Assignment #8: Course Reflection and Personal Philosophy

Course Reflection and Personal Philosophy

I love children and values education. I believe that every child has a right to be educated and to engage in a productive and fulfilled life. I also believe that every child is given a purpose to bring something unique and special to the world, and as a teacher, I have a privilege to help each of them to develop his or her capability by effectively conveying subject knowledge and human values so that they grow up to be as capable and respectable individuals.

My philosophical aspects of teaching sound appealing, but I struggled with the method of pedagogy and curriculum. Someone said that humans are creatures of habit, for even though I had completed the teaching credential program taught by distinguished professors that a creative and student-centered curriculum is crucial for student learning, I found myself repeating the pedagogy that I had received from Korea, which was a direct, teacher-centered instruction. As an elementary educator, I realized how important interactive teaching and students-centered learning were as a teacher and students worked together to create a meaningful and realistic curriculum so that students could apply what they had learned to practical settings of real life. I understood its concept in my head; however, I just could not overcome old relics of authoritarian teaching style that I had been influenced for over 20 years.

However, my role as an elementary educator has undergone a tremendous transformation since I experienced one pivotal event. One day, I was teaching an adjective to 4th graders, and even though they knew the definition and grammatical aspects of it by heart, the students just could not understand the logistical functions of it. So, I decided to teach adjectives in more meaningful way by employing different strategies. Next day, I brought flowers, a teddy bear, an orange, a basket ball, and sand paper to the class and divided the students into 5 groups. After teaching the definition and grammatical part of an adjective one more time, I distributed each item that I had brought from home to each group along with a piece of construction paper with a graphic organizer drawn onto it and a marker. I then instructed them to write all adjectives that they could think of after visualizing, toughing, smelling, and feeling the object onto the construction paper.

Next, I had each group come up in front of the classroom and present their finished project, heeding the students to be a polite and receptive audience, and I also gave an insightful and positive feedback on each group with a lot of praises. The students loved the activity and participated in it wholly and enthusiastically. In order to assess their learning, I assigned a short writing essay titled “My Favorite Holiday” and instructed them to write a two-paragraph essay using as many as adjectives they could think of in circling all the adjectives that they had used. Later when I was assessing students’ writings, I was surprised at how they had written excellent and effective stories.

At the time, I did not aware that I was implementing an interactive and student-centered curriculum in a meaningful and practical way. I had preconceived knowledge about the democratic learning and student-centered curriculum, but I did not know how to express them. After all, I have literally been brainwashed by professors for 2 year, 1 year at teaching credential program and 1 year at masters in TESOL learning effective strategies and curricula for teaching reading and writing not only to mainstreams but also to multilingual students. I realize how powerful young writers are, for they use their writing as a tool to express their feelings, persuade others, and convey their ideas, therefore, it is my responsibility to have them achieve its mastery, and I do not take it lightly.