Heather Ciganek

SPEDE 779
Journal 1
Educational Philosophy
My philosophy about early childhood education is centered on the idea that as an
educator, I must be able to develop, adapt, and reflect upon my teaching in order to meet
the individual needs of every child. Based upon my personal experiences as an early
childhood educator, I have come to learn that every child learns in a different way, and
consider this a challenge to be able to develop a way to meet each child at their level of
understanding. In my teaching practices, I believe it is important to follow a multidisciplinary and multi-sensory approach when working with young children. Thus, it is
the role of the teacher to lead his/her students in the direction where they learn best, but
also to cultivate a learning environment where all the students are able to learn from one
another as well. One component of an effective educator that I value strongly is
naturalistic teaching strategies. I believe that employing both child and teacher-initiated
interactions to teach functional skills in the natural environment is extremely important,
especially in early childhood. Young children should learn through exploration and play,
and it is the role of the teacher to encourage these learning experiences with his/her
students in the natural environment. I believe that not only do children learn from their
experiences in the natural environment, which can easily be generalized to all settings,
but they also are more motivated to work when it is enjoyable.
I work at Manhattan Childrens Center, a private school for children with autism,
and the one-to-one teaching model that we follow is deeply rooted in the principles of
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Thus, many of my beliefs and approaches to

teaching have developed based upon the principles of ABA. For example, I believe in
systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory and
behavior in order to improve socially significant behaviors such as communication, social
skills, fine and gross motor skills, academics, self-management skills, vocational skills,
toileting, etc. Additionally, I believe that by implementing reinforcement-based
strategies, it will increase the likelihood of the continuation of positive behaviors in the
future.
This past September, I was promoted to head teacher of a classroom at the school
that I work at, Manhattan Childrens Center. I began my career at this school as an
instructor, and worked my way up to this role over the past four years. Now that I finally
have accomplished my goal of being a head teacher of a classroom at MCC, I have many
new goals set for myself for this upcoming year. First, I want to establish an environment
for my students that is warm, welcoming, and exciting for them to be a part of every day
that they come to school. My goal is for my students to love coming to school, and to
love learning from myself as well as the rest of the staff in my classroom. In order to
establish such an environment, a second goal that I have is to establish a collaborative
environment with my co-workers, one in which we work together as a team. Based upon
my past experiences, I have been fortunate to work in classrooms where my co-workers
and I had a very positive teamwork approach, and I have experienced the advantages
first-hand. Not only do I value working together with my co-workers, but I also value the
importance of family and parent involvement in early childhood education. Thus, my
third goal for this year is to encourage the parents of my students to be involved in their
childs education. I believe that by creating collaborative relationships with parents and

encouraging their participation, it creates a positive environment for my students both at

home and at school. It is imperative for teachers and parents to work together not only to
carry over skills learned at school into the home environment, but it also creates a
nurturing and supportive environment for young children where they feel supported in
their learning and education.
I believe that these three goals that I set for myself for this upcoming year will
help me to become the teacher and role model that I envision myself to be. In addition, it
is important to note that the success of each of these goals separately is dependent upon
the success of them as a whole. Thus, my ultimate goal for this year is to establish a
culture within my classroom that is positive and warm, which encourages my students
exploration and learning, and the collaboration of my staff and the families that I work
with.