Digital+Story+Telling

media type="file" key="Digital Story Telling.m4a" width="300" height="50" A teachers philosophy manifests itself in the teachers attitudes and teachers actions in the classroom everyday. It is important that a teachers’ philosophy of education is appropriate and designed to benefit the students because their philosophy affects every decision they will make. When I think about my own philosophy of education, I believe I am a mix of essentialism, perennialism, and progressivism. I strongly believe that is it important to have a core curriculum that all students need to know in each grade level. Every teacher should set high expectations for their students so they know what their potential really is. How are students every going to know what they are really capable of if they are never pushed? And yes I do understand that things change in our world, but curriculum should still stay the same.  I think preparing students for the real world is just as important as the curriculum. What the students learn should help them prepare for the future. Learning should be experimental that is full of opportunities for the students to self discover and problem solve. I think it is important that a teacher facilitates learning and serves as a guide to their students so they can come to the answers themselves. I want to be able to facilitate an environment which my students are comfortable enough to take the risks that leads them to true academic success and lasting lessons even if they are 100% sure of it. I want my students to trust themselves as well as myself to make the mistakes that lead to valuable educational experience. I think it is important that students to not only grow according to test results and standards but also as a person. It is important for student to have an array of learning experiences that they will remember for years to come.  I am currently teaching at a learning center in the kindergarten classroom. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to see what the parents thought kids should be learning in the classrooms and it was unanimous. The parents believe that teachers should be teaching the basics. They should teach them to read, write, spell, teach basic math and grammar and the history of the United States. Some parents also believed that kids should not only be learning about the United States but about about the continents and the major countries. Not a lot of the parents mentioned anything about if the students should or should not be learning life lessons while in school, something I found to be interesting. When I asked the parents they thought that it was the parents main priority to instill morals and core values, and that they were going to school to learn academics.  It is interesting to compare what parents think should be taught in classrooms and the different philosophies of teachers. Either way, both teachers and parents want what’s best for the kids, they want them to succeed.