Sydney Laub

Professor Christensen
EDU 202
11/22/2015
Educational Philosophy
My decision to major in education was heavily influenced by a handful of extraordinary
teachers, one of whom is my father. It was not long ago that I was a high school student
anxiously awaiting the day that I would walk across the graduation stage and never look back. It
was not until my junior year that I realized the allure and excitement that education could bring
into my life. Leading up to that year I was lacking the motivation to earn respectable grades, but
one teacher inspired me to change my outlook on school and try harder. Signing up for high
school woodshop was a spur of the moment decision that changed my life forever. My shop
teacher was the type of person who treated everyone equally and encouraged all of his students
to make projects that were challenging and required problem solving.
During my field observations I met an AP government teacher that inspired his students
in the same way my woodshop teacher inspired me. The hours spent doing field observations
helped me acquire many skills that will aid my success in the classroom. I have learned that two
very important skills are knowledge of the subject and confidence in your abilities. Knowing the
information thoroughly will aid the teacher in being able to clearly relay that information to the
students. Being confident about your lesson plan and your ability to execute it will trigger a
positive response from the students and help them build a trust with you as an educator. During
my field observations I had the opportunity to see multiple teachers in action. I will admit that

some of the teachers were better at their jobs than others. The teachers that seemed the most
successful with the students were intelligent and sure of themselves. The teachers that seemed
less successful with the students were either timid or unsure of the information they were trying
to relay.
During my field hours I realized early on that all students learn differently and that
teachers must adjust their instruction methods to account for everyone. Some of the students
would be extra attentive when the teacher was talking, I concluded that these students were
auditory learners. Others would respond better to the assignments when the teacher would either
write an example on the board or show a video on the subject matter, these were clearly visual
learners. Having a mix of different learning styles in a classroom creates a difficult task for the
teacher. They must incorporating new methods into their curriculum and expand their personal
teaching style to fit the needs of all of the students.
My teaching strategies will incorporate four of the known styles of teaching, (excluding
essentialism and due its lack of acknowledgment toward individuality), cherry-picking my
favorite parts from each method. I will practice perennialism in the sense that my classroom will
be teacher-centered and stray very little from my scheduled curriculum. I will incorporate
progressivism by including real life concerns of the students into my lesson plans. Social
Reconstructionism will be easy to incorporate, possibly by asking the students about something
they would like to change for the better and creating a class project around the issue. Existential
thought will exist in my classroom by always getting the student to ask the question of Why?.
By creating a blend of the different teaching styles I will be able to better reach every student all
with unique learning styles.