My Teaching Philosophy
Teaching history or social studies isn't just about learning about what happened, when it happened and being able to identify people like George Washington or the inventor of the cotton gin. I believe Social Studies is about creating a learning where we can all come together and learn, not just dates and names, but so that we can learn why events happened, what people were thinking. To learn this material and why things happen it is useful to learn about the perceptions of our peers regarding the events and learning how they feel about them.
I have realized that learning is not just reading books, learning is talking and sharing ideas about issues and how events would have made us feel and how we feel about current events. I want to teach my students about different views and learn about their views, building appreciation of views on both sides. This lesson will carry on far into the future not just to the chapter test or to the paper that's due. Students will not remember the chapter test or the information they crammed for the test, but they will remember the conversations that they had with their peers about the Holocaust or the Civil Rights Movement. These conversations and experiences will shape their understanding of these events. These experiences will carry on and will affect how we act and how we perceive things because we have learned about the views of others. In a more succinct statement: my teaching philosophy is to strive to teach my students about each other and themselves while they learn lessons from history that can shape their lives and thinking in the future so that they can be successful and caring human beings that try to understand each other and build each other up.
I have realized that learning is not just reading books, learning is talking and sharing ideas about issues and how events would have made us feel and how we feel about current events. I want to teach my students about different views and learn about their views, building appreciation of views on both sides. This lesson will carry on far into the future not just to the chapter test or to the paper that's due. Students will not remember the chapter test or the information they crammed for the test, but they will remember the conversations that they had with their peers about the Holocaust or the Civil Rights Movement. These conversations and experiences will shape their understanding of these events. These experiences will carry on and will affect how we act and how we perceive things because we have learned about the views of others. In a more succinct statement: my teaching philosophy is to strive to teach my students about each other and themselves while they learn lessons from history that can shape their lives and thinking in the future so that they can be successful and caring human beings that try to understand each other and build each other up.