My Philosophy of Teaching :: Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of Education As a young girl, I would come home from school and pretend to be a teacher. I would sit my younger cousins at small tables and ask them to complete various assignments, such as reading a book or writing the alphabet. We even had lunch in our pretend cafeteria, the dining room, and then we would venture outside for recess. Being a teacher has almost always been a goal of mine. I went through a phase in junior high school where I wanted to become a doctor in order to receive their large salary. One class of biology is all it took for me to realize that my weak stomach could not handle being a doctor. Once, I wanted to become a lawyer for the very same reason; however, after hearing exactly what classes were needed, I quickly changed my mind. I want to become a teacher because of the rewarding experiences, the interacting with young children, and the gaining of new knowledge. With teaching comes many rewarding experiences. Seeing a child’s face light up when they see that they have received a big â€Å"A+† on their assignment can brighten up anyone’s day. During my senior year in high school, I participated in the School to Work Program which allowed me to mentor a first grade teacher for at least three hours a week. At first, I thought that I would sit in the back of the room and watch her teach; but I was wrong. I was basically her teaching assistant for those few hours. She gave me a list of students and had me take one student at a time to have them read a short story or complete a worksheet. The worksheets included math problems, spelling words, and writing. Helping the students with skills that adults take for granted was very rewarding for me. Seeing a child smile because of something I did or said made me so happy. During my last week of mentoring, I was allowed to plan the class’s end of the year party. After all of the planning and a little bit of stress, seeing how much fun the students were having made it all worth it. I know that future teaching will have both pleasant experiences and not so pleasant experiences.