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Madison Evans

Edu 202

Robert L. Shkorupa

10/29/18

Philosophical Portrait of Myself

I grew up in a little city in Arizona. I remember looking forward to school everyday and

usually performing well. I loved my teachers and they always loved me. One thing that stands

out to me the most about these grade levels is the amount of structure and discipline. Some years

my parents had to sign my agenda every day, other years had similar systems in place. After

elementary school, my family moved to Las Vegas, and of course, I was heartbroken. But, I still

loved school and I still performed well. Next was high school, where most of the students were

just looking forward to graduate. For me, it was different because I loved school and I loved

learning, and I had some great teachers that made school enjoyable.

Towards the end of my high school career, things got really rough at home. I was

struggling to make it through the day sometimes, too depressed to get out of bed in the morning.

I had great friends that were supportive, but what really helped me was my teachers. They

encouraged me and helped me when I needed it. These teachers are what inspired me to teach. I

always knew I loved math, I just didn’t know what to do with it. They helped me decide that I

wanted to teach it. So, I strive to be an amazing teacher, like the ones who inspirited me. I hope

to make my classroom a safe environment that students enjoy going to. I hope to reach as many

students as I can. I hope to be that supportive teachers that a student can go to during their rough

moments. I hope to be a role model and teach the children that they can doing anything they

want if they just go for it.

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After I decided this, it seemed that teaching was quite easy. However, after taking a

couple classes and observing a classroom and hearing the challenges from real teachers has

really changed my perspective. It’s helping me decide what my class culture is going to be like,

and what I am going to do to be the best possible teacher.

My original definition of learning was supported by what I saw in the classroom during

my teacher observation. Learning is gaining knowledge by being introduced to new material and

practicing it. Just listening to someone lecture or watching someone solve a problem is not

enough. You learn by practicing something yourself.. Learning is also retaining information for a

long period. The teacher I observed made a point about the importance of doing the homework

and practicing the problems. She also stressed the importance of creating connections between

topics. Doing this will help them pull out past skills from other classes and apply them to new

subjects, which will create a solid understanding of the new material.

This teacher observation also solidified my own ideas about classroom management.

Classroom management is maintaining control of students and everything else that goes on. A

teacher should be able to figure out which students are struggling and help them find a way to fix

it. It is making sure that students pay attention and do well. This could mean putting the students

in appropriate seats and creating an environment that is comfortable and effective for as many

students as possible. It also making sure that the classroom is neat and organized. Classroom

management is also controlling how students interact with each other.

After taking a teaching style survey, I learned more about my own philosophy of

education. I scored the highest in social reconstructionism, and progressivism and essentialism

were not far behind. Social reconstructionism is informing students about the inequities that exist
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in society and teaching them that it is wrong, and it needs to be fixed. So, I was not surprised at

all that I scored highly in this category. Equality is something I am very passionate about, and I

think it is so important that our future leaders all have the opportunity to be successful.

Progressivism is concerned with helping students form meaningful questions and teaching them

how to find the answers to the questions. This is also something that I believe is important.

Students need to know how to research and problem solve on their own. Finally, essentialism

aims to instill students with knowledge, patriotism, and good character. I agree with this result as

well. I think it is especially important that students learn what good character is. I believe that

good character will get you really far in life. Being respected by others is extremely important.

All in all, my teacher observation and philosophy of education survey really helped shape

my philosophy of education. I think that it is important to be supportive of students and be a

good role model, have good classroom management and help your students learn, teach students

about real world problems and how to fix them, and finally teach students to be respectful and

good characters. A teacher has many many jobs, but perhaps the most important is to inspire.