I teach to inspire students to be independent and critical thinkers. My goal is to promote experiential, cross-curricular learning to help students find their learning styles. I believe that my role as a teacher is to facilitate learning, focusing on students wants and needs.
My philosophy on teaching is based on creating a learning environment that is conducive to helping students teach themselves through exploration. I hope to involve my students in many activities where they can explore, cross the boarders between subjects and have many self-discovery moments. I feel that this is important because through self-discovery students can learn their individual learning strategies, which is beneficial in the future to make learning easier for students. Through self- discovery students have autonomy, which will be an important skill as they move through life and they will be faced with many tough decisions.
While facilitating learning, as a teacher, I must make sure that students are ready and able to learn. Teaching students how to self-regulate and be independent and critical learners is key to their success as well as the success of a community learning environment. If a student has the ability to self-regulate then the teacher does not have to strictly manage the class, the students become the mangers of themselves and the class.
A strategy for creating a classroom environment that promotes self-discovery and experiential learning is by having different areas in the classroom for different things. For example, you could have a calm, cool down corner, where students can go if they need to relax and cool down, maybe after a problem. The corner may have pillows and blankets and some calming music to listen to. Another idea would be to have an art area where students can go and express themselves through drawings. This may help students learn by reinforcing something that you just taught or it could help them express a feeling they are experiencing. Another spot may have multiple machines like objects (broken toaster, old phone, cell phone, old computer, TV) and tools that the student can use to explore taking apart objects and put them back together. These are just a few ideas to have in a classroom that would promote self-discovery and self-regulation, helping move beyond classroom management. All of these ideas allow me to observe and see how the student copes with things and how they learn. With this information I can make more informed decisions on the student and the best way to help them learn and self-regulate.
