Philosophy of Teaching
Personal Belief in Education:
I believe if learning is a lifelong journey, then teaching is a compass. Education is not just a tool to help students to complete their academic needs, but also to help them to sharpen themselves for the better. Teaching is not just a compass, used not just to guide students to achieve their goal, but also develop students’ critical thinking, creativity, and awareness of morality.
Language Education:
Language is the most important tool of communication. In any society, languages play a very important role of helping to facilitate the development. In order to develop, people need to communicate with each other, and language is the tool. Now that, the world has globalized, language is one of the keys to help you to open your world and connect to another. Because of that, language education has become more and more in demand.
In the 21st century, language education needs to include creativity, global awareness, realistic, critical thinking, and productivity. Language education cannot just follow the old pattern which the students learn what the teacher teaches and without engagement, communication, and interaction. Today, I believe language education should teach what the students need to learn to be able to use the language outside, and it should involve communication, interaction, and engagement.
I believe that the traditional way of language teaching which teaches students one form to another cannot help students to master their language skill. As a language teacher, we should be creative and engage students into language learning. Through experience, students learn the language pattern and raise their culture awareness. I would raise different topics in the class to help students to develop their critical thinking, such as global warming, gay marriage, and other ethical issues around the society. According to different age groups, I will show the students different readings in the reading class to help them be aware of the social issue or develop their critical thinking. Task activities would be a great tool to help students to learn language through experiences. In my class, I would create different task activities to engage students and have interaction between students and instructors. Instead of students just listening to the teacher talk, students will find out the rules by themselves and the teacher will be their guide to provide them feedback to help them find the correct rule of the language.
Motivation
I believe motivation is the most important factor that affects students being able to successfully to learn a language. Teachers should be the model to motivate and encourage students to learn the language. During the process of learning a new language, students will be depressed and give up. At this time, teachers should be the one that help students solve the problem together and motivate the student to move forward. I believe that culture has a big connection with motivation.
Culture is one of the most important elements to help to connect to the language. While the students learn the language, the students should learn about the target language culture. Without knowing the language culture, students will have a very difficult time to learn the language or motivation to learn the language. By learning the language culture, students will have a different view of the language, and it also can develop integrative motivation.
In my class, I would show students the cultural difference between the target language culture and their L1 culture. I would teach my students some culture knowledge before I teach one new lesson. For example, I will show different things that we will do during Chinese New Year in China, and then ask the students to compare the Chinese New Year in the U.S. and the Chinese New Year in China. Connecting to the target language culture can help students improve their motivation, but as a language teacher, I will not depend on it all the time. I will create meaningful topics which connect to real life and meet the students’ needs. A lesson being meaningful to students is really important and it is one of the most important factors that affect students’ motivation. A meaningful lesson should connect to students’ own life and their needs. Also the students can use the knowledge that they learn in this lesson in the outside world.
Classroom atmosphere is really important to help students create their positive learning attitude in the class. In every class, teachers should create a learning atmosphere and make the students feel that they are learning something in the class. I believe in order to create a good classroom atmosphere; the teacher needs to have good classroom management. Students know what they can do and what they cannot do in the class. At the same time, teacher needs to be fair to all the students. There should not be any favoritism in the class. Create a safe and comfortable environment for students can help students increase their motivation in learning. An uncomfortable learning environment will decrease students’ motivation or increase anxiety in the classroom.
Before the course start, I would go over the class policy, and the one who break the rule will get their punishment. If that is possible, I would post the major class policy on the classroom wall which to help to remind myself and my students there is no inequality and favoritism in the class. In the mid-semester, I will ask my students to do an evaluation for the classroom setting and classroom management to help me to develop better setting and management.
Teacher’s Role and Responsibility
I believe a good teacher should be a successful leader and promoter. Lead the students to use the target language in their different needs, help them to improve their pervious knowledge, and use the target language in the real world. In order to be a good leader and promoter, I need to clarify my responsibility as a teacher. My responsibilities are understanding students, improve students’ language skill, help to develop their critical thinking, and be a resource for students.
