Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
As an educator you are often asked why you decided to be in the classroom. What made
you decide to teach? For me, and for many the answer is simple and simultaneously complex: it
is a vocation and a calling, a passion, and our life's work. Therefore, then, the question that must
follow as a teacher is: What do you believe? Why is this work important to you? What we
believe about teaching and learning should be reflected in our lives and in our classroom. Our
practice should mirror our values and should be apparent in our organization, our speech, and our
interactions.
If our practice must reflect our values then it follows that our practice must evolve as we,
the world, and society evolve. I do not want to teach the same course year after year. In my
undergraduate studies I saw teachers in their twentieth year teaching the same PowerPoint slide
presentation they had been using since year one to teach the same concepts the same way. They
took pride in this. They saw their curricula as static. However, I believe that, “when we practice
critically, we regard curricula as constructed and tentative, as framed by human agency and
therefore capable of being dismantled and reframed by teachers and students” (Brookfield, 1995,
p. 40). Therefore, each day, quarter, semester, and year, is a chance for reframing curricula.
Curriculum does not, as Brookfield describes, “just happen”; rather, it exists “because particular
people in a particular place at a particular time believed that someone else should know about
something” (Brookfield, 1995, p. 40). And so, as I will expand on further when I talk about my
beliefs about student choice, we must be responsive to the students in the room as we consider
our practice. We must then continuously engage in a thought process that addresses not just the
how of teacher, but also the why. Of course, this is not a stable, static practice and so it means
that “we never have the luxury of regarding ourselves as fully finished critical products who
This process of understanding the why of what we are teaching, is one that is especially
difficult for me, in that it often feels that I have very little control over the curriculum. However,
through collaboration, teachers can bring those isolated thoughts into action on a larger scale,
which one of the many reasons I believe that collaboration is essential for teaching and learning,
for both teachers and students. “Although critical reflection often begins alone, it is ultimately a
collective endeavor” (Brookfield, 1995, p. 36). In my practice, this looks like working with an
instructional coach to work through instructional practices and improve teacher-talk, working
with parents to create a school community that is supportive and transparent on all fronts,
working thoughtfully with my co-teacher, and being open-minded and thoughtful during
organization of curriculum pacing and planning. When these teams are effective, they allow
teachers to reflect as a unit, sharing both strengths and struggles. Indeed, “checking our readings
colleagues is crucial if we are to claw a path to critical clarity” (Brookfield, 1995, p 36). For me,
being a productive member of this group means coming to meetings prepared by looking at
lesson plans and planning documents ahead of time with thoughtful commentary. It also means
being completely open and honest about my reservations and criticisms of the standing
curriculum and how it is being implemented. It means putting students before test scores in
discussions.
However, in collaborative teams there is the opportunity for backsliding, frustration, and
stagnation. The dynamic of my CT in my first year of teaching was frustrating to say the least.
Most of the time, we talked about how to get students to pass standardized tests, or complained
TEACHER BELIEFS STATEMENT 6
about why the tests were unfair, rather than focus on why we taught English Language Arts and
how we could do our best to teach it in a way that would get through to our students. Instead, our
meetings became on obligation that bred frustration and isolation with teachers largely doing
their own thing, and reluctant to share. I believe we must do the opposite.
philosophical conclusions together. We must agree on what student achievement is and what it
looks like. However, I also want to acknowledge that even in seemingly successful collaboration
between teachers, we run the risk of creating an echo chamber. “In this situation, our
conversations with them becomes an unproductive loop in which the same prejudices and
I believe that by providing students with choices in their learning you allow more
opportunity for students to become lifelong learners because they are often able to identify their
own why in and for their learning. I do this in my classroom by opening up classwork to choice
as often as I can through station work, choice boards, book clubs, and in the cocreation of
requirements and rubrics. However, I think as a teacher I must be careful to create choices that
are all equally rigorous. Additionally, I have run into many teachers who believe that student
choice allows to too much autonomy and that there should be an aspect of schooling that means
doing things we do not necessarily want to do. Within this belief I have identified a core belief
that is that one of the purposes of school is to create lifelong learners who can ultimately
contribute to society.
Essential to my belief system as a teacher is the idea that learning should be relevant to
learners and to the world at large. Brookfield states that, “we reinvent our practice to take
account of what we have just found out so that the relevance of an activity is clear to students”
TEACHER BELIEFS STATEMENT 7
(Brookfield, 1995, p. 43). Indeed, I believe that we should reinvent our lessons around the
practical needs of students entering the workforce. I have pragmatic conversations with my
students about what the world looks like, and how adults function within it. We talk about how
jobs are evolving all of the time. One way that I do this more formally in the classroom is by
introducing students to different content area jobs in English. I know when I was in school, even
at the university level, I didn’t know anything about the actual job market. In my classroom it
essential that we talk about all the varied options out there even if they aren’t the standard doctor,
lawyer, teacher, and nurse. Ideally, this also takes shape through public speakers, using current
events and articles in the classroom as reading material, and field trips.
If the classroom is going to be a relevant space, which I believe it ought to be, it must
also be a safe space where students feel cared for. I believe that creating a space where students
feel open to express themselves and feel emotionally and physically safe, allows for student
learning to flourish. In my classroom, this manifests in many ways. One of my favorite ways is
through meetings. While I am in the secondary world, I believe that the morning meeting at the
elementary level is a great tool for fostering community and growth in your classroom. While at
the middle school level I cannot have a meeting every day I instead do Monday Meetings where
we do team building and talk about our progress, frustrations, and what we are looking forward
to in school and specifically in English Language Arts. I think students are able to speak honestly
because I build relationships from day one using anonymous feedback surveys as well as
communicate via writing through dialogue journals. As Brookfield (1995) confirms, “after
students have seen you, week in and week out, inviting anonymous commentary on your actions
and then discussing this publicly, they start to believe that you mean what you say about the
So far, this is what I believe as an educator. This assignment has served me well as I enter
my third year of teaching and my first year of co-teaching. I am excited to enter these upcoming
conversation about what our classroom will be like with a renewed understanding of what
Reference
Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey - Bass.