My Teaching Philosophy

While I still don't know a lot about what I believe, here is a list of things I've learned about what my own teaching theories this semester. 

• Children learn best when they are motivated.

• Children are motivated to learn when there is a purpose for their learning.

• Children’s learning should be guided by their own innate curiosity.

• Children should be encouraged to explore the world around them, and my job as a teacher is to guide this process – not to direct it.

• Children can surprise us if we raise our expectations about what they are capable of.

• The student-teacher relationship crucial. Mutual trust and communication are key to success in the classroom.

Specifically regarding literacy, I believe: 

• Children should both read and be read to every day from authentic, meaningful texts. “The most important discovery that children make about books is that they serve meaningful functions.” (Owocki & Goodman, 38)

• Children should write every day in authentic, meaningful ways with a purpose and audience in mind.

I will assess children using mainly informal assessments, such as portfolios of their work and observation of their activities. I believe that conferencing is key to assessing and teaching literacy, so I will be doing reading and writing conferences during independent reading and writing time with as many students as possible. I will do some formal assessments such as a Gentry Spelling Analysis now and then, I would like to use them sparingly and not attach any kind of value to them - they will be used only for instruction. 

I cannot believe that my time with these wonderful students is almost over. I hope to see them again one day, and that when I do, they've become the wonderful readers and writers I know they can be.