On my actual website I would have a picture, as well as short biography that tells the familes about my education, teaching background, and coaching background. For this assignment, I will put my philosophy from the community plan.
Matthew Sandoval's Teaching Philosophy:
Students need to feel comfortable and safe when they are at school, as it may be the one safe place that certain students have during the course of their day. My class will be a comfortable, safe, welcoming, trusting, and positive space for all my students. Students will be able to share freely without fear of being judged or mocked.
I believe that every student should be treated as an individual and should receive instruction in a way that is the most beneficial to them and gives them the greatest opportunity to learn. This requires me to know my students on a more personal level. The first couple weeks of each school year is a time for me to learn as much about my students as I can, both as a student and more importantly as a person. This allows me to learn which teaching strategies will benefit the class and each student the most. I believe that each student deserves to be taught in a way that they understand, so it is important for me to be able to differentiate my lessons so more students will be engaged with my teaching.
I never want to stop learning during my career as an educator. I want to learn from my superiors, my peers, parents, and from my students. It is important that my students feel comfortable providing feedback on my teaching and assignments. This allows me to see what types of assignments benefit the students and which assignments need to be reworked so they are more helpful or how I can differentiate them in new ways to reach more students. I want to be constantly evolving as an educator, so learning newly developed strategies, researching new classroom technology, and learning from fellow educators are all important areas that I plan on studying. I started teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I have learned how important it is to be competent with technology and learn new ways or styles of teaching as required.
I am a teacher that makes the content as relatable as possible for the grade level that I am teaching, as well as the individual students that I have in each class. For example, when teaching a history lesson, it would help the students contextualize historical concepts or ideas if I could show them how it correlates with something more modern or even something that they currently use. My students are encouraged to bring their different cultures into their learning because it gives them more background information to draw from and make comparisons with. I know that it is easier for students to grasp a concept if they are able to compare or contrast it with something that they are more familiar with or another concept that they have already mastered.