Your Philosophy of Education

Why I Teach: My Journey and Goals as a Teacher

Ima Auggie

Augsburg University

School and Society

Joseph A. Erickson

January 1, 2022

Why I Teach: My Journey and Goals as a Teacher

Introduction

I believe that it is my duty as an educator to serve as a guide for students to be able to think critically, to be able to interact and communicate positively with others in their local and global communities, and to be able to acquire authentic and intellectual tools that will help them throughout their lives.

Thirteen years ago, I was an English major at Augsburg (for the first time), and I was considering a career as an educator. I took a class called Orientation to Education. For one of the assignments in the class, I had to observe a high school classroom. While observing a classroom full of eighteen-year-old students, I remember thinking, then as a twenty-year-old student, “What can I possibly teach these students?” Because of this experience, I had serious misgivings about my ability to be an educator at that point in my life, so decided to put the idea on hold.

Ten years after my experiences at Augsburg, I had a job working in a management position. At times I had to mediate turbulent staff conflicts, and I found myself thinking, “I wish that I could have helped this person develop interpersonal skills when he was younger.” When our staff had to navigate cultural differences within the group, I found myself thinking, “I wish that I could have talked to the group about diversity when they were younger.” When I had to handle situations where an employee didn’t show up to work on time or didn’t contribute quality work, I found myself thinking, “I wish that I could have helped this person appreciate the value of quality work.” When I sat down to read a poorly written resume or cover letter, I found myself thinking, “I wish that I could have helped this person communicate effectively with her writing.”

These experiences as a manager were affirmation that ten years after deciding I wasn’t ready to teach, I was indeed in a position where I had enough experience and competence to help people. While I did what I could to help my colleagues as their manager, I came up against two big obstacles. The first obstacle was that my staff, like many adults, had formed their paradigms and biases for how they were going to operate by the time that I had met them. I found myself wishing that I could have encountered them when they were younger and at a time when it would have been more appropriate to impart these values to them. The second obstacle that I came up against was the relevance of training my staff on some of these soft skills in a fast-paced, financially-driven work environment. I found it nearly impossible to be successful enough at my job while teaching my staff the things that I really wanted them to learn: how to think critically and independently while contributing to their community in a positive way. Eventually, I realized that my roles as business manager and teacher of life skills were mutually exclusive. It was at this point that I took the long and winding road back to becoming an English teacher, where I could help shape students into productive and thoughtful adults.

Desired Outcomes of My Teaching

No matter what class I am teaching, there are three objectives that I want to accomplish with students: to help students to be able to think critically and independently as they continue to grow as learners and people, to help students to be able to interact and communicate positively with others in their local and global communities, and to help students to be able to acquire intellectual and applicable tools that will help them throughout their lives. I will go through each one of my desired outcomes and explain the importance of each topic. Each section of rationale will be followed up with examples of how I will do this in my class, under the heading: What this will look like in my ELA (English Language Arts) classroom. These examples of activities are used to illustrate teacher strategies for how students can develop the desired outcomes.

Objective 1: Students will be able to think critically and independently as they continue to grow as learners and people.

Our world is constantly evolving. Students will need to be able to collect information and data and then be able to do something with that information as new ideas and technology evolve. In our ever-changing world, it is imperative that students adopt a growth mindset to adapt to changing circumstances, and it is possible to cultivate this mindset as an educator (Dweck, 2006). Part of learning is making mistakes and being able to learn from those mistakes. In my classroom, I hope to create an atmosphere where students know and see that it is OK to make mistakes because mistakes often create some of the best learning opportunities.

There is a Japanese term that illustrates how I want to live and grow as an educator, and a good example of how students can do the same. Shoshin translates to “cherish your beginner’s mind” (Perricone, 2005, p. 62). As a teacher, I always want to demonstrate to students that we are always in situations where we can learn, including teachers. If we all operate with the understanding that we all have something to learn from others, we will set ourselves up to be lifelong learners and independent thinkers.

