This is me at one of the philosophy workshops in the Integrated Library of Knapp Hall. I went the night that Bobby was helping out, and right now in the picture I am jotting down some ideas of how to improve and refine my philosophy statement.
I learned through this experience that every huge idea or creation, has to start somewhere. Even though I may have thought I was finished with my philosophy statement after we turned it in the first time, I really had no clue how much further I had left to go (or as Bobby would say, how much more I had to "push"). At this workshop, I felt like I was starting from scratch. Bobby had us draw a heart in the middle of the page. At first I was wondering where she was going with this. We were supposed to write in the middle why we love teaching. That was really hard to do. I wrote that I love watching children learn something new, making them feel valued, and letting them have the opportunity to teach. This was just the catalyst to my discovering more and more about my teaching philosophy.
This applies to the philosophy category pretty obviously, because this event marked a huge evolutionary point in my philosophy statement, but more importantly, in my teaching perspective as a whole.
I discovered that the "thesis" to my philosophy statement is that I want to show children unconditional love and acceptance, regardless of their academic performance. I have a real passion against the grading system most public school systems use. I also have become aware of how many ways society, or family, can imply that a child is not good enough. I now have a rejuvenated desire to implement an environment in my classroom that tells every child they have skills and talents, and are worth my (and hopefully other people's) time, attention, and love.
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