My Personal Philosophy of Teaching

I have identified my teaching values. The values that I have chosen are most important to me. When I become a teacher, I plan to stand by my values. My values are as follows:

Respect for others. My personal definition of this value would be to treat people the way that I would like to be treated. I feel that respect is a very important aspect to life. Without respect, some of us would not be the people that we are today. This value will affect my teaching in a positive way. When I show students, parents, and colleagues a great amount of respect, hopefully I will receive the same in return.

Leadership. In my opinion, leadership means to be a good role model. Leadership allows people to look at you as a leader. When I demonstrate leadership to my students, I will show them that students can be leaders as well.

Commitment. I believe that commitment is a wonderful teaching value. By being committed, you stay true to what you are supposed to do. I will always tell my students that once they agree to do something, then they should stay focused and committed. They should also work hard at what they are doing.

Intelligence. Being intelligent is a plus when it comes to teaching. I will tell my students to share their knowledge because knowledge is, in fact, power!

Personal Development. In my opinion, personal development helps a person grow in life. As each day passes, you will know more than you did the day before. I will always tell my students to learn from their mistakes and continue to grow personally.

In all, my priorities are to teach and learn from my students. I would like to make a difference in their lives and I hope they make a difference in mine. Students can expect a kind, heart-warming, caring, and helpful teacher. With that being said, this is my teaching philosophy.

Google Docs

I will use Google Docs in my classroom. This will be a good way to make sure that all of my students have a word document program to use. This is good because not all students will be able to access the newest, updated version of Microsoft Word. With Google Docs, students can create documents, Power-Point presentations, spreadsheets, and more! Also, Google Docs is inexpensive. It is free and also students will not have to worry about saving their work to a flash drive or CD. I believe that Google Docs will be a very useful tool in my classroom.

Creating a Classroom Blog

When I am teaching, I plan to create a classroom blog for my class. The blog will be for students, parents, and others to keep up with some of the things that we are doing in the classroom throughout the school year. The classroom blog will be very helpful for students who are absent due to illness and other matters. When they are absent, all they will need to do is look on the class blog to see what we did that day. This way the students will not get too far behind when they return to school.

iTunes University

I have discovered that iTunes University is also a very helpful tool. I now know that you can find useful information in iTunes. I learned that this application include lectures, lab demos, as well as campus tours. All of their downloads are free. iTunes University is a great tool for using podcasts and vodcasts. This could help me because if I am looking to research a few things for my classes as a student, I could always turn to iTunes University to see if they have any useful information. As a teacher, I could maybe get ideas from this application and it could be used as a learning tool while I am teaching.

Google for Educators- Custom Search Engine

Google for Educators is a search engine that allows teachers and students to create a personalized, customized search engine that searches only across sites that the teachers specify. It eliminates websites that are not relevant to the subject matter. This tool can help students stay on task, rather than clicking on unnecessary websites. When I create a custom search engine for my students, I can search the websites beforehand and add the websites that I think are helpful for the students.

Encouragement

I know that almost everyone needs encouragement in order to get their job done. I will make sure that I am always encouraging my students so they are able to have a positive outcome. Sometimes students just need a little positive enforcement in order to succeed.