My Journey Through EDFO

Before teachers are introducing new knowledge into the minds of the kids who hold our future they have to go to college and learn about this lovely thing called teaching. Granted there are probably some teachers who might not have gone to college however, for this purpose but we are going to pretend that doesn't happen for this little blog I am writing. I am one of those future teachers who had to go to this thing called college to learn about how to do my future profession. Let me tell you, it has been quite interesting and definitely eye-opening!

One class in particular, that really made me think, is my Educational Foundations class that I have taken this past semester. Every day presented a new discussion and many new questions to be answered and then question to go along with those answers. It was intimidating at first but then I started questioning things outside of the class and realizing that all the discussions we had were etched into my brain and made me rethink my idea of teaching. Throughout this class we specifically discussed 5 fundamental questions: Who is the educated person? What knowledge is worth knowing? What is good learning? What is good teaching? and lastly What is the purpose of schools? And lucky for you (who is reading this) all of my answers to these wonderful questions are within this blog! I also discuss the many articles and books within my answers. 

But why have a philosophy of education? When thinking about that question I came up with a few reasons. I believe that it is good to have the idea of what education is and what it should be. This way when you are teaching or even just reflecting on your teaching you know what you believe. Also you can back up your beliefs as well as your actions within the classroom. Furthermore, as you grow as a teacher you can look back at your old philosophy and add to it or change certain parts because your knowledge and experiences in teaching has developed over the years in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. This may be due to professional development or just how the students within your classroom have taught you more about teaching. One might have this philosophy on education and this basis of what they think is good teaching, good learning, and who is the educated person they want to come out of their classroom, but as times goes on this could change or it could stay the same. Will a philosophy change through a lifetime of teaching? Probably. Could it stay the same? Maybe. Will it change with society? Likely. But if anything, right now it show you where you started and what you want to achieve as an educator! 
Happy reading! :)

- Samantha