The document outlines Mary Lee's educational philosophy. It discusses how in the 21st century, education needs to focus on skills like critical thinking, communication, and problem solving. Mary Lee's goals as a teacher are to challenge students to achieve their highest potential and develop skills like creative thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. She believes in facilitating a student-centered learning environment that addresses different learning styles and helps students become self-directed, lifelong learners prepared for college and careers.

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Education Philosophy
Mary Lee
EDU 650: Learning and Leadership in the 21st Century
Instructor: Dr. Kimberly Smith
May 11, 2015

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Educational Philosophy
In the 21st century there has been a shift from the regular way of education so according to
(Partnership for 21st-Century skills, 2001 2008), “students need to be able to create, evaluate, and
analyze ideas. They must learn to communicate their thoughts through a range of media. They
must also be able to sift through an abundance of information and make sense of complex
questions’. All of these skills together define 21st-century skills. In order to for a teacher to
create an educational philosophy at this time these items need to be considered.
My personal goal as a teacher is to challenge students to excel to their highest levels, and see
them develop as individuals, so that they can be the best person they can be. My students can
expect me to be a facilitator, guiding them to become creative, self-directed, exploratory, critical
thinkers, problem solving, and decision makers. My students can expect me to prepare them to
learn and compete in learning that will prepare them for college. My student can expect me to
guide them to collaborate and work as a team player, in a learning community. My students
should also expect me to guide them to be responsible for their own learning.
My parents are important because they help shape their children to know the importance of
learning and education. My parents should expect me to communicate and involve them about
their children behavior, growth, and class activities. Researcher’s states that” student
achievement, self-esteem, motivation, and positive attitude toward school and school subjects are
maximized through parental involvement”, (Lazar, & Slostad, 1999). Parents can expect me to
be an empathic teacher that will provide their children with a safe and caring learning
environment, with respect, fair treatment, and equal opportunities for all. My parents can expect
me to encourage, praise inform, and challenge their children to achieve to their fullest potential.

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As a teacher I expect to facilitate a learning environment that will produce future leaders for
this 21st century competitive digital workplace. I expect myself to create student centered
learning so that students can be creative, self-directed, exploratory, so that learning will make
sense. According to, (Jones, 1997) “ Student centered learning, also known as learner-centered
education, and is a method of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the
student, and make the student develop learner autonomy and independence, by putting
responsibility for the learning path in the hands of students”. As a teacher I expect to know my
learners needs, their learning styles, and multi-intelligence, so that I can create learning
opportunities that will facilitate, critical thinking skills, decision making skills, and problem
solving skills, using simulation activities that will transfer knowledge to workplace situations.
I think as a teacher the most important responsibility is to meet the student needs. In my
perception it is important to help students, emotionally, physical and socially. I believe that
diversity of children is one of the upmost important factors, and I think it is important to address
these diversities of cultures with high regards to the way they influence the way students learn. I
also think that as an educator, in order for students attitude toward learning is positive I must
help build the student’s self-esteem, confidence, and motivate them to learn.
My values as a teacher that I think in life that’s important is integrity, honesty, genuine care
for people. I believe your values transfer to how you want to be treated so you treat others that
way first. I want my students to have values to be able to trust, be open, and have integrity I take
pride in developing and designing teaching methods that creates a community of learners that
work on projects so that they can collaborate to solve problems, and make decisions collectively.
As a teacher I know that this method promotes team work, and allows the student to view others
perspectives, and is a tool for college preparation. As a teacher, learner, parent, I rely on the

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building of learning communities for best practice, where two are more teachers can come
together to brainstorm ideas and strategies with the use of technology support for student
success. I know that team work is important, in order to compete today business are no longer
relying on a one desk job, but technology has made it possible to work as teams to solve
problems, and where diversity of team members are embraced.
In student learn according to their learning styles, characteristics, and multi- intelligence
learning ability. I as a teacher use instructions to address the tactile, (on hand learners) audio,
(hearing learners), visual, (sight learners), and according to (Gardner, 1997) several multi-
intelligence. I also believe that students need instructions that will create experience that is
meaningful to them, to do this I like to incorporated games for motivation and fun, but yet a
learning experience, and simulation where one might practice di-secting a frog online.
I want students to learn how to be critical thinker, how to solve problem, make decisions, and
be self-directed learners. As a result in my class I will facilitate learning experiences using many
of the web 2.0 tools to apply the knowledge learned in traditional class with a one day of blended
online class to apply the learning to real life simulations. I believe through blogging it creates
opportunities to be better writers, using social network, games, and other powerful web tools
student are motivated to practice skills that can foster effective learning.
As a result of being in my class students should know how to read, write, and work math
problems for elementary. In high Schools my students will know how to make engines searches,
validate the real from the fake research, solve problems, think critical, solve problems, be digital
literate, make presentation, critique, analyze evaluate articles, and write effectively. My teaching
facilitate learning by using strategies to create learning assignments that promote students to be

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independent thinkers, and learners, yet work as a group to solve problems, and make decisions.
My instructions are all age appropriate and organized so that the students have as much practice
as they need to learn. I use a brain teaser to introduce new topics, I use some type of presentation
to give the depths of the subject, check for understanding, individual practice, and group work
practice, along with a test or quiz to check final understanding and to see if I need to reteach. In
my class for students who need additional practice is a self-paced tutorial.
As a teacher I believe that we should be lifelong learners, because as the world changes
education changes, to be an effective teacher you should always have updated information, as
well as having updated technology because of the shifts that takes place. I continually take
classes, work on different types of programs, read journals, and engage in activities that will
challenge me to change and keep up with the times.

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References
Jones, Leo. (2007). the Student-Centered Classroom. Cambridge University Press.
Lazar, A., & Slostad, F. (1999). How to overcome obstacles to parent-teacher partnerships. The
Clearing House, 72 (4), 206-211.
Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego,
CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from: (Partnership for 21st Century Skills,
2001,2008).