Philosophy of Education | paul-lister-iii

My Philosophy of Education

Students have a right to feel safe in school. With a culture of kindness and caring students will take risks with learning. The development of social awareness allows students to consider other perspectives and practice empathy. Research supports the claim that social emotional learning has added benefits to improve student attendance as well as an improvement in classroom grades and standardized testing. Ideas such as “no one eats alone at Lions Academy” and “I see you challenges” are ideas I have implemented in my current school that have a positive impact on school culture. Additionally, instructional time is increased because conflict resolution skills are explicitly taught and reviewed.

I will build a school where results drive decisions. This will happen through planned learning communities who meet on a regular basis. Meetings will follow a protocol to review student data points, develop teaching exemplars, and share action steps for the upcoming meeting. All meetings will have pre-work and agendas so teachers come to the meetings prepared and ready to maximize collaborative time. Grade chairs as well as administration will meet to discuss how the team can better be supported to reach important benchmarks on the road to achieving our common academic goals.

A classroom with flexible seating options and 21st century learning will be adopted in my school. Creativity is a skill that will be encouraged along with project-based learning. To prepare scholars effectively, we must develop critical thinking skills in ways that break from school traditions that older generations have experienced. This will include less teacher lecturing, increased student collaboration; real world based learning, and increased connections to the community. This could involve me encouraging corporations to work in our schools so students see there is a career that could result from developing 21st century skills. Students will be asked to solve problems and encouraged to develop presentations through technology

I help scholars internalize how learning does not stop at 3:30pm. Modeling the learning process is essential to developing students who will learn the value of curiosity. The learning process is connected to mistake making. Improvement comes from analyzing errors. If we know why something went wrong, we can brainstorm ideas to solve the problem. Employers are looking for employees who can solve problems. This requires being receptive to critiques.

Positive self-esteem can be developed by teachers who show scholars they can achieve. Having students set goals for learning, designing tasks that help the scholar to achieve the goal, and praising the student when they reach their goal helps build confidence in themselves. When this process is repeated, the students learn to trust themselves in their ability to achieve their dreams by setting up S.M.A.R.T goals. Those goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time- bound.