Learning tends to happen when people can use inductive and deductive reasoning (critical thinking skills) to synthesize information (Dewey, 2011). In real-life situations, we use inductive and deductive reasoning to synthesize information and make inferences to situations. These are skills that students regularly use, and if we can devote time to developing these skills, the benefits will transcend throughout students’ lives.

What this will look like in my ELA classroom:

There are so many great ways to integrate critical thinking into an ELA classroom. The act of effective reading should actually be a critical thinking exercise. Students should be shown that reading is an active process, and they should be shown reading strategies that help them make predictions, ask questions, make connections, and monitor their understanding of the text (Beers, 2003). I will discuss the conventions of rhetoric so that students can be aware of the devices, and use them when appropriate (Jordan, 1996). I will make appropriate use of ever-evolving new literacies like social media and modern music to enrich a deeper understanding of old literacies (Connors, 2012; Lewis, 2011). As often as possible, I will use problem-based learning activities so that students can practice “higher-level thinking” to formulate their own conclusions (Arends, 2012).

Speaking from my own experiences, the most meaningful and memorable school experiences have been when I have been involved in activities that have forced me to think critically. In general, students will be more motivated to work hard if the work they are doing fulfills their needs (Glasser, 2012). If students are motivated to work hard on meaningful projects, they will be continuing to develop their critical thinking skills.

Objective 2: Students will be able to interact and communicate positively with others in their local and global communities.

One of the primary settings for students to learn how to interact with others is in school. If done correctly, a school can be an excellent place to show students how to positively interact with one another and live with empathy and compassion. To clarify, when I suggest local communities, I mean the immediate, regular interactions that students will have with family, friends, co-workers, and employers. Students will benefit from being shown effective ways to communicate with one another, and it is clear that these skills will carry beyond the classroom. It is also important to allow for open discussion in class as topics arise, as those can be some of the most opportune times for students to learn (Harman, 2011).

When I say global communities, I am referring to issues and topics that force us to examine our own beliefs and how we interact with one another. As I hinted at earlier, the landscape in a democratic society that permeates our lives is constantly shifting, and schools can provide valuable moments to address these important topics in our global community (Neubert, 2010). When it comes to addressing important topics like equality and social justice, I think that it is important to allow students to explore these topics in safe environments. Students should be allowed to interact as they explore these topics in designed conversational formats like peer editing groups and Socratic seminars (Thayer-Bacon, 2011).

Why I Teach: My Journey and Goals as a Teacher 2

What this will look like in my ELA classroom:

The literature presents a very unique opportunity for students to interact with one another and also to interact with social issues and topics that affect all of us. To piggyback on what I mentioned earlier, an ELA classroom is a great place to incorporate conversation in the classroom. Students can practice interacting and working collaboratively in literature circles, where students are given opportunities to choose a text that they will read and discuss as a group (Brabham, 2000; Daniels, 2006). Students feel empowered when they are given opportunities to facilitate their own learning, and literature circles provide a very direct way for students to practice sophisticated interactions with other learners. Since learners within the same school often come from different cultural backgrounds, literature circles are also a way to promote multicultural awareness and interaction (Lloyd, 2006).

One of the best ways to introduce and create dialogue about race, class, and gender in a classroom is to introduce students to literary theory (Appleman, 2009). The literature presents students with sometimes foreign and new ideas and concepts, and it can be a great way to give students an opportunity to consider things they haven’t before. Reading texts, and particularly practicing using different lenses, provides for a transactional and reflective process that will help to broaden their understanding of once unfamiliar ideas (Connell, 2008). In my classroom, there will be many meaningful ways where students can interact with one another as they explore concepts that they will find challenging and engaging. I will work hard to make sure that students will work in a safe and productive environment.

Objective 3: Students will be able to acquire intellectual and applicable tools that will help them throughout their lives.

