My Teaching Philosophy
My Teaching Philosophy
My heart lies in working with young children, guiding and teaching them, discovering and engaging with them. I practice a teaching philosophy where children are encouraged to learn and grow by providing a foundation of developmentally appropriate experiences where each child can succeed in a safe and nurturing environment.
I strive to model and demonstrate, on a daily basis, the following: accepting differences in others, recognizing strengths in themselves, learning boundaries and practicing empathy for others. I also help them to practice self-control, master self help skills and express their needs and feelings. I view each child I encounter as a unique individual and I strive to provide experiences to support each child’s abilities, interests and individual needs and strengths. My goal is to meet each child at their level, build upon what they already know and guide them forward on their learning path.
As a seasoned teacher, I know I am helping to set the foundation for the years before kindergarten and also for a lifetime. Our class is not centered around my direct instruction. Instead, it involves interactions with other children, the ability to process information and decision-making skills without my intervention. I teach the whole child. I encourage children to be confident so they can speak up if they need something. I teach empathy so they can help a hurting friend. I offer children choices to show them that what they are interested in matters. I provide children with open-ended activities so they can create, imagine, explore and discover. I provide children with things that can spill or break so they can practice life skills. I provide children with items that are fragile so they can practice being gentle. I provide children with time when they disagree with each other so they have a chance to work it out. I provide children with unhurried moments so they develop persistence in whatever they are engaged in. I allow children to be angry, frustrated, or upset because we are all human. I teach children about mistakes and this is how we grow!
My Teaching Fundamentals
These are a few of the principles that guide and shape how I teach, the activities that I provide and the way I which I approach each day in the classroom
Play supports learning.
Free exploration, make-believe play, and creative games make important contributions to preschoolers' literacy development (Neuman, Roskos, Wright, & Lenhart, 2007). In play, children express and represent their ideas, learn to interact with others, and practice newly acquired abilities and knowledge.
Learning benefits from integrated instruction.
Projects and themes help children build knowledge networks and provide time for repeated practice of familiar concepts like grouping items into sets. When children apply skills in multiple contexts, their learning will likely transfer to new areas.
Learning requires guidance.
Effective teachers actively engage young children in mastering content, helping them connect new learning to what they already know and can do. Working on the edge of students' current competence, they involve kids in experiences that are slightly more difficult than those they could master on their own. Teachers carefully scaffold students' learning, gradually decreasing the amount of assistance they proffer as students become able to perform tasks independently. They encourage students to express their ideas through language and to raise questions that enable them to develop more complex ideas and understandings.