All of students have different cultural background. I need to be able to understand that their cultural factor could affect their different learning styles. Some students may like to study by themselves, but some students may like to study as a group. Because of the cultural difference, I will try to create a way to balance the different learning styles in the class. For example, I will blend individual work and group work in the activity. I will have students to read the story by themselves first, and fill out the answer of the worksheet. After that, they will have a discussion with their partner and figure out the final answer that they are going to present to the class. In this way, quiet students can have their space to join in the activity, and the active students have the chance to talk.
Cultural difference could also affect students’ the use of the target language in different context. Some students may use aggressive intonation or language when they answer a teacher’s question, but some students may use soft intonation or language. In this way, my responsibility is to teach them how to appropriately use the target language in different contexts, and being patient. Students from different culture have their own way to express themselves, understanding their culture also will help me to understand my students.
In every lesson, students should learn something new from me and improve their previous knowledge. When students make mistakes, I will give them corrective feedback. When students have difficulty understanding the course material, I will do my best to help the students to understand it and go through it with the class.
Teacher’s Strategy
I believe a good teacher should be willing to learn something new from others and continuously change his/her teaching strategy to approach students. Because the world is changing, people are also changing. Teacher also needs to change and improve his/her teaching strategy. As a teacher, we cannot keep using the same lesson plan and without look back or noticing it needs improvement. A good teacher should know how to learn from others, not just doing the job by himself/herself. For example, I will go to other teachers’ class to do observation, and take notes on what I need to learn from the teachers and what I need to avoid doing to prevent a same problematic situation from occurring.
Keep looking back to our own lesson plans and teaching material and trying to improve them is one of our most important strategies as a teacher. A good teacher should know to look back and find out the mistakes and correct them. I believe there is never a perfect lesson plan and teaching material, as a teacher, I always need to look back and improve. For example, after a lesson, I will look at the lesson plan one more time to think what is working and what is not working, where I need to adjust. In this way, I can keep improving and have better quality as a language teacher.
Maybe after long time of teaching, my belief will be revise or change, but I believe I will keep changing and improving my philosophy of teaching till one day I feel satisfied and that is best for my students. I am excited to teach in the real classroom and Make my beliefs of teaching come true.
Personal Belief in Education:
I believe if learning is a lifelong journey, then teaching is a compass. Education is not just a tool to help students to complete their academic needs, but also to help them to sharpen themselves for the better. Teaching is not just a compass, used not just to guide students to achieve their goal, but also develop students’ critical thinking, creativity, and awareness of morality.
Language Education:
Language is the most important tool of communication. In any society, languages play a very important role of helping to facilitate the development. In order to develop, people need to communicate with each other, and language is the tool. Now that, the world has globalized, language is one of the keys to help you to open your world and connect to another. Because of that, language education has become more and more in demand.
In the 21st century, language education needs to include creativity, global awareness, realistic, critical thinking, and productivity. Language education cannot just follow the old pattern which the students learn what the teacher teaches and without engagement, communication, and interaction. Today, I believe language education should teach what the students need to learn to be able to use the language outside, and it should involve communication, interaction, and engagement.
I believe that the traditional way of language teaching which teaches students one form to another cannot help students to master their language skill. As a language teacher, we should be creative and engage students into language learning. Through experience, students learn the language pattern and raise their culture awareness. I would raise different topics in the class to help students to develop their critical thinking, such as global warming, gay marriage, and other ethical issues around the society. According to different age groups, I will show the students different readings in the reading class to help them be aware of the social issue or develop their critical thinking. Task activities would be a great tool to help students to learn language through experiences. In my class, I would create different task activities to engage students and have interaction between students and instructors. Instead of students just listening to the teacher talk, students will find out the rules by themselves and the teacher will be their guide to provide them feedback to help them find the correct rule of the language.
Motivation
I believe motivation is the most important factor that affects students being able to successfully to learn a language. Teachers should be the model to motivate and encourage students to learn the language. During the process of learning a new language, students will be depressed and give up. At this time, teachers should be the one that help students solve the problem together and motivate the student to move forward. I believe that culture has a big connection with motivation.
Culture is one of the most important elements to help to connect to the language. While the students learn the language, the students should learn about the target language culture. Without knowing the language culture, students will have a very difficult time to learn the language or motivation to learn the language. By learning the language culture, students will have a different view of the language, and it also can develop integrative motivation.
