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Progressivism is the philosophy that education should center on the child as a entirety,
not on substance or instructors. This teaching philosophy emphasizes that students ought to test
their thoughts through dynamic experimentation. Learning is rooted within the questions learners
have as they experience the world. A major objective of progressive education is to provide
students with hands-on learning experiences, moreover known as “learning by doing”. Also
known as experiential learning, this strategy includes active student participation in hands-on
projects. Teachers act as facilitators within the classroom and students explore their physical,
mental, ethical and social development. Common sights in progressive classrooms incorporate
small discussion groups, customized activities, and learning stations. This can be related to my
own as I developed ideas from this philosophy. My teaching philosophy is that all students
deserve an education in which they develop skills that can be used in the real world along with
academic expectations, and classrooms should be filled with individuals instead of one collective
group. Education is provided in several different ways as most teachers have a preferred method
of teaching. Students can learn in three different ways: visual, auditory, and physical - “learn by
doing”. In my experience, I have been a physical and a visual learner. This means that I can not
comprehend information just by listening as I tend to disengage, but when I can see a picture or
am able to participate, I'm able to actually learn and be able to pass this information to my daily
life. Students can interpret things differently when listening, one student can think you're talking
about the color blue and another think you're talking about red. For example, the lesson of
photosynthesis, explaining it with an image of the cycle showing the steps with pictures so the
students can see the process and also do an activity in which it relates to the topic. This is
convenient for the student as they have equal opportunities to understand the topic. Setting
academic expectations for each individual student gives them the chance to be able to achieve
their goal. For instance, telling your second grade classroom to each be able to spell each
spelling word or they can’t have a pizza party is hindering because it pits the students against
each other as they might not but also some students may struggle with this topic. Spelling may
not be a student's strong suit in which you're not encouraging them, you're giving them anxiety.
By doing individual meetings and goals, you are giving the student time to work on what they
struggle with the most and allowing the student to want to reach their goal as it is reasonable.
Doing this you will see the positive results of motivation and productivity as it is not destroying
their confidence. This goes along with not seeing your classroom as a collective group but as
individuals. Hence, you see that every student is at a different level. Having one on one time is
important for your classroom, even though it might be difficult to do, but it is necessary as it one
shows the student that you care about their education and it gives them something that is
Education should include classes that teach basic adult tasks and structure. In our school
system, we have several students not knowing how to do basic tasks in the real world. When I
graduated highschool, I had no idea how to do taxes, cook, money management, etc. These
classes are available in schools but I didn't even know these classes existed and I'm sure many
others did not either. Now the argument is that parents are the ones to teach those things, but as
teachers it is our job to give information to our students where they can apply it elsewhere. These
classes, economics and home ect., should be pushed harder and even make it a requirement to
graduate highschool as it benefits students more than being able to solve calculus problems.
Structure is one thing that is missed from many classrooms. Having organization and class
schedule helps students be prepared for the day as they know what is coming next. Structure
allows both the student and teacher to quickly accomplish day to day tasks and they also promote
smoother transitions which depletes class disruption. This will allow the students maximum time
Changes I would make in my classroom would be set in schedule breaks, rewards, and
promoting positive peer relationships. Most might see that taking breaks is an excuse to stop
working but actually does the opposite. Giving your students breaks to drink water and use the
restroom and talk to friends, allows their brain to relax so when it is time to move on to a
different section, they are more focused. Pushing hydration in your classroom is a great way to
get better results. Poor hydration affects learning ability by reducing the brain's ability to
transmit and receive information including memory. Another change I would make would be
rewards but no punishments. In my service learning, I watched classrooms for all ages. I watched
the responses between rewards and punishments. Rewards push students to be able to get
something they want in return for putting extra work into a subject or goal. On the other hand,
punishments destroy confidence and make students not want to work. To illustrate, in a 3rd grade
classroom, the teacher used clips to go up or down a scale to reflect their actions. The people
who moved up continued to do well throughout the day, but the students who were told to move
down were moody and rambunctious for the rest of the day. An argument to that would be their
just bad students. On the contrary, students/kids need encouragement and positive reinforcement
to gain confidence and be able to do things they haven’t done before without feeling shameful.
An issue that goes against my philosophy would be an incident that happened with a
teacher and social media. Mrs. Sible posted on her social media, Facebook, thinking only her
friends and family would see her post. In that post, she used inappropriate name calling
describing the children as "germ bags" and the parents "arrogant." By doing this, she has lost the
trust of her students, parents, and faculty. I learned that when something is posted on social
media, it will be out there forever. Mrs. Sible believed that her friends and family would only see
this without realizing her account was public. Her students read the post which is how it got
circulated. Her actions brought the consequences of having to resign from her position, and
losing her livelihood. This confirmed that no matter the anger or stress a teacher or myself,
should never be voiced publicly and especially not on social media. Mrs. Sible called this post a
joke after it was published. In a classroom, when a teacher hears a child calling another child an
inappropriate name but calls it a joke still does not make the child's actions okay. The child
would still face the consequences accordingly. In my classroom, this will not be tolerated by
myself, my students, or my co workers. The day will never go so bad, the alternative is to shame
One teacher that inspired a lot of my philosophy is Jahana Hayes who was rewarded with
teacher of the year. The promise of being able to make a difference in the world. That is the
greatest gift of being a teacher. That child will remember you for the rest of your life. I know I
remember mine. In a youtube video, Hayes gave a speech, she explains she herself looked up to
her teachers for guidance and support, "Despite being surrounded by abject poverty, drugs and
violence, my teachers made me believe that I was college material and planted a seed of hope."
As a teacher it is our responsibility to be educators but also help children grow and become
adults. They need support from several different outlets and parents can't fill them all.
Sometimes parents arent even in the picture and they look to their teachers because they feel
comfortable to learn. To make a difference, you have to invest in every child and make sure their
needs are met. This is how I thought of treating your classroom as individuals. Her speech taught
me that as teachers we can have feelings and build emotional connections with students, it's
human nature but there always is a line. But before that line, we can promote good decision
making, patience, responsibility, honesty, peace, and kindness all in our classroom. "As a teacher
I am so emotionally invested in the success of my students that I sometimes forget that I deserve
the respect and dignity of being a professional," Hayes told the delegates. This quote
demonstrates how involved Hayes is with her students that she forgets that she also has a career
and life to be successful at. Now there needs to be boundaries because you always need to come
We can play such a huge part in their lives, they will remember you for the rest of their
life. I know I remember the teachers that I looked up to dating back to first grade. I can provide a
positive environment to encourage fellow workers to use the same techniques and methods so
that their students may also be helped in other ways. My philosophy states that all students
deserve an education in which they develop skills that can be used in the real world along with
actually learning and understanding the material. They don’t just deserve education, they have