Even though the argument can be made that there is little to support the age-old narrative that “If you will pay attention in school, and do your homework, and score well on tests, and behave yourself, you will be rewarded with a well-paying job when you are done” (Postman, 1996, p. 27), certain skills and knowledge will be a way for people to establish common ground (VanTassel-Baska, 2015). What I mean by this is that it is valuable for students to come out of school with common threads of knowledge that will form a basis of understanding among other people. As public education “creates a public,” it has an opportunity to create “the existence of shared narratives and the capacity of such narratives to provide an inspired reason for schooling” (Postman, 1996, p. 18). Education, particularly the humanities, provides an opportunity for our culture to have a shared identity and sense of community. In order to make these narratives equitable, it is important to utilize a multitude of perspectives to point to higher truth.

Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are lifelong skills. The bottom line is, good teachers are able to figure out what motivates students (Glasser, 2010). If students are doing work that gives them immediate tools that they can use, makes them feel good, or powerful, or free, or (heaven forbid) is fun, they will be more open to learning in that environment. Teaching students vetted skills and facts is an important objective, but that does not mean that we need to use methods that will sabotage students’ abilities to think critically and independently (Dewey, 2011).

What this will look like in my ELA classroom:

English Language Arts is sometimes under scrutiny in regards to the significance of the literary canon in school curriculums because of its relevance (or lack of) in today’s world. However, many historical pieces of literature have timeless themes that have transcended the ages, and they are good illustrations of the significance of some problems that affect humankind (Beach, 2011). If students are shown how a text can be relevant to their lives, these historical texts can be powerful vessels to illustrate timeless themes. To Kill a Mockingbird has always been one of my favorite texts because it has such a powerful social justice message that continues to echo in modern-day news stories. Similarly, a link can be made about how Romeo and Juliet may not be that dissimilar from modern struggles that students face. It has also been my experience that many college programs operate under the assumption that high school students are acquainted, at least at some level, with these texts prior to entering college. As I design curriculums for my classes, I may choose not to read an entire classical piece of literature because it may be more appropriate to use a piece of young adult literature with students. Depending on the situation, what I may find preferable would be to share excerpts of classical texts to invite students into the ongoing, time-tested conversations surrounding a text.

I believe it is important to select texts that students will be motivated to read. One of the best ways to do this is by incorporating young adult literature into a classroom. There are many great pieces of literature within this genre that students will often find more accessible than canonical texts (Glaus, 2014). Young adult literature serves as a great way to approach important and mature topics by using text that students will be motivated to read (Beach, 2011). For example, I see great value in incorporating a book like Speak into a literature curriculum because students will find the characters, setting, themes, and plot accessible because, one could argue, they closely resemble many aspects of students’ lives. Speak also serves as a good vessel to approach important social topics like gender, violence, and trauma. In our culture, we benefit from a large breadth of literature that we can use, and I think that there are many appropriate and challenging texts that can be used that meet students halfway.

Conclusion

I hope that I can be in a school environment where I have support to chase after my teaching objectives: to serve as a guide for students to be able to think critically, to be able to interact and communicate positively with others in their local and global communities, and to be able to acquire authentic and intellectual tools that will help them throughout their lives. I know that I may have constraints with Common Core Standards and district curriculums, but I do not think that this will mean that I can’t accomplish my own agenda as an educator at the same time. If I can operate with even a little autonomy to promote the objectives that I have laid out in this paper, I believe that I will continue to stay engaged as an educator for a long time. I know that as a teacher, my class will be little more than a minor pit-stop for many students, but I think that if I accomplish what I intend to do as a teacher, I will leave a lasting impact on my students that will help them for the rest of their lives.

References

Appleman, D. (2009). Critical Encounters in High School English (Kindle Edition). New York:

Teachers College Press, National Council of Teachers of English.

Arends, R.I. (2012). Learning to Teach (Ninth Edition). New York: McGraw Hill.

Brabham, E. G., & Villaume, S. K. (2000). Continuing conversations about literature circles.

Reading Teacher, 54 (3), 278-280.

