Setting forth my teaching principles (and a bit about me) ...
At this stage, the knowledge filter (Lyons, Ford & Arthur-Kelly 2011) informing my teaching philosophy is my own experience, in life generally and also in school as a student, my knowledge gained through various courses, my social interactions with my Diploma of Teaching and Learning, with peers and with my school students, as well as from theories emerging from my literacy reviews, all informing my own developing set of principles. These knowledges and prior interacions all effect how I engage with and analyse the processes I come to pass through.
Similarly, my 'worldview' - resilient and resistant to change as it is - is bound my my somewhat 'sheltered' (and very grateful I am for it) upbringing. I grew up with two loving parents, a mother who dedicated many years to raising myself and 5 siblings (all girls) until we were in school, great public schools in spite of numerous interstate moves, supportive friends and family and enough income to live comfortably and experience some wonderful travel adventures, meeting a vast and diverse world of people across ocean-created borders. The latter has definitely been an influential determinant of my worldview. Experience of a world outside of my own, viewing the reality of 'Third World' living conditions and contexts, and being a part of the teaching process within it for a short while have impacted significantly on my philosophical 'filter' for teaching. Over time, this basis of reasoning and interpretation will expand and narrow, reforming and shaping in response to my experiences. But, for now, I would like to share my philosophy of learning and of teaching, overarching my theoretical approach to classroom management and my ultimate classroom management plans.
My Teaching Philosophy
Update, October 2012
Since beginning my placement, I have not had to change my philosophy as such, but the objectives I made in the beginning are now becoming clearer and more practice-based. I continue to believe that diversity should be acknowledged, accepted and promoted, and that it can be a worthwhile enhancer of the learning experience. My placement school is a diverse environment, with 52 percent Indigenous enrolments and many students from Asian, refugee and low socioeconomic backgrounds. The lessons I am learning daily (minute by minute) are concreting my philosophy and providing integral reasoning in a scope with prior theory and literacy-based understandings cannot.
Update, June 2013
I have almost come to an end of the largest of my four units of placement, and have discovered the diversity of both student populations and of my teaching role. From taking a caring, meeting basic needs of energy and brain function, to challenging my students to stretch their zones of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978), my teaching experience has really been laying down my theory! I am still guided by the philosophy I wrote on my outset, in August of 2012, and am forever gaining new drive and momentum to continue to make headway towards making a difference for the lives of learners anywhere. I am excited to be spreading my wings further in July, heading up to Arnhem Land to experience remote living in an Aboriginal community, and to Africa in October, with a conclusion of my travels in Cape Town, where I will be using my knew found gains in teaching to help in a school there for a short time. I truly am, forever, so touched by my experiences, and by the remarkable 'fit' that I have found in this teaching world with students from all walks of life.
References
Similarly, my 'worldview' - resilient and resistant to change as it is - is bound my my somewhat 'sheltered' (and very grateful I am for it) upbringing. I grew up with two loving parents, a mother who dedicated many years to raising myself and 5 siblings (all girls) until we were in school, great public schools in spite of numerous interstate moves, supportive friends and family and enough income to live comfortably and experience some wonderful travel adventures, meeting a vast and diverse world of people across ocean-created borders. The latter has definitely been an influential determinant of my worldview. Experience of a world outside of my own, viewing the reality of 'Third World' living conditions and contexts, and being a part of the teaching process within it for a short while have impacted significantly on my philosophical 'filter' for teaching. Over time, this basis of reasoning and interpretation will expand and narrow, reforming and shaping in response to my experiences. But, for now, I would like to share my philosophy of learning and of teaching, overarching my theoretical approach to classroom management and my ultimate classroom management plans.
My Teaching Philosophy
Update, October 2012
Since beginning my placement, I have not had to change my philosophy as such, but the objectives I made in the beginning are now becoming clearer and more practice-based. I continue to believe that diversity should be acknowledged, accepted and promoted, and that it can be a worthwhile enhancer of the learning experience. My placement school is a diverse environment, with 52 percent Indigenous enrolments and many students from Asian, refugee and low socioeconomic backgrounds. The lessons I am learning daily (minute by minute) are concreting my philosophy and providing integral reasoning in a scope with prior theory and literacy-based understandings cannot.
Update, June 2013
I have almost come to an end of the largest of my four units of placement, and have discovered the diversity of both student populations and of my teaching role. From taking a caring, meeting basic needs of energy and brain function, to challenging my students to stretch their zones of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978), my teaching experience has really been laying down my theory! I am still guided by the philosophy I wrote on my outset, in August of 2012, and am forever gaining new drive and momentum to continue to make headway towards making a difference for the lives of learners anywhere. I am excited to be spreading my wings further in July, heading up to Arnhem Land to experience remote living in an Aboriginal community, and to Africa in October, with a conclusion of my travels in Cape Town, where I will be using my knew found gains in teaching to help in a school there for a short time. I truly am, forever, so touched by my experiences, and by the remarkable 'fit' that I have found in this teaching world with students from all walks of life.
References