In my class, I would show students the cultural difference between the target language culture and their L1 culture. I would teach my students some culture knowledge before I teach one new lesson. For example, I will show different things that we will do during Chinese New Year in China, and then ask the students to compare the Chinese New Year in the U.S. and the Chinese New Year in China. Connecting to the target language culture can help students improve their motivation, but as a language teacher, I will not depend on it all the time. I will create meaningful topics which connect to real life and meet the students’ needs. A lesson being meaningful to students is really important and it is one of the most important factors that affect students’ motivation. A meaningful lesson should connect to students’ own life and their needs. Also the students can use the knowledge that they learn in this lesson in the outside world.
Classroom atmosphere is really important to help students create their positive learning attitude in the class. In every class, teachers should create a learning atmosphere and make the students feel that they are learning something in the class. I believe in order to create a good classroom atmosphere; the teacher needs to have good classroom management. Students know what they can do and what they cannot do in the class. At the same time, teacher needs to be fair to all the students. There should not be any favoritism in the class. Create a safe and comfortable environment for students can help students increase their motivation in learning. An uncomfortable learning environment will decrease students’ motivation or increase anxiety in the classroom.
Before the course start, I would go over the class policy, and the one who break the rule will get their punishment. If that is possible, I would post the major class policy on the classroom wall which to help to remind myself and my students there is no inequality and favoritism in the class. In the mid-semester, I will ask my students to do an evaluation for the classroom setting and classroom management to help me to develop better setting and management.
Teacher’s Role and Responsibility
I believe a good teacher should be a successful leader and promoter. Lead the students to use the target language in their different needs, help them to improve their pervious knowledge, and use the target language in the real world. In order to be a good leader and promoter, I need to clarify my responsibility as a teacher. My responsibilities are understanding students, improve students’ language skill, help to develop their critical thinking, and be a resource for students.
All of students have different cultural background. I need to be able to understand that their cultural factor could affect their different learning styles. Some students may like to study by themselves, but some students may like to study as a group. Because of the cultural difference, I will try to create a way to balance the different learning styles in the class. For example, I will blend individual work and group work in the activity. I will have students to read the story by themselves first, and fill out the answer of the worksheet. After that, they will have a discussion with their partner and figure out the final answer that they are going to present to the class. In this way, quiet students can have their space to join in the activity, and the active students have the chance to talk.
Cultural difference could also affect students’ the use of the target language in different context. Some students may use aggressive intonation or language when they answer a teacher’s question, but some students may use soft intonation or language. In this way, my responsibility is to teach them how to appropriately use the target language in different contexts, and being patient. Students from different culture have their own way to express themselves, understanding their culture also will help me to understand my students.
In every lesson, students should learn something new from me and improve their previous knowledge. When students make mistakes, I will give them corrective feedback. When students have difficulty understanding the course material, I will do my best to help the students to understand it and go through it with the class.
Teacher’s Strategy
I believe a good teacher should be willing to learn something new from others and continuously change his/her teaching strategy to approach students. Because the world is changing, people are also changing. Teacher also needs to change and improve his/her teaching strategy. As a teacher, we cannot keep using the same lesson plan and without look back or noticing it needs improvement. A good teacher should know how to learn from others, not just doing the job by himself/herself. For example, I will go to other teachers’ class to do observation, and take notes on what I need to learn from the teachers and what I need to avoid doing to prevent a same problematic situation from occurring.
Keep looking back to our own lesson plans and teaching material and trying to improve them is one of our most important strategies as a teacher. A good teacher should know to look back and find out the mistakes and correct them. I believe there is never a perfect lesson plan and teaching material, as a teacher, I always need to look back and improve. For example, after a lesson, I will look at the lesson plan one more time to think what is working and what is not working, where I need to adjust. In this way, I can keep improving and have better quality as a language teacher.
Maybe after long time of teaching, my belief will be revise or change, but I believe I will keep changing and improving my philosophy of teaching till one day I feel satisfied and that is best for my students. I am excited to teach in the real classroom and Make my beliefs of teaching come true.
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