, and becoming independent with

positive self-esteem. In order to create this type of learning environment,

educators need to set up environments that expand on these abilities, create

opportunities for hands on experiences, and create a classroom community. It is

necessary to model to children kindness, compassion, patience, and an

eagerness to learn inside and outside of a classroom. A teacher needs to fuel

children’s curiosity while establishing lasting connections to them and their

families.

As a future teacher, I wish to be able to inspire my students just as I had in the

past. A connection that I formed with one of my former educators continues to

inspire me to this day. My science teacher, whom I had multiple times through

high school, showed such passion for not only the subjects she taught in the

classroom but also taking us to experience things we had never seen before

with hands on field trips. I learned much more than different aspects of biology

from her; but how to take stands for what is right and wrong, as well as how to

reach every student in both their learning and their personal growth. All the

things I took from her, is the same that I wish to be able to establish with my

future students.

Throughout my teaching career, there are a variety of ages that I wish to

teach: infants, preschoolers and multi-age children with exceptionalities and

special needs. I want to be able to learn about all aspects of early childhood

development. Through these experiences I’m hoping to be able to reach every

child no matter their abilities or mindset. In every classroom, there is a diverse

group of children with varying languages, backgrounds, skills, and strengths. In

order to reach all these children in my classroom, I will make adaptations to

materials and activities to fit with children’s abilities, their language and

communications styles. In order to reach towards each child’s strengths, it is

important to form interactions that will aid in their exposure to varying

experiences and knowledge. also feel that it is important to include children’s

families and communities into the classroom to allow for all children to be able

to communicate with their peers about things that are important to them. In my

classroom, I want my students to feel as though they are a community with

each other, all the teachers they work with, as well as families and community

members. Each child needs to feel that they are unique and all of them are

special as well as valued no matter their background.

Just as children have a variety of skills and diverse backgrounds, they also

have many different learning styles. In order to reach these styles, I am going to

focus my teaching on the importance of hands on experiences, play,

exploration, and the support of adult guidance with children’s work to help

children’s learning take place effectively. Children not only need to understand

the fundamentals of reading, counting, and communicating; they should also

be offered opportunities to manipulate items by breaking apart, mixing and

pouring, exploring their communities through field trips and partnering with

community members. With this in mind, my classroom needs to reflect these

practices and beliefs. In order to reflect this, I will create a schedule that
includes planning for children’s interests, their play, as well as having flexibility for

the changing events every day. To ensure children are getting enough time to

thoroughly experience what they are learning, I will plan for plenty of time to

transition to various activities. The instruction I incorporate into my classroom will

focus on having discussions with one another on both interests and curriculum-

based projects, extend children’s learning by allowing community members to

come in and teach, such as families teaching words in another language or

singing cultural songs to the children. I will focus on subjects longer than one

lesson to ensure children thoroughly understand and express their thoughts

about the subject. Each subject I will teach either curriculum or interests based,

will be incorporated into other areas of the classroom such as the various

centers around the room.

Instead of focusing on pencil and paper assessments, I plan to assess children

through our discussions of subject matters, communicate what we learn with

each other and the peers, and build off children’s knowledge and skills,

including their morals and ethics. In order to teach children these moral codes, it

is essential for them to be modeled by adults in children’s lives. We must meet

children’s needs, so they feel a sense of importance, respect their cultural values

and differences by incorporating them into the classroom, as well as establishing

sincere trusting relationships. Supporting all the above, typically requires

balancing all the children’s needs which can mean extending time for individual

children, not tearing down special projects for children to continue to work on
and making modifications to activities. These modifications include adapting

activities to meet the physical and developmental milestones of children, as well

as helping encourage children to extend their learning outside the classroom.

As stated early, I feel that one of the most important things in teaching is

establishing a community. When I move into teaching, I want to teach in the

same community that I grew up in a local urban public school. There was such a

great expanse of diversity that will offer children an extended learning

opportunity beyond what they already know. In order to bring this diversity into

the classroom, I will include a variety of children’s literature nonfiction, fiction,

and folk tales from all the children’s cultures, hang diverse pictures of the

families inside the classroom and out. Two special things I will incorporate in my

daily classroom, are community speakers and family members coming to speak

to and work alongside the children. This ties into involving the children with their

community, though not only the speakers but also bringing the children on field

trips and receiving various resources. Also, a part of the community I wish to

create, I want to establish lasting relationships with the parents and family of the

children through open communication, sharing ideas and knowledge, and

inviting them to be an integral part of the classroom. In order to keep open

communication, I will create family boards with upcoming events, photos, and

things the children are learning, it will also be a space for families to share ideas

together. Fellow teachers and administration will always be welcome to

participate along the children as well. It is important for children to see adults
modeling respect, patience, and sharing with one another for them to be willing

to adapt the same practices. Communicating with staff through inviting them to

attend special events, planning with, sharing anecdotal notes, and observations

will ensure that we too are constantly learning together.

At this point in time, this is the first reflection I have done on why, where, and

how I want to teach yet I understand that there will be many instances later on

that I will need to continue to evaluate my beliefs on teaching. These beliefs will

continually change throughout my career, but as I go through the new

adventure of teaching, I need to ensure that my focus remains on establishing

trusting relationships with children and their families, offering knowledge and skills

through child and adult guided experiences, and meeting the needs of children

the best I can. Not every action taken in teaching is the right one; however, it is

a learning process for educators as well. Each year, new studies and ideas will

come forth encouraging children’s success in many ways. It is important to

remember that teachers will never stop learning about children’s development

and the world around us.