My Previous Teaching Philosophy:
Inclusivity, Community, Safe Space, Individuality, Facilitator, Choice, Student-oriented, Multiple Intelligences, Diversity, Contemporary and Historical art and issues
Current and Ever-evolving Teaching Philosophy:
Student Centered / Teacher Facilitator
Cultural Diversity / Diversity in a more broad sense
Instruction that fits each individual students needs (includes differentiation)
Community of Learners / Safe and welcoming environment
Mistakes are welcome and and an opportunity to learn
Social-Emotional Learning
Choice based / Opportunities for students to explore art and learning
Respect: respect is NOT earned it is a foundation for success
Change signifies growth. Throughout the course of the semester and previous ones as well, I said on multiple occasions that there is going to always be something I can improve. Therefore, this shift in my teaching philosophy makes sense to me and almost makes me proud to see because its clear there has been some growth and learning on my part as an educator.
________________________________________Similarities________________________________________
There are a good amount of similarities between my past and current teaching philosophies, however, these changes do not signify stagnant growth, but rather how my teaching philosophies being pushed further, validated by experience, and evolving.
This semester my philosophy of having a student-centered teacher where the teacher acts as a facilitator was pushed and in-turn grew even stronger. For example, I got an opportunity to participate in a peer-teaching exercise where I firsthand got to see how a student-centered approach is much more engaging and successful rather than just hearing my own voice that I get to hear everyday.
Cultural diversity will always be important in my classroom because it offers multiple perspectives and the overall global inclusivity that art can offer.
Previously I had said that one of my teaching philosophies includes the multiple intelligences and this stays true, however, this has now evolved into a more broad sense. Not only do my each of my students learn in a unique way, they also advance at different times, and need different things from me in order to be successful that ask more than presenting information in different ways.
The last similarity is the idea of having a choice-based classroom or having those choice-based opportunities. This philosophy has also evolved a bit. At the beginning of this semester, I did not now how to go about implementing choice in my classroom, but know I know I must allow for my students to explore art in ways I didn't or wouldn't think of, and give them opportunities to teach me.
_______________________________________Differences________________________________________
Now I have talked a little bit about diversity already, but I think that this also counts as a difference in the more broad sense of the word. Diversity in my classroom extends further than racial and cultural inclusion and works towards always finding new ways to do things in the classroom, I never want to be that teacher that gets stuck in doing the same thing forever and always. That get boring for me but also for my students and most likely wont work for every single group of kiddos I might get to teach.
This next big difference is the idea of accepting mistakes. My philosophy is that when students make mistakes they will work with it as a new opportunity and problem solve how to continue. I think that very rarely a student should ever trash a project. I hope that I can foster an environment where mistakes can be celebrated and seen as an opportunity to do something with an project that you would have never have thought of otherwise. And if anything it can act as a learning opportunity.
Social-Emotional Learning supports a lot of my previous teaching philosophies, and this semester taught me the word for it all. Social-Emotional Learning really focuses on the well-being and mental health of each individual student. This includes my ideas behind having some days where the lesson gets completely trashed to focus on my students needs and doing something to support them instead. This philosophy supports fostering positive relationships and connections first, and in turn helps achieve goals set.
The last and very broad philosophy that I have is respect. This honestly can act as an umbrella for all the other philosophies I have. In order for any of this to be successful I need to create an environment of respect in every one of my classes. I have a firm and strong belief that respect is NOT earned, and rather it acts as a foundation for success. I have heard so many times throughout my entire life tat respect is earned, "I will respect you if you respect me". That statement is harmful, students deserve as many chances as it takes for them to be successful. Students learn based off of what their teachers model and so if a model respect not matter what, that will begin to rub off on them.
Looking at all the reflective pieces that I have made over the course of this semester I began to notice some common motifs of growth depicted as plants, metamorphosis depicted by butterflies, and the human experience from things I experienced to what my students will be going through.
With all that in mind, combined with what I wrote in this blog I created this reflective piece. The chimp represents the human, but instead of drawing a human face again, I decide to allude to evolution and this ever-evolving I am experiences as I learn more and more about teaching through the chimp. The butterflies represent the changes I have already made and the metamorphosis I have gone through from student to teacher. And lastly, the greenery represents the growth I had, have, and will experience. I made this piece black and white because right now I am a teacher without students and once the students are added they will bring the color and excitement with them. This piece may also look unfinished or sketch-like, this was intentional. I wanted to represent how this is not a final stage and I still have a ways to go, learn about, and refine. I will make sure that my teaching philosophy never becomes stagnant and that I will always be bettering myself and evolving myself for the sake of my students and future students.
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