My Teaching Philosophy

My philosophy of teaching rests upon a single, very simple principle: every child can learn.  As teachers, we often need to spend a lot of time and energy finding out exactly how and from what point every child can learn, but the fact remains.  In that case, my philosophy of teaching essentially posits that a teacher’s job is to learn, as quickly and accurately as possible, where his or her children are in relation to the material, learn what motivates the children, then provide opportunities for them to learn as much as they possibly can using those motivational constructs as necessary.

Children learn by assimilating new knowledge into the network of patterns and ideas that exists in their brains on Day One.  In order to make new knowledge fit into the framework already in place in a child’s mind, then, our instructional practices must strive to relate new and often disparate knowledge to what each child already knows. Good teachers know how to sift a set of knowledge or a skill or a concept and find the bond that will make this new information fit neatly into most children’s existing neural networks.  Some students are very open to new knowledge by virtue of coming to school with a vast and far-reaching network of background knowledge.  Other students come to us with a more limited network, and it is with these students that we must typically work the longest and sometimes the hardest in order to build backward until we are able to connect to some meaningful idea in these children’s minds.  That is how instruction assists in learning.  Instructors, by virtue of our familiarity with our students, offer the meaningful connection that will allow each one to add to the pattern of ideas that lives in his or her mind and helps him or her to make the world make sense.

Strong teachers never stop looking for the connection between the idea to be taught and the neural network that must receive it.  They never give up on a child; never believe that a child cannot learn.  Somewhere in each of our vast webs of experiences, if we look hard enough and long enough, we will find a book or a film, a place or a game, a toy or a sport…something that will provide the connection between what we wish to teach and what makes sense to a child.

In my classroom, I see students for two different purposes during the day, but the fundamental approach with each group of kids is essentially the same.  Whether I am asking my G/T and Honors English students to analyze and evaluate the similarities between “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” or looking for a way to explain the importance of strong note-taking skills to a dyslexic child who is on the cusp of reading at the same level as his peers for the first time in his life, I start with something general with which I think most of my children will be familiar.  Then I move from face to face looking for the “A-ha!” The spark of understanding.  For the vacant faces, I go deeper and farther afield.  I ask questions and learn about each child until I learn something that I can fit to the content I am teaching.  The better I know my kids, the easier this process is, so I work to know them as well as any teacher can.  I listen, pay attention, and take note, so that when the teachable moment arrives, I can shower them with knowledge and help them grow into someone stronger than the person each of them was yesterday.