Meaningful
education ultimately represents the task of enabling students to problem solve
both in an individual and communal setting rather than simply regurgitating
information. My responsibility and desire as an educator is to construct and
implement innovative methods of instruction that will challenge my students to
produce solutions to the dilemmas they face. While fundamental skills and
knowledge provide a basic and vital foundation for my teaching methods,
instruction based on trial and error, group think, and interactive problem
solving shall encompass a majority of the methods I utilize. The 8th-12th
grade students within my scope of certification face a particularly complex
challenge of coping with a multitude of external distractions, so my focus will
center on grasping their attention with thought-provoking tasks and maintaining
that attention by encouraging them to think, work together, succeed, fail,
practice, and theoretically pry their way out of an intellectual tight spot in
the curriculum. The cornerstone of my education philosophy, however, is the
fact that I ascribe to the idea that, as an educator, I am to be held
accountable for the success and growth of my students both academically and
personally.
In order to more precisely identify
my role as an educator, I must first define the expectations that I have of my
students. While the educator is to be held accountable for the success of the
student, learners should ultimately command their own path towards knowledge
and content mastery. My meaning is that the effort of the educator does not
qualify as a substitute for the effort of a learner. The role of a learner is
essentially to meet the educator halfway by remaining attentive, putting forth
significant effort, and taking beneficial risks in order to truly master the
skills being taught. The role of the educator, however, revolves more around a
sense of conscientious servitude and production. Effort does not encompass the
entire scope of responsibility for educators as they must combine hours of
research and study with innovative instruction that produces desirable results
in the classroom. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “The task of the modern educator is
not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” As educators, we are to take
the barren desert that is the learner and provide them with the type of
instruction and exercises that allow them to cultivate success on their own.
Martin Luther King, Jr. asserted
that the goal of true education was “intelligence plus character.” My ultimate
objective as a teacher correlates closely with Dr. King’s notion in that I will
strive to instill in my students both fundamental knowledge and moral
integrity. I want to achieve a symbiotic relationship between core curriculum
and lessons that teach moral responsibility. More specifically, in my teaching
field of English and language arts, I plan on successfully preparing my
students for both state-mandated tests and college-level writing. In 2011, the
writing and reading scores of Texas public schools from state-mandated exams
ranked among the lowest percentage of passing rates out of all the subjects
tested. Therefore, my personal objective as an English and language arts
teacher is to utilize more interactive lessons that will inspire students to
readily analyze literature and individual attention that will prompt students
to take pride in the creation and editing of their writing. Above all, I
fervently desire for each one of my students to receive meaningful and relevant
instruction from my efforts that significantly challenges them to actively
learn each day.
Technology has become an integral
part in almost every aspect of education, today. Numerous online software
programs exist for various purposes, such as subject remediation, reviewing and
editing, and interactive learning, and are made readily available for school
systems to subscribe to. I vow to utilize as many of these programs as possible
because they not only appeal to the senses of the learners, but they also allow
for a smooth and rapid flow of information between educators. By incorporating
online instructional program within my curriculum, I can foster in a newfound acceptance
for vertical alignment across grade levels. The new technologies within the
classroom also serve to entice the students to take part in their own learning.
I believe the two main functions of technology in today’s classrooms are to
make instruction simpler and learning more intriguing to the learner. However,
the purpose and effectiveness of technology only extends as far as the educator
is willing to allow it to do so. As an educator constantly competing for the
attention of students, I will put forth the effort to master and effectively
implement the technologies made available to me in the workplace.
My approach to teaching combines the
pragmatist and idealist schools of thought. The methods and instruction that I
utilize incorporate both the real-world usefulness of pragmatic problem solving
and the devotion to classical thinking, literature, and history of idealism. In
order to accomplish the desired outcome for each lesson I implement, I plan on
drawing from both of these schools for inspiration and organization. Each and
every concept that I teach should undoubtedly possess some functional purpose
within the scope of the learners’ curriculum and standards. These concepts
should also remain true to the significant lessons provided by the classical
canon of literature and historical texts. By combining the pragmatist and
idealistic aims of education, I believe I can effectively inspire my students
to better understand themselves, their social surroundings, and the nature of
truth in their own lives whilst still remaining true to a core curriculum.
Identifying what he stands for,
wishes to accomplish, and how he intends to do so embody the three most
essential components that an educator should consider. By defining my flexible
parameters for these three fundamental ideas, I can then build a specific
curriculum designed for active learning upon my personal foundation of
educational philosophy. Before I know what and how I should teach my students,
I must first know what I believe in. I place my faith in a fusion of classic
material and interactive, group-based learning. I will resolve to implement new
teaching strategies, software, and innovative technology in my instruction so
that students under my watch will constantly be intrigued with the prospect of
learning. From this basic philosophy, I can begin to discover myself as an
educator and hopefully become a catalyst for active learning within the
classroom.
Reflection
By having a rough draft of my own educational technology philosophy available, I can readily refer back to the origins of my goals, expectations, desires, and plans. This educational philosophy will serve as my in-depth mission statement as well as a foundation for all of my decisions within the classroom. In many ways, an educational philosophy acts as a road map for educators to envision where they want to go whilst documenting where they began. As for the future of technology within the classroom, having my philosophy already prepared will assist me in keeping track of all the various manners in which I want to employ available technology. For instance, I state in my philosophy that I will strive to take advantage of all the newly available online software programs that both provide curriculum over state-mandated concepts and chart the progression of learners for all educators to share. By having my goal down in writing with this particular technology, I can hold myself accountable now that I have actually started teaching.
Blogging, as defined by Downes' 2004 article, seems to possess much potential in the area of rapid sharing of information. One of the uses that I foresee with blogging in education is teachers all over the nation following each other and sharing ideas with mere keystrokes on one blog community. Blogging, like other forms of social networking, has the potential to unite virtually any people group no matter what expanse of distance lies between them, so I can certainly conjecture that blogging could provide a structured realm of idea sharing for the education community. If one blogging database could register every educator in America and effectively unite all of us, the possibilities of communication, problem-solving, learning, and idea-sharing are limitless. I do not think that we have even come close to the full potential of blogging or other forms of social and educational networking, but I do believe we are beginning to create a culture of professionals devoted to the mastery of new technologies. We seem to have transcended the realm of reluctant usage of technology out of necessity to a thirst for more innovative uses of the technologies we possess. In that sense, we are on the right track, and blogging can be fully utilized the more we connect with each other through the tool. Inhibitions about software not being user-friendly and learning new programs seem to be the main obstacles for us when it comes to realizing the full potential of blogging.
In November's article, the point about choosing not to make technology plans in place of technological communication plans really struck a chord with me. If a school district devotes a majority of its time, finances, and manpower to obtaining and installing new technologies as opposed to organizing how such technologies will be used, then what is the good in that? November essentially points out that acquisition of innovative technology does not necessarily constitute successful learning- organization and planning of communication between educators and learners does! School districts need to plan how they will teach and what they will teach within the scope of available technologies before they ever attempt to plan what technologies should be made available.
I expect to encounter a challenging interface filled with instructors, fellow educators, and teaching candidates that will push me to both develop the necessary skills to become an effective teacher and learn to be accountable for my own methods and theories. I expect to have my views challenged, and I also expect to have to constantly provide evidence and support for the opinions that I post within our course. Since this course focuses on educational technology, I specifically expect to learn new methods and uses for the technologies that I am both familiar and unfamiliar with.
