Learning Manifesto & Educational PhilosphyAs a young educator, emphasis on the young, it's vital to understand what your beliefs and morals are as a person with influence on young minds. However, young educators are not the only ones that need this perception of themselves, every person that has any type of connection with education needs to understand the power that it has over everything. Nelson Mandela once said that, "Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world." (Strauss, 2013, p. 1). The young students in our classrooms today are going to be the leaders and workers of tomorrow. Meaning that as educators, we control our students' success, and we essentially control the future. Therefore I put together my philosophy of education, to better understand my purpose of being in the classroom.
I believe that the classroom is a community that exists between students, parents, teachers, and administrators, and in order to succeed everyone must contribute towards the community to meet that success. This community should be student focused, and it is the teacher, parent, and administrator's role to secure that focus and guide the students into the appropriate direction. I also believe it is my job as a teacher, to ensure I am instructing each student on an individual basis. One way I implement my philosophy is through continual effort to involve all parts of the community. I accomplish this by taking any feedback and use it constructively. I will measure this by sending out term (6 or 9 week) evaluations to better understand where I could use improvement as an educator. I hope to have the kids understand that through everything, I am doing this for their success. I believe that education of young people is the center of having success tomorrow. Therefore it is our duty to continuously learn how to be thorough, good educators and to follow through with the best teaching methods available. This is what will enable our students to be the utmost prepared when they leave our classrooms. I implement this by keeping up with my professional development hours, and constantly seeking for new ways to reach my students. I am also seeking to gain my Master’s in Education, to further my competence as an educator. It is of utmost importance to me to be a positive role model to the students, and to inspire them to continue to model that behavior for generations to come. With that said, I will promote sensitivity by promoting the ideals of equality and of every person’s right to express themselves and their diversity. - Caitlin Schmedthorst, 2019 This philosophy is at the core of my professional and personal morals, and it is of utmost importance to me. However, I do recognize that my personal objectives don't yet impact the world of education, just that of my classroom. In order to establish a change of this size, one must look at the core problems of education in general, as well as specifically today's education. I think education has traditionally been about giving out information, only to have students memorize and then repeat the information. This is something that over time, research has proved benefits next to none of the students in the classroom. Jean Piget said, "The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done." (Harapnuik, 0:13-0:23). I think this quote ties into two major principles into what I think education should look like. Education should not only be utilizing the research available on what intelligence looks like and such (much like Piget's theory of multiple intelligences), but also evolving with the available technology. During his TED talk Sir Ken Robinson said, "We need to radically rethink our view on intelligence. (Robinson, 13:07-13:08), Robinson (2016) also goes on to talk about how intelligence is diverse and that we all think in several ways, and that intelligence is interactive. This plays into neuroplasticity, which Joyce Shaffer (2016, par. 2) defined as "...the capacity of brain cells to change in response to intrinsic and extrinsic factors...". This ideal has been proven time and time again, such as with Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset, and it goes to show that while research and theories have been proven true, education has been slow with the acceptance of the ideals, and putting them into practice. Being my first year as a teacher, and having grown up with evolving technology, I have a unique perspective over the utilization of technology in the classroom. I started in elementary using computers with monitors, and ended my high school career with an apple computer that was lent to us. I feel as though technology does nothing but improve a classroom, whereas some of my colleagues that haven't grown up with it, detest any presence at all especially cell phones. I hope to have an impact upon these unintentionally close-minded teachers. In fact, I have already acted upon this by introducing google classrooms, and google forms to two of my next door neighbors. I intend to affect at least four teachers a year by showing them the benefits, and then teaching them to use it and learn about it on their own. It is my core belief that technology should be used at every opportunity, not only because it's useful, but also because the student's of today need to learn to not simply repeat the generations before them. It is now that we need to teach creativity and innovation more than any other generation. Changing education in these two ways, will in my opinion better prepare our students for a future that is undoubtedly going to be full of technology. In fact, education has had a recent and forced evolution, due to COVID-19. Many states and countries have shut down public schools, forcing them to go completely online. Most students were somewhat prepared for using google classroom, but they weren’t as prepared as they could be for creating digital content for assignments. That is because most of their assignments are still completed physically on a piece of paper because that’s how they’ve always been done. I think that if education had already made this evolution, that our students would be better prepared for the future. |
References
Harapnuik, Dwayne. (2017, October, 22). What to expect from the digital learning and leading master's program. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqZU2jB3tZI&feature=emb_logo Robinson, S.K.. (2016, January, 06). Do schools kill creativity?. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY Shaffer, J. (2016, July, 26). Neuroplasticity and clinical practice: building brain power for health. NCBI, Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4960264/ Strauss, V. (2013, December, 5). Nelson Mandela on the power of education. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/05/nelson-mandelas-famous-quote-on-education/ |