In this paper, I share my educational philosophy that I had at the beginning of my coursework at American College of Education. In this paper, I include the goals that I set for myself.

1. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 1
Individual Student Profile
Jasmine Belin
American College of Education

2. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 2
Individual Student Profile
There is no true definition of “the best teacher”. Instead, everyone, whether they are involved
in education or not, has their own definition of what characteristics make up “the best teachers”
in the world. True as this may be, however, all teachers and educators agree on one thing: you
will never be “the best teacher” unless you have a strong philosophy and set goals you’d like to
accomplish. Throughout the time I have spent learning to be a great teacher, I have developed
my own philosophies and goals so that I can be “the best teacher”.
Educational Philosophy
The number one statement of my personal philosophy is that students need to learn. As a
teacher, it is the most important thing I do. Yes; there’s more to teaching than showing children
how to read and write. Things like caring for them and creating a safe environment to be in are
other things that I focus on. But, my purpose as an educator is to make sure that my students
learn. If I am not ensuring that my students learn, then I am inevitably sending them off into a
world less prepared than others. By doing that, I would be harming them, in a sense. My job is to
teach them so that they can be successful member of society.
Goals
In order to achieve this important statement of my philosophy, I have a set of goals that I try
to fulfill every day. My first goal is to engage students so that they “buy in” to their learning.
Basically, this means that I am getting students to believe that what I am teaching them is worth
learning. I believe if I can engage my students, then the rest of my job is considerably easier.
From there, I simply need to find what works for my students to help them with content.

3. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 3
My passion is reading. Unfortunately, a lot of students have a difficult time becoming good,
strong, confident readers. I believe that the only way that I can become a great reading and
literacy teacher, that I need to further my education in this specific area. Therefore, I am on the
path of earning a Master’s Degree in Literacy. My goal is to learn the best practices and
instructional strategies to utilize in my classroom to help my students become better readers and
stronger writers.
My final goal is to make better use of the resources that I have, such as technology. The
current reason that I am not using it as much, is that I am not completely comfortable
implementing it in my instruction. The reason for this is simply because I don’t know how.
Throughout this program, I hope to learn how to implement technology within literacy to help
my students who are from the technology age.
Conclusion
These goals are important in achieving my philosophy of education. Having this philosophy
and the goals that help to achieve it guide me towards reaching my ultimate goal of being helpful
to children and providing them experiences that help them in their futures. Setting goals and
having a philosophy are the only way that a teacher can ever be considered “the best teacher”.
And I am on my way.