Ms. Dahlberg's Classroom

As an educator, my ideal teaching philosophy is progressivism, with a focus on student centered instruction. In our textbook, John Dewy, the philosopher of Progressivism views that “Students should be active participants in their own learning” (Koch 2024). I want my classroom to be focused on their interests to keep them engaged in their own learning. At the moment, I want to have a space that is encouraging for my students to take an active role and engages them in critical thinking. I believe that I should act as a facilitator that poses questions to my students and provide resources and help them create their own understanding. 

Regarding teaching strategies, I would love to implement cooperative learning in my classroom. A big part of progressivism is using cooperative learning to have students engage and learn with each other. Having my students work together in small groups, create their own goals, and learn interpersonal skills with each other is very important to me. While we learned about cooperative learning this semester, Slavin (2014) gave a list of communication and problem-solving skills, active listening, explaining ideas and opinions, and encouraging teammates which are all skills that focus on the students. 

Thinking about curriculum, especially in areas that are typically harder for students such as math, I would like to connect it with their own lives. Rather than having my students primarily use worksheets and practice problems, I would like to integrate real world issues and problems with projects. This could allow my students to explore the topic in a way that could be more meaningful or interesting to them, connecting them to their own world. The curriculum in my classroom should be flexible based on my students’ needs, leaving room for their interests and curiosities to guide their learning. I’d like to strengthen the multiple intelligences in my classroom by “continually shifting my method of presentation from linguistic to spatial to musical and so on” (Armstrong 2018). To give all of my students the chance to grow, I want to try and keep myself aware of the different forms of learning, and continually impellent different ways for them to learn.

To assess my students, I think a mix of student, portfolio and performance-based assessments would be beneficial. While I believe tests are important to understand what level students are at and to see what they have comprehended, I would try to avoid having too many. Having students self-assess themselves would be a good opportunity to have them reflect on themselves promoting self-regulation. I haven’t seen it in practice, but portfolios seem like a good opportunity for students to collect their work and progress to display their learning process thought their work or projects. Having my students work in teams over a period of time, so they have drafts and learn that making mistakes is ok would be a great way to get assessment based on their performance. Having them apply their knowledge and skills in projects that connect with the real world could indicate their growth. 

My classroom management would be student centered. One of my favorite classroom management strategies that I’ve learned is restorative practices. In particular, I would loke to impellent restorative circles in my room. It would be a great opportunity to teach students good coping skills and how to interact with others. On top of that it would be beneficial for them outside of my classroom. I’d have a positive classroom culture, that encourages risk-taking, and respect for others. Giving my students their own jobs and responsibilities along with giving them choices and voice in their learning paths. 

Overall, I know that my teaching philosophy is not easy to implement and that it takes a lot of time and effort to be able to have a classroom like that. But it is my desire to empower my students in their learning, and to teach them skills that will benefit them in and outside of my classroom. I want to create a comfortable space where they are engaged in their learning and develop critical thinking for topics that may be difficult, creating confidence in themselves.  

This is my current Teaching Philosophy