Sydney Braybrooke

Steve Saladino

EDU 201

November 29, 2015

Educational Philosophy

Teachers have the power to change the world for a person. All my life when deciding

what career path to choose, I have always come back to teaching. I am currently teaching small

groups of math and reading as an instructor at American Preparatory Academy (APA). Teaching

is something that comes naturally to me whether it is helping a friend understand the concept

behind a math equation or laying out the basic instructions on how to make chocolate chip

cookies. The best feeling is when a student, formal or informal, begins to believe in themselves

and the fact that they can learn anything. I have had teachers who seem to have a bad case of

teacher burnout and I have had teachers who I will never forget because of their help in building

my confidence in my personal journey to life-long learning.

I have noticed in my experience that I typically lean toward the Behaviorist Orientation in

psychological orientation. When one of my students fails a math test at APA, I will send home a

packet with instructions for the child and instructions for the parent. The student brings the

completed packet back to me and then retests. When their score reaches 80% (mastery), I reward

them by letting them choose a prize out of my treasure box to let them know that working hard

pays off. As I am teaching a lesson in Reading Mastery and I see a student with their eyes on me

consistently and they are not talking to their neighbor, I will reward them with a Starburst to

reinforce that behavior. Not only does that reinforce the good behavior with the student
rewarded, it tells the students around that if they do what the rewarded student is doing, they may

get a Starburst too. If a student is talking to another student or displaying minor disruptive

behavior, I do not ask that student to stop talking. Instead, I praise and reward a student next to

the disruptive student for not talking. The disruptive student then stops talking and within five

minutes if they remain in a non-disruptive state, I reward that student and praise them for making

a better choice. In my experience, this always works! I like to follow the phrase, If you feed it,

it will grow. You do not want to acknowledge the disruptive behavior, always acknowledge the

positive behavior.

When I get my own classroom, I will continue to use the Behaviorist Orientation with

everything. I want to eliminate all pre-conceived ideas of race and stereotypes so all students can

learn in a safe environment. This environment will be created by the implementation of

multicultural lesson plans. Assessment will also be done to measure the mastery of different

subjects. I will assess on paper tests, orally, and through projects. I want to measure mastery in

different ways so students can apply their skills in different ways.

To further my career, I need to learn more engaging techniques to help the students stay

active in direct instruction. I also need to learn more patience. Sometimes it is difficult to meet

the needs of a student who is high-rep; however, meeting those needs need to be done even if a

teacher must repeat the skills several times. In order to become a teacher, I am in the process of

completing my education for a Bachelors of Arts in Elementary Education. I then want to use

my degree at American Preparatory Academy to become a teacher. I need to register for the

Praxis at the end of summer and I will complete my certification at the end of further semesters.

With my current skills and skills to come, I hope to change the world for students, even if I only

leave an impact on one.