Ever since I was little, people have told me that I have a charisma or something like that. At the time, I had no clue what that meant, I thought I was just me being me and I was glad with that. As I got older, I realized that I had a sense of fairness in me and that I wanted everyone to have an opportunity at some point. One time, I even faked an injury to let one of my teammates play because he hadn’t even played a single game all season. That’s just how I was and it was natural to me. During college, I had many classes with Dr. Fennell, which shared that idea and I enjoyed his classes greatly. At that point, that is when I started to think about a philosophy, first a coaching philosophy because that was what I was doing also at that time and then later an educational philosophy because by that time, I had switched my majors and started taking my educational class for my minor. After taking those classes, reading books, and learning from professors and listening to fellow students, I started to form an idea of the type of teacher I wanted to be and I believe that my educational philosophy goes in line with me properly. Like I mentioned earlier, my beliefs as a teacher have to reflect on my actions. I have to do what I preach because if I don’t, then I would be hypocritical. Now I know I won’t be the perfect teacher, nobody will, but the beliefs that I have will make me be the best me that I could be. My first belief is that every student has a potential. Now the potential may vary due to the fact that there are many external and internal influences that could affect the students, but the teacher must find that potential and pull out the best out of him or her. My second belief is that education must be taken advantage of by everyone. Now education is the key to success, whether it is immediate or long term that depends of the situation of the person but education could be the way to success. Education is knowledge ad knowledge is power and that power could be used to aid not just you, but also your family, friends, community, etc. There are some students that have some pretty messed up situations going on around them and if school is the only place where they could feel safe and free from all the chaos, then it is up to us to make it a safe place. And an addition to that is that being a PE teacher, the gym could be a very chaotic place as it is a place where a lot goes on at a time. I know accidents will occur, and they have done so, but it is my job to lessen that percentage. Here at Van Buren, we have what we call the 5 Agreements and those are: Mutual Respect, Attentive Listening, Right to Pass, No Put Downs, and Take Risks. I try to promote them as best as I can because not because it is from the school, but also because I believe them, especially in the mutual respect. I believe that mutual respect has to be not from student to teacher, but also the other way around because if the students see or feel that I don’t give them respect, then I have lost them. Students aren’t stupid and some say that children tell the truth, well it be intended or not but they tell the truth on most occasions. These agreements have added to my philosophy and I know by following them, I will become a better teacher. I try to actively demonstrate my philosophy by going around the gym and observing how they’re doing the activity, answering any questions, or just giving them an appreciation in whatever forms that may be. The latter was the most difficult not because I don’t like giving them, but trying to make it not so superficial. I solved this issue by not thinking about it too much and sometimes not thinking like a teacher, meaning that talking to them as if I was one of them which come more natural to me. I believe that following this philosophy will create a positive environment for both the teacher and student, and then the highest possibility of learning, teaching, and growth can occur.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY
Classroom management has always been something that has kept me always asking questions. Do I try to be the cool teacher? Do I be strict and in total control? Do I try to please everyone? Those are the type of questions I always asked myself and I decided to follow what one of my teachers in high school did. During my undergrad, I decided to interview him because when I took his class, it was the one class that I got stuff done but also messed around in a lot, but it didn’t seem to bother him because he had the class in total control. I joked a lot in his class, but at the same time I respected him greatly and so did the rest of the class. I always wondered how he did that and that was the one question really wanted to ask him during the interview. When I asked him how he did it, he said that in the beginning of every year, he is a total hard ass and disciplined with all to set the tone. Once he sees that he has control, he starts loosening up little by little and as the year goes on, the class runs smoothly. He says he does this because it sets the tone for the expectations immediately and then after a while, the teacher-student relationship becomes more natural and for the most of the cases a positive one. After hearing this, I started to evaluate how I coach soccer which is in theory the first teaching I’ve done. After reviewing, I realized that I did have a similar approach to that one teacher and for the most part, it has worked for me. I had respect of the players and of my immediate peers, regardless of my young age so I decided to take that approach into teaching. I believe that there has to be a balance when it comes to managing a classroom. At first, I was very strict overemphasizing the expectations, even to the point that I sent students to sit down for misbehaving. I believe that I had to set the ball rolling if I wanted to start with control but also showing them that I’ll follow the expectations I set on myself. At first, I was trying to find the balance that would work with all classes, but I soon realized that every class has to be measured differently and after that, things started to smooth. I would later notice this in the reviews that were left by Rob and the notes that the principal, my mentor teacher, and instructional coach would leave from time to time after observing me. After a while, I have learned what works and what doesn’t and the gym runs much smoother than before and I’m also noticing that I’m raising my voice less. The students respect me and I do the same and I’m enjoying this early part of my career.