Ryan Lasala Roster #11

Philosophical Portrait of Myself

As a child, I’ve always had the mentality of wanting to help others. I believe I’ve gotten

that trait from my grandmother, as she would always tell me stories about her as a teacher in

the Philippines long before I was ever born. She’d explain how being a teacher in a third world

country was devastating, seeing all these children in poverty struggling to find an education. It

created the root of becoming someone who wants to educate others in a way, shape, or form.

Growing up I noticed a strange occurrence when I started to work, is that all my jobs dealt with

teaching kids. From teaching piano, preschool, tutoring centers, and children with autism it

made me realize that I wanted to be in the educational field. This inspired me to work towards

not just being a kind and helpful human being but my path to becoming a teacher and mentor,

wanting to educate those who seek to grow their knowledge and lives.

Taking Introduction to Elementary Education has created almost a reality wakening as I

have learned so much more than I could ever imagine about the world of education. I had

always believed that teaching would honestly be easy, having to give out assignments, go

through simple lesson plans and whatever else, but was I way off of the ballpark. Professor

Shkorupa has shown me more than just teaching in this current day of teaching but also the

past which I feel is important to a teacher’s education to understand one’s history of their craft.

Introducing new strategies, styles, and methods on creating a learning environment that fits

your own. I feel that the most intriguing part of this class dealing with philosophy would have to

be the Case Studies and Hypothetical Situations. Being a teacher there can be many possible
incidents where you have to truly use your ideology and morals when it comes to situations

which connect to one’s teaching philosophy which is why I believe

After going through a few of my field observations I never realized how much work you

had to put into maintaining a class of twenty students. From the overwhelming workload you

have to plan/print out, making lessons appealing to students, gatekeeping, working with

parents, and etc. is stressful, yet when a teacher keeps their composure it shows how one can

balance one’s passion being worth it at the end. As money truly creates the purpose of living, I

understand now that being a teacher isn’t about one’s salary, but essentially paving the way for

the future.

I believe that everyone should always be a student in life. No matter what age,

experience level, or doctrine one has, no one has a complete mastery in a particular subject and

realize that there’s always so much to learn to benefit not only for ourselves but the world.

Without curiosity and real-world experiences, how can one survive once they leave my

classroom? You can learn a plethora of things within a student’s educational journey for twelve

years, yet what good would it make if they couldn’t combine that knowledge into their daily

lives for the next sixty years of their life? We must create a setting where I would want to focus

on a Progressivism type of teaching style to create a correlation between my lessons and

actually use this information to their benefit in the real world. I’ve realized that through my

history/government classes how progressivism connected with most of my classmates and

myself due to how there was never a wrong answer which I believe is true in my own

philosophy (in most subjects of education). Having these open-ended questions/answers

unveils ones true thought process which is most important in my education style to understand
your student’s opinion and grow from there to explore more solutions or giving a better

understanding.

One thing I would want to strive for as a future teacher is for students have them learn

the concept of cooperation at an early age. Relating to my progressive style of teaching that I

would like to proceed with, understanding teamwork will show how it’s like to work in the real

world, socializing with others for a common goal to all succeed. I believe without group projects

or small group exercises, students will not grasp the importance of communication. Without

proper communication skills, there will be a disconnect between students which causes

unproductivity and most importantly not being able to express one’s ideas to a person. As a

teacher, I would like to create a transitional atmosphere from physical work to technology.

Even though our technology is advancing each and every day, it should not mean we forget

physical/paper assignments along with it. Technology in my classroom will be used in certain

situations such as presentations, lessons, and sometimes homework. As for physical

worksheets, it will be a daily objection to have informative worksheets and going over them

step by step instead of a tablet (can cause distractions).

I believe that as a teacher I will always be a positive and productive role model to my

students. Creating a set of structural set of rules creates the balance of students learning how

to follow directions and create a smoother flow all around the class without disruptions. I

believe in rewarding positive actions lets students know how to behave in and outside of the

school. If disobedient this does not mean to pile more assignments or sending them to the

office. The key to solving behavior issues is to dive into what is the causation of this behavior,

not penalizing without an explanation. As teachers, we have no idea what a single child may be
going through outside of school and within their lives, so I stay cautions and an open mind

when approaching unwanted behaviors.

Teaching can be a joy and a challenge simultaneously throughout one’s career. It's an

extensive life process on reflecting on what works well with past students and adjustments

from upcoming technologies, standards, and generations. I believe that to be a great teacher

you have to love teaching. Having to experience all these creative minds on a daily basis amazes

me as I become of their journey into the working force one day to make a difference in society.

In the next five years, I see myself still having the passion to teach in an elementary level for a

good amount of time in the Clark County School District. I would like to be able to experience

more than just my targeted grade (2nd) and understand more of how development works in all

ages throughout elementary school. I believe when I’ve gathered all the experience in

elementary education, I’d like to further my horizons to secondary teaching while balancing

teaching and being a student.