Educational Philosophy

ALISYN FELTON

04alisyn@gmail.com

(740) 885‑8309

As a teacher, I aspire to encourage and educate my students in the field of English. But going further than that, I hope to inspire my students to reach their full potential in whatever field they choose. Although I intend to be an English teacher, I want to support and encourage my students to be the best versions of themselves as individuals. I hope to achieve true learning in my classroom and I intend to measure that by a growth assessment taken at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and at the end of the year in order to know what they have learned throughout their time in my classroom. Through doing this, I can measure what I personally need to spend more time on and what students need more encouragement with.
In order to reach my teaching objectives, I intend to strictly follow lesson plans and give myself and my students a list of learning objectives built through state requirements and personal techniques at the beginning of the school year. By doing so, I will be preparing my students and myself to know what goals must be met so everyone is informed with what is expected of them. Then, throughout the year I intend to follow those goals and standards, but in doing so I believe that there must be room for creativity and conversation as that stems from learning rather than just memorization. I want my students to not only know what I am teaching them, but understand what I am teaching them as well. I believe that the purposes of education are more than just mundane memorization, but rather learning, processing, and understanding what is being taught to them. I also believe that the qualities of a good teacher include reflecting on all students' talents rather than simple workbook style learning alone. This way, every student can feel in tune with the work at hand and are provided the opportunity to display their talents and passions in their own way.
I believe that a good learning environment is educational, informative, and exciting to the best ability of the teacher. As a teacher, I want my students to be active in my classroom and want to be there, rather than it just be a required class. I feel that teachers are more than just educators in their subject as they have the power to shape and inspire students to be successful members of society in whatever field they choose. A personal message that I will carry through into my teaching is “You cannot teach a fish to climb a tree, nor can you teach a bird to swim.” By this I mean that educators must enhance and encourage students to be the best possible versions of themselves in and out of classrooms and also take into consideration that everyone has their own set of uniqueness and cannot be conformed into a singular box. As a teacher, I feel that it is vital for my students to feel accepted and appreciated for who they are just as much as they should be accepted and appreciated in educational performance. My motivation to become a teacher originally stemmed from my love of English, but through experience it transformed into my love of teaching. I believe that all teachers have the ability to change the lives of students forever and I intend to be that person. Teachers are educators, mentors, and so much more to students and I hope to be that teacher for my students.

Sincerely,
Alisyn Felton