My Educational Philosophy
My Educational Philosophy supports the identification and reflection of I am as a teacher and what I seen as important in my managed learning environmnet. This contains what and how I intend create a space for all to be successful. These are works in progress and are being continually developed throughout my teaching journey as my teaching practice evolves and as my beliefs and values strengthen and change.
Teaching & Learning With Mr Walker
MY PURPOSE
Education is a powerful tool that can change the world and shape a young person. As a life skills educator (teacher), specialising in Secondary Food & Textiles Technologies, Child Studies and Religious Studies.
I work with young people from low socio-economic backgrounds to ensure they have a future and opportunities to shine; through empowering them to be the directors and producers of their own lives. I facilitate the skill development that enables them to be successful and transition into their ideal life after school. I see life skills and understanding one’s individual purpose through knowing personal values, to be an important part of a person’s development and growth.
MY CLASSROOM (WHAT+HOW)
My classroom is values-based and something that is driven by a deeper purpose and filled with intention.
The young people in my classes have needs relating to identity, relationships, purpose, empowerment, success, rigour/routine and, safety. These are all key factors that relate to my purpose and mission as teacher. This is why my classroom instils a sense of empowerment, provides opportunities for success, enforces academic rigour, makes use of experiential and inquiry-based learning and provides a safe, open judgement free learning environment (community) and urges students to use personal responsibility positively,
For me a fully functional classroom looks at and supports three distinct areas. They are...
- Student Wellbeing (Socially, Emotionally and Physically) and Engagement (How do they learn, and, are they learning?).
- Relationships (how to build these, e.g. student/teacher and student/student).
- Community (importance of student voice and community involvement of engagement).
As a humanist, I understand that that students need to have their basic needs met in order to be successful and self-actualise – doing this, they become the best version of their selves. To support this, the basis of my classroom is relationships and rapport building. This directs my classroom to be a safe space and a place, where students can move towards self-actualisation and live authentically – teacher student relationships are the foundation to learning. I feel that being genuine and modelling trust can significantly help establish a successful and collaborative learning environment in the classroom, this supported by me being ‘myself’. Student’s see that I am not perfect, I too make mistakes. They see me walking with them on their journey - smiling often, laughing with them, and being on their level. Being open and honest about who I am, where I come from and what I stand for will aid authenticity, it will show my class that it is okay to be proud of who they are, no matter the circumstances.
I support students to move towards self-actualisation by building reciprocal relationships with each of them. Through setting clear and early expectations, with team building/ icebreaker games, as well as, using a variety of pre-learning and post-learning checks to ensure students are meeting personal learning goals and are having a positive experience. Furthermore, ensuring the setting up of a safe, supportive and meaning classroom/subject experience. Exit cards and being available to my students also help me support and monitor student wellbeing.
I practise connective teaching, lively teaching and academic rigour as ways to engage my students in their learning to develop a meaningful depth of understanding. These are strategies which work together collaboratively and complement each other. I connect my students socially and emotionally to their learning, have them perceive learning as fun and promote academics through passion and high expectations in learning and life. It is with these strategies that I will provide a meaningful and relevant curriculum to my students. Moreover, these strategies support the development of the ability to solve problems, generate creative outcomes and to analyse and evaluate ideas to become global citizens in the 21st Century.
As a connected constructivist, I acknowledge that every individual experience life differently based upon a number of physiological and emotional factors. Students need the opportunity to learn for themselves and learn from one another. This is self-directed, experiential learning that allows students to make meaning of their immediate context and the world around them, using nodes or sources (these are there peers / collaboration) to create deeper understanding and meaning. In my classroom, students are in charge of how they learn but facilitated by the teacher through key content, boundaries and timelines. Collaboration with peers and students are essential parts of their learning.
This leads me as a teacher to employ differentiated learning and acknowledging the diverse learning needs in my classes. Differentiation is a pedagogical approach I use to meet the diverse needs of all students. To differentiate as a teacher is to know the student and how they learn (Standard 1) and hence allows access to meaningful curriculum and its outcomes for all – this allowing for equity (success) in opportunity. I understand that my students all have their own needs and seek to tailor my programs to them. Learning Tasks can be self-paced and or collaborative/group based and employ 21st Century Pedagogies (using ICTS, focusing on contemporary issues, incorporating core subject knowledge) and build students with important skills transferable to their ideal life. Group works allows me to support learners and have learners support each other to facilitate learning and growth, whereas, self-paced assessment places young people back in charge of their learning. Both strategies make them active participants in their learning and how they learn. The aforementioned strategies support all my students to access a meaningful curriculum that meet their needs and challenges them to grow.
Overall, in my classroom I am facilitating and overseeing the young people in my care to be become the best version of themselves; completed through learning about themselves, their peers and the world around them. I believe students need access to a meaningful curriculum that is rich in content and that comes from a specialised teacher with specialised knowledge. I live out and practise equality, equity, faith, education and life skills every day, with emphasis on authenticity, competence, and giving back to the community; whilst also maintaining a healthy life-work balance. This enables me to support my students to learn well, be successful and move safely towards self-actualisation and their ideal life.
This leads me as a teacher to employ differentiated learning and acknowledging the diverse learning needs in my classes. Differentiation is a pedagogical approach I use to meet the diverse needs of all students. To differentiate as a teacher is to know the student and how they learn (Standard 1) and hence allows access to meaningful curriculum and its outcomes for all – this allowing for equity (success) in opportunity. I understand that my students all have their own needs and seek to tailor my programs to them. Learning Tasks can be self-paced and or collaborative/group based and employ 21st Century Pedagogies (using ICTS, focusing on contemporary issues, incorporating core subject knowledge) and build students with important skills transferable to their ideal life. Group works allows me to support learners and have learners support each other to facilitate learning and growth, whereas, self-paced assessment places young people back in charge of their learning. Both strategies make them active participants in their learning and how they learn. The aforementioned strategies support all my students to access a meaningful curriculum that meet their needs and challenges them to grow.
Overall, in my classroom I am facilitating and overseeing the young people in my care to be become the best version of themselves; completed through learning about themselves, their peers and the world around them. I believe students need access to a meaningful curriculum that is rich in content and that comes from a specialised teacher with specialised knowledge. I live out and practise equality, equity, faith, education and life skills every day, with emphasis on authenticity, competence, and giving back to the community; whilst also maintaining a healthy life-work balance. This enables me to support my students to learn well, be successful and move safely towards self-actualisation and their ideal life.
My Inspiration
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