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Teaching Philosophy Steele

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69 views2 pages

Teaching Philosophy Steele

Uploaded by

api-734017373
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Teaching Philosophy Statement

Jenna Steele, Student at University of Michigan-Flint

I am a world-traveler who is passionate about immersing myself in other cultures, discourses,


and backgrounds. I taught myself Spanish through immersion, observation, and curiosity as an
adult. That experience has fueled my passion to create a safe space for my students to participate
in the opportunity to practice their second language in a formal setting. My initial training was in
online education with highschool Colombian students. With the onset of COVID, online has
become increasingly popular in the educational field. Through this opportunity, I have three
areas of teaching that I have found to be existential to my professional growth: discovering
motivation, feedback, and reflection.

Student- Centered Approach

My goal is to provide my pupils with a light-hearted classroom environment where they feel free
to express themselves. I believe that the only way you can grow as a student is to fail and learn
from their mistakes. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to provide that safe space for my
students and create a mutually supportive environment from their peers. I strive to provide them
with realia to mimic real life situations. I find that realia is best sought through online sources as
it is most relevant to the students’ current environment. These up-to-date materials will prepare
them for success in the real world.

Relatedly, at the beginning of the year, I allow my students to tell me what it is that they want to
learn about. This is usually in the form of a personal survey. This has helped me gear my lesson
plans to be meaningful to them. This also significantly improves participation in the classroom
and creates intrinsic motivation to learn. In TESOL classes, finding intrinsic motivation that
comes from a students’ personal desires to learn the language is imperative to a student’s
success. Discovering extrinsic motivation, which is external pressure on the student that forces
them to attempt to learn the language, is also important to take note of. At the MITESOL
conference in Oct 2023, I learned the importance of listening to your students from the keynote
speaker Emily Francis. I have implemented her practice as an educator, you have to develop
rapport with the class so they feel safe to come to you with their story and struggles. Every
student comes from a different perspective on their reason for being in the classroom. As an
educator, I strive to create that space for all of my students.

The second facet of feedback is dependent on effectively utilizing my time and resources. At the
MITESOL conference, I attended a breakout discussion where I learned the importance of
effectively utilizing feedback in the classroom. There are four types: teacher-student feedback,
student-student feedback, student-self feedback, no feedback at all. When developing a
curriculum, I have to take into account how feedback will be provided. Using the
student-centered approach, I inquire with my students on their needs and what feedback will best
affect their learning and subsequent progress in the course. In the past, I have exhausted myself
with teacher-student feedback that was scarcely considered by the students.

Oftentimes, written feedback especially is dismissed by students. In lieu, I have incorporated


these four different types of feedback throughout the curriculum. I have found one of the most
helpful tools is student-self feedback which allows for personal goal-setting and self-reflection.
This approach actively engages the student in the course allowing for it to be centered around
them and makes the other types of feedback less frivolous.

When planning my lessons, I take a proactive approach by cyclically revising using reflection.
To become attuned to the effectiveness of my lesson plans, I take note of engagement and the
students' reaction to it by examining their formative assessments. This allows me to adjust my
teaching, like adjusting the plan if it is beyond their zone of proximal development. If the content
is too challenging or disorganized to the students, they will fall back on their L1. This is also true
if the content is too easy. When actively reflecting on my lesson plans throughout the year, I have
a live recording of the progress of my students. When I am planning a new lesson, I can reflect
on past lessons to construct engaging lessons based on what worked or failed in previous lessons.

Finally, both discovering motivation and feedback are only made effectively possible by
recursive reflection. To put the students at the forefront of my teaching philosophy, I
continuously reflect on lesson plans, activities, and readjust accordingly to foster engagement. If
a plan has flaws, I can either reject, revise, or reuse it. I personally believe that no plan is ever
“perfect”. But by taking the time to reflect, I can reevaluate how I can improve as a teacher and
put my best foot forward by continuing to grow as an educator. Reflection has been, arguably,
my core belief and upon practicing it, I have noticed a positive change in not only my success,
but most importantly the students’ success.

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