Beach, R., Appleman, D., Hynds, S., Wilhelm, J. (2011). Teaching Literature to Adolescents

(Second Edition (Kindle Edition)). New York, NY: Routledge

Beers, K. (2003). When Kids Can't Read. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Connell, J. M. (2008). The Emergence of Pragmatic Philosophy's Influence on Literary Theory: Making Meaning with Texts from a Transactional Perspective. Educational Theory, 58 (1), 103-122.

Connors, S.P., Sullivan, R. (2012). "It's That Easy": Designing Assignments That Blend Old and New Literacies. The Clearing House, 85 (6), 221-225.

Daniels, H. (2006). What's the Next Big Thing with Literature Circles? Voices From the Middle, 13 (4), 10-15.

Dewey, J. (2011, September 14). How We Think [Kindle edition]. Boston, MA: D.C. Heath & Co., Publishers. Retrieved from www.gutenberg.org

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Glasser, W. (2010). Quality School (Kindle Edition ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Glaus, M. (2014). Text Complexity and Young Adult Literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57 (5), 407-416.

Harman, W. G. (2011). Turn with Students: Making Conversation a Priority in Teacher Education. Critical Questions in Education, 2 (2), 93-104.

Jordan, W.A. (1996). Crossfire Education: Metaphor, Cultural Evolution and Chaos in the Schools. Lanham: University Press of America, Inc.

Lewis, E. C. (2011). Friending Atticus Finch: English Teachers' Perspectives on Myspace as a Contemporary Framework for Literary Analysis. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55 (4), 285-295.

Lloyd, R. M. (2006). Talking books: Gender and the responses of adolescents in literature circles. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 5 (5), 30-58.

Neubert, S. (2010). Democracy and Education in the Twenty-First Century: Deweyan Pragmatism and the Question of Racism. Educational Theory, 60 (4), 487-502.

Perricone, J. (2005). Zen and the Art of Public School Teaching. Baltimore: Publish America.

Postman, N. (1996). The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Thayer-Bacon, B. J. (2011). Nurturing a Democratic Community in the Classroom. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 30 (5), 491-497.

VanTassel-Baska, J. (2015). Arguments for and Against the Common Core State Standards. Gifted Child Today, 38 (1), 60-62.

:	Excellent (5)	Good (4)	Adequate (3)	Weak (2)	None Present (1)
Role of Teacher and Student	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the roles of teachers and students and illustrates with specific examples.	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the roles of teachers and students	Candidate provides adequate description of his/her beliefs about the roles of teachers and students	Candidate does not clearly articulate his/her beliefs about the roles of teachers and students
Purpose of Curriculum	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the purpose(s) of curriculum and illustrates with specific examples.	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the purpose(s) of curriculum	Candidate provides adequate description of his/her beliefs about the purpose(s) of curriculum	Candidate does not clearly articulate his/her beliefs about the purpose(s) of curriculum
Instructional Methods	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the best methods of teaching and illustrates with specific examples.	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the best methods of teaching	Candidate provides adequate description of his/her beliefs about the best methods of teaching	Candidate does not clearly articulate his/her beliefs about the best methods of teaching
Content	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the importance of subject matter and illustrates with specific examples.	Candidate provides thorough description of his/her beliefs about the importance of subject matter	Candidate provides adequate description of his/her beliefs about the importance of subject matter	Candidate does not clearly articulate his/her beliefs about the importance of subject matter
Organization of Review	Excellent; sequential organization of information; ideas are well-developed	Good; adequate organization of information; ideas are well-developed for the most part	Fair; all parts are not organized following a logical sequence and ideas are somewhat developed, although unclear in some parts	Poor; organization of ideas follows an illogical sequence of ideas and ideas are underdeveloped
Standard English	Writing is scholarly with little to no errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics. *Little to no=2 or less errors	Writing is scholarly but has a few errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics. *Few errors= 3-5 errors	Writing is scholarly but has occasional errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics that do not interfere with meaning. *Occasional errors= 6-8 errors.	Writing is NOT scholarly Frequent errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics. *Frequent errors= 9 or more
Notes:	Total Points		/30