Learning a lot about myself...

Uni has finished for the semester and I am trying to cram in study before I start my school placement on Tuesday.  Although I still feel I have a lot of work to do on my time unit, I have all my resources in place and an outline of where I will go with the topic depending on where the kiddo's are with their understanding - yahy diagnostic assessments.

I have spent the last two days having to come up with my philosophy of teaching as that is one of the biggy questions that will be in the exam.  Although it was sort of answered in the assignment we did part way through the semester, the purpose of the assignment was not aligning our thinking with any traditions (progressive, critical or liberal) but rather theorist (Vygotsky etc), and now we have to move it more towards the traditions. 

For most of my classmates they can really just work off their assignment, but I got mine rather mixed up and as a result did not achieve to my best and its rather off the mark.  Therefore I sort of feel like I am writing the assignment again from scratch but maybe with a slightly better understanding.

I would have said two days ago that I was a progressive teacher, in that the child is the centre of the learning process and that the knowledge and experiences they bring into the classroom are a valuable resource.  Although as it turns out that rather links to the critical tradition as well. 

What I have learnt is that I am a big mix of both the progressive and critical.

I want my kiddo's to be able to go out into the world knowing who they are, that their opinions matter, that they can make a change, that education empowers them, that they are valued, that their voice was heard and that throughout life you are always learning - it never stops.  I want my teaching to involve them, not be taught to them, I do not want to just be about book work and the all important literacy and maths (more towards liberal thinking) but rather how to work as part of a group, how to get along with others, include the arts and fun, include their lives, their opinions, their views and overall help them grow. 

I want to not only teach them the information, but teach them why the information is valuable to them, whats the relevance to their lives, and hopefully there is more than one way of looking at something and learning something.

I know that perhaps I am hoping for a lot, and maybe more than I can achieve, but hey if I do not give it a go I never will achieve.  I know it will come with heart ache (especially with those kiddo's so beaten down by life already), and there will be some I am just not be able to get through too no matter what I try - but I will keep trying.

The best part about getting this sorted in my head, is I know what sort teacher I want to be and that will grow and evolve even further with time.

Hopefully I'm not to far off the mark.