Elena Sobilo

Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher, I think the best way to understand my teaching philosophy is to look at the

traits and values I want my students to exude. The three values that I want my students to

possess in my classroom are community, responsibility, and curiosity. I chose these three values

because I believe that building these values helps promote other values within the classroom

environment and allows me to act as a guide in their learning, making themselves a driving force.

Narrowing down a list of potential values was very challenging because placing a higher

importance on kindness than trustworthiness seems wrong to do. Each value or virtue has an

important role to play in a childs growth into a friend, a good son or daughter, and as a member

of a larger society. I believe that in focusing on aspects of making a safe and happy classroom

community, promoting students to take responsibility for themselves, and encouraging students

to be curious about the world around them, many values will have the opportunity to shine

through the actions of the students.

I chose community as one of my values because I believe that when a classroom full of

students that come from different backgrounds, with different interests, and different funds of

knowledge, I believe that some of the most important lessons they learn are among themselves.

In calling your students a community, you allow them to become a part of something larger then

themselves. They must learn how to interact with others within this community. I believe that

these student-to-student interactions can help develop a students kindness, friendships,

compassion, empathy, and sense of fairness. I also believe that a certain level of respect towards

your classmates as individuals can come through these student interactions. In creating an

environment with an emphasis on community, I also think that ideas like collaborative work,

contribution to the class discussions, and students ideas influencing how each other see the topic
at hand. I believe that the umbrella of community can help prepare students for real-world,

everyday interactions between people.

Now that I have discussed the students role in a larger classroom community, I think it is

importance to reflect on the students individual role within this community, and the community

outside of the classroom. I chose responsibility as my second value because there are many

different types of responsibility. As a person, you are responsible for your words and actions. I

believe that many elementary students tend to turn the blame onto someone else, saying things

like, She started it, or, It wasnt my fault! He did it first. While it is important to hold others

in the community accountable for their actions, students must also learn to take responsibility for

the words they say and the things they do. In one of my APHD course, we discussed how it is in

the human condition to make and accept excuses for our misdeeds and our down falls, but we do

not extend this courtesy to others. I think that having students say, I am responsible for what

they say or do can help keep themselves accountable, not only for words or actions, but also to

build a sense of pride for the work they turn in and their determination to continually improve. I

also think that having a sense of responsibility can help build up others trust in the student,

creating trustworthiness in the classroom community.

The last value I chose to include was curiosity. I believe that curiosity will lead to

students wanting to know more information about a topic or to look into other similar content

areas. I also think that it will help develop a love of learning. Curiosity can also help students

develop an inquiry stance, similar to what BCs programming follows. I also believe that

curiosity could potentially influence a students openness to other cultures, faith backgrounds,

and political ideologies. Being curious will influence them to gather background information

and look to multiple sources to gain that information. I think that curiosity can also be developed
in line with creativity. In order to look deeper into a topic and relay new information, a student

must be creative in how they choose to share their findings.

I think that being in a classroom community where the students respect one another and

are able to work together in searching for answers to their own questions about different topics

would be an excellent place for a teacher to push his or her students learning to the next level. In

the classroom I was previously working in, classroom management took away so much time

from every lesson. The students did not respect one another and did not seem interested in the

topics they were learning about. I understand that teachers must follow the curriculum standards

at their school, but I think making the students feel like active members in their learning is

important to developing some of the skills I mentioned above. If the students understand that

they are all in the classroom to learn together as a community, they will at least have that bond

with others in their class. I also think that setting clear classroom expectations at the beginning

of the year of how to treat one another in the classroom would have helped my previous pre-

practicum school. I think that one value that I would like my students to have is the desire to

learn, work hard, and improve. But, I cannot teach them to desire learning. I can provide them

with information about different things and try to connect what we are learning back to their

lives, but the desire to learn more has to come from them. These values represent my stance on

teaching for the development of the whole student.