I note that this philosophy will regularly and readily change as I learn more, but for now this is what I hold to be true with regard to my work. And while I hold these tenets dear, I recognize that many of these tenets are ideals I strive for each and every day--ideals that are not easily attained in many circumstances.
Children are Center State
Children take center stage. The goal of my classroom efforts and work is to serve children well. In that regard, I will continually check myself and my actions so that I'm doing the following:
- Listening and responding to children's needs.
- Understanding the curriculum program well, and creating the best possible weekly routines to teach children the foundation skills, concepts, and knowledge in invigorating, personalized ways.
- Regular, meaningful feedback on paper, online, and in person.
- Speaking up to advocate for children's needs, rights, and interests.
- Coaching students with kindness and care.
- Utilizing my professional time well to serve children.
- Creating a safe, inviting learning environment that welcomes risk, questions, creativity, share, and diversity.
Collaboration
I believe that the best learning communities profit from purposeful, kind, caring, and creative collaboration. I also recognize that this goal challenges the best of us in schools since many school employees have little to no official time for thoughtful collaboration, problem solving, and conversation. Yet, with this goal in mind, I will work towards the following actions.
- Listening to, debating with, and learning from colleagues with students' best interests as the center of our work.
- Speaking up with care to represent new knowledge, relevant questions, and disagreement when it matters to children.
- Finding ways to learn about and grow from others' work, efforts, and thought.
- Learning about and advocating for streamlined, efficient, and effective communication streams, protocols, and share.
- Acknowledging colleagues' good work, time, and share as we work together to effect optimal curriculum programs and delivery.
- A willingness to acknowledge error and mistake in an effort to better collaboration.
- Using time well, and making use of new technologies to target face-to-face time well.
Learning Well
The landscape of learning continues to change as we hold on to tried-and-true traditional methods and add new, improved learning paths to our repertoire. I am committed to fostering and delivering a program that balances old and new to teach children well. What does this mean for my practice?
- I will continue to learn about, plan with, and implement current curriculum standards in meaningful, creative ways to invigorate student learning with depth, breadth, and joy.
- I will continue to learn about new tools, materials, processes, and strategies that serve to create dynamic learning experiences and a vital learning environment.
- I will continue to share and learn with others to build my repertoire for teaching/learning well.
- I will look for ways to work well with my learning community.
I'm sure that I'll add to, revise, and enrich this classroom learning philosophy as I go along. What would you add, and what would you take away? How would you grow this philosophy?
While it's tempting to find fault, criticize, and point fingers at others, the reality is that the potential for change is in our hands, minds, and action. This is not an easy reality as this reality calls us as educators to act with our best knowledge, intention, and vision. We must embrace the current discomfort that exists for educators everywhere, and utilize that energy to move forward.
I'll begin by solidifying the work I do to teach children well, as well as building my capacity for caring, positive, and productive collaborative work as I continue to try to do this work well--work that is often challenging.
