Hello, I'm Rebecca Lowry. I have a master's degree in education. And when I was in the midst of my graduate studies, one of the things that was required was writing a philosophy of teaching statement. Now don't did things a little differently. They had us take 10 credits towards our master's degree, immediately upon graduation before they would even give us our teaching certificate. I'm thankful for that now, because there was a lot of things that I learned.
And there's a lot of things that I won't forget. And this is one of them. And there's a lot of reasons why I'm super thankful that I have this. But before we get into the meat, of writing a philosophy statement, let's answer the question, what is a teaching philosophy and I really appreciated Vanderbilt's statement so much that that is the one I used. And I'm just going to go ahead and read it to you because that's how much I like it. A teaching philosophy statement is a purposeful and reflective essay about the author's teaching beliefs and practices.
It is an individual narrative that includes not only one's beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the way in which he or she and acts these beliefs in the classroom. So in other words, what this is going to say about you is your beliefs about teaching, and why you do what you do. So why right when, first of all, it offers you this amazing opportunity to hone in on what you believe and why you're doing what you're doing. Because on those really bad days, you're going which you're going to have those really bad days. That reminder is desperately needed. And it also requires you to examine yourself on those bad days and Even on your good days to figure out what worked and what didn't, and what I applied about what I believe in what I really failed at, and you can go back on those good and bad days and determine what's going to make those good days better in those and fix what happened on those bad days.
But it also helps you to communicate your goals to the people who matter most in your professional life. Also, if you're in the midst of interviewing, and even if you're not in the midst of interviewing, I still encourage you to just sit down stop and do this for all the reasons that I just listed. But if you're looking for a job in the field of teaching and education, this is a key component to your portfolio. Now, before we get started, I want you to download the PDF document that I've put into the project section of this class. And go through each of these questions. And after we go through them, I want you to answer them.
They don't have to be this long, elaborate answer, I just want you to take a few moments and write down your initial thoughts about what you believe about learning how you live it in your own life, which is an important question, because in a mock interview immediately after graduation, I handed this amazing principal who was willing to do this for me, my portfolio and she said, it looks good, except for one thing, have you said that you believe in lifelong learning, but you're not showing in your portfolio, how you're living out in your own life. And that struck me as being huge. And I asked her, What does that look like in a portfolio and she told me that even having a page where you're writing down the professional development books that you're reading, on a monthly and daily basis shows that you're willing to grow on your own And that is big.
The second question, I guess it's technically the third, but what methods do you implement and practice and then talk about or think about why they work? How you know, they work, and if they don't work, then what? What do you do next? Or what should you do instead of what you did? What are your goals for your students and also for yourself, and how you plan on growing as a teacher. So stop me, pause me, go through and answer each of these questions, just your initial thoughts, and I look forward to seeing you in the next session.