My Educational Philosophy

I have never wanted to be anything else besides a teacher. (except for the brief broadway and acting stage that most young girls go through) I wanted to become a teacher after I finished fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher was an amazing woman (her name was Sue Bright) and I knew after that year, that teaching is what I want to do. Over the years I have seen individual teachers reach out and affect certain students. There are some children that can't be reached, but the extra attention, and the caring of a good teacher can change that. This is why I am teaching. I am teaching so that I can positively affect the children who come in and out of my life, and let them know that they can be whatever they want to be. This class pertains to my professional goals 100%. I have always loved children's literature, but this class has really opened my eyes. I would like to think that I have a decently diversified classroom library, but looking back at my books, I have mostly just African American literature. I need to step up and start getting different kinds of diverse lit. Literature however is a great medium in a classroom so that we will be able to learn about different cultures. It exposes children in a fun way, through reading over more traditional learning in the classroom. I think that multicultural education should be involved in every classroom. It is important for children to learn about other cultures when they are young so that they are more accepting to them in the future. It is interesting to see this now, because I am in an all caucasian classroom and have not seen much multicultural learning. These children grow up seeing only one thing, and I don't think thats right. Since I love childrens books, I think that diverse literature will be prominent in my classroom library as well as the lessons that I teach in the future. The only concern I have is the previous notions put into childrens heads about certain cultures in our midst. I hope that I am able to catch them at a young enough age that they will grow up to be accepting of everyone. I have to realize that everyone comes from their own unique background, and that I will not be able to reach every single student. However, I would like to think that I can touch a good percentage of them. I hope that my students by the time they leave my classroom will have more world knowledge than when they left. I feel as if I will be able to do this as long as I continue to put into effect critical pedagogy and critical literacy.