Rationale:  This assignment fulfills the course goal of beginning to articulate your teaching philosophy. 

A good teaching philosophy is a statement of your beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge about teaching and learning.  The beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge you have might depend on the formal studying you’ve done throughout your years in the English Education program.  They might depend on the experiences you’ve had in your years as a student and on the teaching experiences you’ve had in or out of the classroom.  All of these elements are worthy of discussion in the teaching philosophy, which basically says, “This is what I believe as a teacher.” 

The teaching philosophy also might discuss the classroom practices and methods you employ to help students learn and could certainly benefit from specific examples you could provide from your life experiences.  It could include a series of position statements that address specific issues that come with the territory of teaching English, including the reading of controversial literature, students’ rights to their own language, use of technology in the classroom, and many others that we may not have time to address in this class.  The teaching philosophy might show where you stand on the issues.

The benefits of writing a teaching philosophy are several-fold.  Articulating my teaching philosophy helped me discover why I did what I did in the classroom.  It helped me understand why my classroom operated differently than the teacher-across-the-hall’s class and why that was alright with me.  Articulating a philosophy can also help determine if a school is right for you as a teacher.  That is, if your philosophy is radically different from that of a school you’re considering working for, you’ll know that if you accept a job there you’ll have to radically change either yourself (which is easier but causes a lot of mental anguish) or the school’s philosophy (which is harder but more satisfying in the long run).  Finally, having a pre-articulated philosophy will help you fill out job applications and do well in the interview, because many people will ask what your educational/teaching philosophy is.