Philosophy Reflection

My philosophy of education is going to influence my classroom organization because I want students to be the main focus, so there will always be group work, cooperative learning, and presentations where students are teaching other students. I ultimately want students to be motivated to learn about health on their own, but I know that won't happen. I want to have a positive, safe, and comfortable environment for students to learn. Once that is in place, it will be important to relate the topics to students and motivate them to learn. My discipline strategy is very low key. I like the whole idea of body language and I believe it is very powerful. I do not believe in calling students out in front of the entire class, but rather handling the issue one on one. This way it becomes much more personal and students don't have their peers around to encourage them. My philosophy will influence the types of assessment I use because I want to keep the focus on the students, which will include a lot of self and peer evaluations, and also providing the guidelines of an assignment before hand, so students know why they got the grade they got. As I have said, I believe schools should be student-centered and I do not want to be the "sage on the stage" kind of teacher. Teachers do not have to be loud disciplinarians to have control over the classroom. I believe taking the time to really listen to students' opinions and showing them respect will help me be the leader I need to be in the classroom.