Running head: MY REVISED PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

My Revised Personal Philosophy of Education

Sydney Bohannon
Wesleyan College

Author Note:
This paper was prepared for Portfolio II

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On the first day of my sophomore year of high school, I entered the building
extremely under confident and apprehensive about the year to come. Introduction to
Early Childhood Education was listed on my schedule- a class I decided to take just for
the fun of it. My alma matter had an incredible Early Childhood Education Program that
even included an accredited on-site laboratory preschool. Although I had babysat from
time to time, I was exceedingly skeptical of working with children in an academic setting.
From the first moment I picked up a book in that preschool library and read to a
carpet full of wide-eyed children, I knew in my heart of hearts teaching was my lifes
calling. It is no surprise that the revelation came during reading time either, because I
believe emergent literacy to be one of the biggest components in my personal philosophy
of education, although I was unaware there was an actual name for it at that point in my
journey.
After having my epiphany in the Introduction to Early Childhood Education
course, I could not get enough and went on to complete every subsequent course on the
ECE track. I was fortunate to receive that strong foundation in both theory and practice
before even receiving my acceptance letter into college or declaring Early Childhood
Education as my major area of study.
From my early study of educational theorists in these courses, there was always
one that stood out above the rest. Maria Montessoris theory of learning by doing has
always been and will always be the theory that mine is based around. This is one thing
that has been left unchanged since formulating my original philosophy of education in
EDU 201.

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In my research of the merits of Montessoris methods, I have discovered that
students who are taught according to this philosophy are also more physically active. This
is also a very important component in my personal philosophy of education because
when students are physically active, their brains become more stimulated and they are
able to release the stress and pressure of sitting in a desk for hours on end. Physical health
and mental health go hand in hand. Because of this, my future students will never be left
seated in their desks for too long before they are up moving around and engaged in a task.
In my own experiences teaching lessons thus far, I have seen a much greater
success rate in what my students retain when I plan for them to actually do the activity
and become engrossed in the process of creating, formulating ideas, posing questions,
and responding to the questions that I pose. It was extremely difficult early on in my
practice to release the responsibility of learning by doing to my students. When I taught
my first integrated unit in EDU 308, I kept the majority of the control and taught mostly
from the board. Each time I taught another unit thereafter, it became more and more easy
to not only integrate the content, but also to allow students to be active participants in
their own learning as well. I realized through building my own confidence as a teacher
that my students are much better off the less I hand to them.
As recently as two weeks ago, I conducted an activity wherein my second grade
students created the phases of the moon using Oreo cookies as apart of my EDR 390 unit.
Not only were they extremely engrossed due to the fun, unusual material we were using,
but also because they were having to use their own two hands to create the images that I
had introduced through a trade book.

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My worst fear in planning this lesson was that they would get so excited by the
cookies that they would completely tune me out and begin playing, however, I began the
lesson by establishing firm rules for behavior and explaining that anyone who I caught
being off task or misbehaving would not receive the treat I had waiting for them. With
that precedent set, not even one student even tried to misbehave and they were all duly
rewarded with Oreos of their own for being so attentive to my directions. Having strong
classroom management from the beginning of the activity helped it to go of as smoothly
as it did.
When I conducted my post-assessment several days later, many if not all of the
students were able to recall even the most difficult moon phase names (such as waning
gibbous and waxing crescent) with ease. I have no doubt that if I had given them a simple
worksheet or simply showed them a video that they would have had such excellent
retention.
I also believe that activity was so successful due in large part to the trade book
that I used as the introduction. The students interests were all piqued by the book about
what we were going to be doing before I even pulled the Oreos from my bag. Although I
have loved reading to my students from the very first moment I knew I was called to be a
teacher, it was not until my EDR courses at Wesleyan that I learned the true merits of
literacy integration. Until taking EDR 390, I had never heard of the term trade book,
nor was I fully aware of why they should be used to support the content found in
textbooks. As stated by Vacca, Vacca, Mraz trade books appeal to a wide range of reading
levels, give exposure to multiple perspectives, and ultimately help students develop a
much richer understanding of the topic.

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Without a strong reading foundation, students will struggle and even fail as
content gets more difficult in each grade. Although the other methods courses had great
merit and ideas that I will carry with me and implement in my teaching career, none of
those are can be executed to their full effectiveness if my students are unable to read and
comprehend text.
Building my students self efficacy is also a critical component to my personal
philosophy. If I can teach them how to regurgitate answers back on a test, my job as an
educator is only halfway done. It is only until they have the confidence to raise their
hands and be unafraid to ask questions and pose their own ideas amongst one another that
my mission is completed.
The best example of building strong self-efficacy in students came from reading
Ron Clarks The Essential 55 and visiting the Ron Clark Academy as apart of EDU 402.
Each one of those students had confidence and manners that would rival any adult, and
they were only in middle school! It is because Mr. Clark runs his school according to his
Essential 55 rules that they are so successful and well rounded. He insists on nothing less
than everyones personal best, and as far as I could tell, all of the students were rising to
the occasion marvelously. All of the pomp and circumstance around the Academy every
day is no doubt fun and entertaining, but that is just the icing on the cake. The students of
RCA learn so much more than just content, and it is my ultimate goal to model my
classroom after it (although the giant blue slide may be a bit of an insurance liability!).
Conclusion
It is imperative to me that my students view me not only as a teacher, but also as
someone they trust with their thoughts, ideas, happy news, and even issues that are going

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on at home. This is a part of the teaching profession that cannot be taught through
anything but real-life experience. All of the best practices, such as think alouds and
discrepant events, will surely make my classroom full of learning. However, by building
a strong, exciting, dynamic classroom community, I will ensure it is one filled with love
and respect as well. Teaching is so much more than worksheets and YouTube videos. The
core mission of the profession is to build our students up so that they can become
independent, active seekers of knowledge. That is the ultimate goal in implementing my
personal philosophy of education.

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References
Bohannon, S. (2013). My Personal Philosophy of Education. Unpublished manuscript.
Wesleyan College, Macon, GA.
Clark, R. (2003). The essential 55: An award-winning educator's rules for discovering
the successful student in every child. New York: Hyperion.
Pate, R. R., O'Neill, J. R., Byun, W., McIver, K. L., Dowda, M., & Brown, W. H. (2014).
Physical Activity in Preschool Children: Comparison Between Montessori and
Traditional Preschools. Journal Of School Health, 84(11), 716-721 6p.
doi:10.1111/josh.12207
Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2011). Content area reading: Literacy and learning
across the curriculum (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Webb, Dean L., Metha, Arlene., Jordan, Forbis K. (2010). Foundations of America
Education. (6th ed.). U.S.A. Pearson.