Kimberlee Lankford
EDUC 2130
October 11, 2015
Personal Philosophy of Education
The purpose of education to me is connecting with the students and trying to motivate them and encourage them to keep pushing because it may not be fun right now, but their grades will pay off in the end. Education is to teach students the required material for each year. As a teacher, my goal is to help all of my students succeed, no matter how young they may be. There may be some students who might not care about school at the moment, and those students will have to learn the hard way throughout school by failing a few assignments, or sometimes even a grade. Some students will be easier to teach than others, but the ones that aren’t, I won’t give up on.
The most important roles for a student in the classroom is preparation and responsibility. A student should be prepared coming into a classroom and ready to learn that day. Students are responsible for coming to class on time, listening to their teacher when he/she is lecturing, and completing all assignments on time. All students should be respectable towards their teachers and all of their classmates.
A teacher’s role is to help each of his/her students learn in a way that is best for them. Teachers should get to know all of their students, learning all about them and their personalities, as well as their parents. Teachers are supposed to be friendly towards all of their students and not show favorites towards anyone. In addition, grading papers and lesson planning is also a teacher’s role. Not only are all of these a teacher’s role, but also being a mentor, disciplinarian, substitute parent, counselor, and a role model for his/her students as well.
Education also changes lives. When students have a very influential teacher in the classroom, it can change their outlook on education as a whole. I want to be one of those teachers for a student out there, somewhere. I may not be able to touch and change many students’ lives, but even if it’s just a few, I’ve done my job. I believe teaching is a calling in life. Being a teacher isn’t always going to be a piece of cake. Sometimes you’re going to want to come home and cry your eyes out because of how stressed you are, which can be one of the hardest parts about the job, but someone’s got to do it. I want to be there for those children who don’t have such a loving home to go back to after school in the afternoons. I want to be the teacher to influence the misbehaving child that they can do anything that they set their minds too. I want to be the teacher that the students can come to if they need anything to talk about, and know that I care for them. I want to be the teacher that lets all students know that they can do anything that they set their minds too, just to keep pushing.
Education for children, and changing lives, is very important to me, and that’s why I chose early childhood education as my major. I can’t wait to make a difference in this world and change a young students’ life, like a teacher once did in mine.