As a teacher you are faced with a high level of standards and expectations, and also posed with the simplest, yet hardest problem, educating the student. The goal is to not just educate the student, but to also prepare them for the future to which they are going to guide. The profession of teaching isn’t something that comes by chance; you must become involved and dedicated in learning the essentials of educating the future generation. As a teacher, I want to make a difference in a student’s life and change the world one student at a time. Whether it be a high school student or Kindergarten student, I will have a vast impact on their lives.
Each teacher has a set of philosophies instilled in their body of curriculum. By these philosophies teachers construct or reconstruct a student’s mind. By either being a teacher-centered or student- centered philosopher, I will develop students set to those philosophical values. However, it is theoretically possible to have both sets of philosophical values. Indeed, this is becoming more prevalent in today’s society because education is evolving from the older style of authoritative learning. While there are still core-subject knowledge and strict discipline being taught, student-centered philosophy of preparing the student for society is becoming more popular. I agree with Nel Noddings who believes that, “the curriculum should be centered on the interest of the students.” I believe the future success of a student isn’t so much derived from the core body of knowledge, but the integrated subjects that the students find a particular interest in.
The definition of curriculum is defined as the, “set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university.” My job as a teacher is to implement the curriculum, while making it relevant to each student. By doing this, I will design lesson plans correlated to the content matter. Teachers now teach towards the objectives on standardized test, rather than teaching the full curriculum. I will incorporate the curriculum in the three different learning styles. I will include hands-on activities, visual tools, and auditory tools incorporated in the classroom. The “success” of a teacher in today’s society is based on the pass/fail rate of the standardized test. As a teacher, I have to find what helps a student to learn and incorporate that into my teaching. I will have various activities in my classroom to get all of the students involved and excited to learn. I would also have my students create a portfolio to express the variety of things they learned that year.
As a teacher I will incorporate multicultural education into my classroom. I agree with James Banks belief that, “to achieve greater understanding and more positive attitudes toward different groups is to integrate and broaden the curriculum.” I will become open-minded and use James Banks’ four approaches as part of their curriculum. As students learn about each other’s different cultural backgrounds, it teaches them to respect and appreciate one another. I can help students succeed academically by using the “teaching the culturally different,” which allows close links between the home and school.
As a teacher I have to focus on what is best for the student and find that fuel to ignite their flame for learning. I will focus on certain things from the teacher and student view of philosophy and integrate them into my classroom. I want to be the change and help a student succeed through this crazy thing in life we call “education.”